developmentstudies@ateneo.edu

Congratulations to Omi Castanar, IV AB DS, for having been elected President of the Sanggunian for School Year 2008-2009! Omi is our third Sanggu president in five years after Steph Limuaco (2003-2004) and Boyet Dy (2005-2006).

After spending 14 years in the Social Sciences building and x number of years in our own room (senior moment), we’re moving to the new Ricardo and Dr. Rosita Leong Hall. We’ll be at the 4th floor of that new building right next to the Dean’s Office and the Economics Department. 

There’s room for 6 faculty cubicles, the director’s room and a small conference room.

The Office will host a party sometime soon for students and alumnae/ alumni! The building has a roofdeck where we can have mass and a party.

Congratulations to our two new lawyers, Michie Erum and Leah Quesada, both of batch 2002! We are proud of your accomplishment.

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Congratulations also to batch 2007, the 20th batch of Development Studies graduates led by Mavic Punay, this year’s departmental awardee and Paolo Abarcar, who double-majored in Eco-H and DS and graduated summa cum laude. We wish you all the best as you enter into the world of work.

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Congratulations to Justine Castillo and the other elected officers of DevSoc! We wish you all the best this coming school year.

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Congratulations too to Vincent Rapisura and Edwin Salonga who just came back from Nigeria after training the Nigerian Central Bank for three weeks on microfinance.

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Just an update for those not connected to Ateneo anymore: The DS office is moving to its new home on the fourth floor of the new building sometime before October. We’ll be in-between the Dean’s Office and the Economics Department.

The Bank of the Philippine Islands and the Ateneo de Manila University entered into a partnership yesterday for Building Capacities of Microfinance Institutions. On the side of the Ateneo, this partnership will be run by the Development Studies Program.

Under the terms of the partnership, BPI Foundation will provide DS a grant to run a general course on microfinance in 5 cities around the country. BPI will also provide a loan at concessional interest rates for microfinance institutions who will avail of customized training to be provided by the DS Program.

The MOA signing was held at the Vigan Room, Club 1851, BPI Main Office along Paseo de Roxas. Signing on behalf of BPI was SVP Eduardo Jose, Executive Director of BPI Foundation and the signatory on behlaf of Ateneo was VP for Finance and Treasurer Mr. Jose Santos. Present at the ceremony were Fr. Jose Cruz, S.J., Ph.D. Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Josias Dela Cruz, VP for Microfinance of BPI, Leland Dela Cruz, Director of the Development Studies Program and Vincent Rapisura, Microfinance Lecturer of the Development Studies Program. Mr. Aurelio Montinola, President of BPI also graced the occassion.

The Development Studies Community congratulates

Philip Francisco "Boyet" Dy (DS ’06) for having been

selected this year’s Valedictorian!

We are proud of you!

You may e-mail Boyet at boyet_dy@yahoo.com.

Boyet is graduating summa cum laude with 2 straight quattro sems in his last year. He is ranked number one in his batch and is the President of the Sanggunian ng Mag-Aaral.

Boyet is the second DS major to be chosen as valedictorian in the Program’s 20 year history and the second in 13 years. Not bad for us, don’t you think?

It is with great pleasure that we announce that four of our students are qualified to be the departmental awardee (the most in DS history) and for the first time in DS history, all four are on-track to graduate with honors (batch 2003 had two honor graduates: leeyaj cornelio and nic chua). These four are:

Boyet Dy

Cecille Joyce Lao

Vanessa Macaraig

Tessa Villanueva

The Program is currently going through the process of selecting the departmental awardee from among these four students but at this point, we would like to already congratulate them for being short-listed for the award. We are all proud of your accomplishments!

Congratulations to the following for making it to the Dean’s List.

Philip Francisco U. Dy (4 AB DS) 4.00
Cecille Joyce Y. Lao (4 AB DS) 3.83
Vanessa S. Macaraig (4 AB DS) 3.70
Teresa S. Villanueva (4 AB DS) 3.60
Cahea L. Ang (2 AB DS) 3.58
Ma. Sherinna Ysabel S. Jose (2 AB DS) 3.58

Vitoria Corazon P. Castro (2 AB DS) 3.50
Angela B. Serrano (3 AB DS) 3.50
Hanna B. Montecer (3 AB DS) 3.42
Maria Victoria F. Punay (3 AB DS) 3.36

We have our first PhD graduate, Joyce Hermoso, DS 1989. I heard from Marge Lopa (DS ‘89) that she just finished her PhD in Social Work from the Catholic University in Washington D.C.

We also have our first Principal! Fr. RB Hizon (DS ‘91) is now the principal of the Ateneo High School.

And finally, we had our first international participant in our microfinance training. A dude from Cambodia flew in just to attend our three day training on delinquency management. The next training will be from January 19-21, 2006 and will cover Financial Analysis.

After 19 years of existence, the Development Studies finally has a permanent office assistant and the first person to occupy that post is Mel Mar who has been with us on a contractual basis since November 2002. Congratulations Mel and congratulations Development Studies! For those who know Mel, you can send her e-mail through mmar@ateneo.edu. I’m sure she’ll be glad to hear from you.

Last summer, we were also given our first full-time faculty plantilla item and I’m (Leland) occupying that post.

Here’s to more firsts in the near future!