#PWC65: guiding students get the right aptitude, attitude

The Philippine Women’s College of Davao has opened its year-long 65th founding anniversary last February 19 with a Holy Mass at the RSM Events Center. Presided over by Bp. George B. Rimando, auxiliary bishop of Davao, the mass kicked off the weeklong fun and amusements from February 20-27. The school’s personnel association, departments, student organizations, and invited guests such as the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) provided students, administrators, teaching, and non-teaching personnel top-caliber performances.

Said organizers of activities enjoined everyone in the campus to witness the dog show, costume play, car show, sports league, Senior High School short film presentation, ‘Shake, Learn and Win,’ literary-musical contest, Basic Education Department’s field demonstration, variety show and PWC Circa, and SHS open house. Moreover, the wall climbing, medical mission, bloodletting activity, food bazaars, and institutional dinner were also availed. As the school turned Sapphire Jubilee, art exhibits, annual graduation of Fine Arts and Design students, and integrated seminars and activities were simultaneously conducted by all the other college programs in the Abreeza Mall.

PWC Chancellor and VP for Academic Affairs Dr. Ida Yap-Patron said that on February 27, 2019, “hopefully we would be able to come out with better and improved celebration.” The activities this year according to her are learning experiences for everyone such that “they made a beautiful and wonderful mural for students for their holistic development.”

School President Conrado Benitez II, in an earlier interview mentioned that the school is “moving very quickly into enrollment numbers, our building facilities have to catch up very quickly, that’s what we’re concentrating.”

As PWC turns 65, the President calls on each PhilWomenian to “recall again the education that PWC has offered to their parents in the past.”

As PWC commits to give each student the necessary offerings that will really prepare him/her for the future, Benitez added: “I think it’s something PWC has really unique offerings that embody really the whole person, not just career in one line that’s really dimensional; we want to offer them multi-dimensional facets so that they can prepare themselves much better in the future. I think that something PWC will concentrate on – to make sure that the students get into the right programs for their capabilities.”

Second-year Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM) student Mark Sarabosquez from Las Piñas chose PWC because “of the school’s reputation in HRM competition. PWC was highly recommended by my older sibling when he asked his friends about the best school in Davao offering HRM. The HRM laboratory facilities and equipment are functional. My mentors guide me to reach my dream.”

It was in 1919 when the visionary couple Dean Conrado Benitez and Francisca Tirona Benitez founded in Manila the Philippine Women’s College, now the Philippine Women’s University (PWU), the first university for women in Asia founded by Asians. The PWU alumnae from Mindanao saw the need to spread and promote the educational objectives of their alma mater among the young people of Mindanao, thus, the laying of the PWC cornerstone took place on April 28, 1952, while the formal opening took place on June 8, 1953.

From a small batch of elementary and junior high school students, PWC also opened the college department and to keep abreast with the K to 12 program of the government, the PWC today is already a home to almost two thousand senior high school students from both public and private institutions in the city and nearby areas. In June this year, more degree programs will be opened to cater to increasing number of student-enrollees.