Two faculty members and seven students from Camarines Norte State College participated in Asia Summer Program 2019, an annually held activity between the months of June and July and attended by students and teachers from different countries usually across Asia.

This year, the program was held at Petra Christian University in Surabaya, Indonesia from July 1 to 19, 2019. Two faculty members, Rhodaviv V. Avila, from the College of Arts and Sciences; and Dr. Gehana D. Lamug, from the College of Business and Public Administration and chairperson of the Gender and Development Unit, participated as lecturers giving classes on Asian Comics: A Contemporary Literature and Entrepreneurial Leadership: The Filipino Entrepreneurs’ Perspectives and Experiences, respectively. Student participants include May Anne Bamiano, Mary Dianne Emata, and Jayson Octa BS Agriculture students from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources; Esperanza Cabanela (AB major in Mathematics) and Alvin Vallaran (AB History) from the College of Arts and Sciences; and Jeromy Manumbas (BS Accountancy) and Clary Moral (BS Entrepreneurship) from the College of Business and Public Administration.

Asia Summer Program 2019 offered 22 classes taught by over 24 teachers and attended by over 150 students coming from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Japan, South Korea, China, Portugal, Lithuania, and the Philippines. Different teaching methodologies were utilized but the most notable include team teaching, which was used by the Indonesian lecturers of Petra Christian University; and Dr. Kenneth Mark Smith and Beniko Mason from Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages in Taiwan. CNSC lecturers were commended for their communication skills, the unique topics, and the use of multimodal activities to ensure comprehension.

“It was a classroom of diverse cultures, personalities, and levels of communication. It was apparent that as a lecturer, you had to find different ways to get your lesson across,” says Ms. Avila. Dr. Lamug further elaborated, “Many of the students had difficulty speaking in English but were more proficient in written communication, so the different activities brought out the best of their abilities. Student presentations, though difficult for some of my students, were a must to hone their speaking skills.”