THE University of the Philippines holds its 100th commencement exercise on April 17, with one of its top graduates very much in the news: 19-year-old Mathematics Summa cum laude John Gabriel Pelias who will be delivering the valedictory for this year’s batch.
Pelias, an orphaned and impoverished student, is making history by graduating with a general weighted average of 1.016, the first time in 65 years that a student will be finishing his course with such a feat.
Another highlight of this year’s graduation will be the conferment of an honorary degree, Doctor of Laws, on President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, who is also the commencement speaker.
In time for the UP graduation, VERA Files is putting online three video reports produced by UP students, each of which is a series of stories produced by students of Broadcast journalism 101 under VERA Files trustee Luz Rimban.
The first is a look back at the semester that just ended for students at the U.P. Diliman campus. It was produced by Krizia Arcangel, Kathlyn dela Cruz, Gail Orduña, Jorica Pamintuan and Cherry Sun.
The second features Mass Com’s batch 2011 graduates, and was produced by Joyce Balancio, Jan Baliwagan, Lois Joy Guinmapang, Zarina San Jose, and Raisa Serafica.
The last feature looks to what’s in store for students in this summer outside the halls of the university. It was produced by Eunille Santos, Kim Pauig, Gian Suyat and Karmela Tordecilla.