The 49th Journalism Season of the Philippine Information Agency in Western Visayas is on.
The season opened on Wednesday, Sept. 17, with the start of the regional Journalism Talk Series for the high school level. The online training runs until Sept. 19. The college session will be held on Oct. 1-3.
The season culminates at the end of the academic/schoolyear with the distribution of the IWAG Journalism Awards for high school and college editors in recognition of their remarkable performance in campus-community journalism.
A major part of the season is the College Press, or COPRE, Awards held usually late in November. The event serves as an evaluation scheme for the trainings earlier conducted through individual and group competitions, which include writing contests. The group competitions recognize the best publications.
While started as a college-level event, COPRE has evolved to now include individual and group contests in the secondary level.
Another highlight in the yearend program is the recognition of top-performing advisers in the secondary and tertiary levels.
***
PIA Assistant Regional Director Easter Anne Doza, who is also the regional training officer, said over 800 participants from nearly 100 student publications are participating in the regional online training for high school editors.
This year, the training has also out-of-the-region participants – from two Palawan towns, Ipilan (Brooke’s Point) and Pulot National High Schools. Their participation was facilitated by Ipilan NHS Principal Ma’am Leah Rondael, a long-time friend I met during the prime of my training days, when I was invited for many years as lecturer and judge in the Mimaropa schools press conferences.
Ma’am Leah was then school paper adviser of Pulot NHS, which reaped trophies in various National Press Conferences.
Hopefully more out-of-the-region schools will join the PIA trainings, especially as we expect it to eventually include Negros Island Region student publications as it did in 2016 during the short-lived NIR period.
The PIA campus journalism program is apparently the longest-running regional college writers’ training in the country.
It has a very special place in my heart as I was part of the core of the training staff of the then Department of Public Information.
The prime movers with me then were lawyers Evelyn Jiz and Janet Mesa, who both served as regional directors, and my co-training officer, the former Dorothy Fuentes.
Since its inception in 1976, the PIA Campus Journalism Training Program has produced thousands and thousands of alumni.
While only a handful pursued media careers, practically all former editors have made good use of their writing skills honed in the PIA training in their eventually respective careers.
We wish this year’s trainees a fruitful season of serving the information needs of their community and addressing vital issues affecting them and their families.
***
Sorely missed when we talk about the current PIA programs is long-time training officer Elsa Solas-Subong, who passed away two years ago.
***
In the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them.’ (Ecclesiastes 12:1) | NWI
