OVCSA holds free concert, awards contest winners

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs (OVCSA) held a free concert on Aug. 5 dedicated to the classes of 2022, 2021 and 2020 with the theme StandBayan: Tindig Para sa Bayan.

The concert was held at the Student Union building and attracted 200 registrants – many of whom are from the graduating class, as well as faculty and staff. It had live performances, awarding of OVCSA’s competition winners, trivia games, and free snacks.

Performance Night

The concert featured talented performing groups within the university, such as the UPLB Filipiniana Dance Troupe, the UPLB Sandayaw Cultural Group, UPLB Street Jazz, Harmonya: The String Ensemble of UPLB, and UP Kairos. Renato Benavente and Gonzalo Amante, Jr., staff and counselor from OVCSA, also gave a musical performance. The performing groups aimed to promote Filipino culture through their original, contemporary, ethnic, and folk performances.

The UPLB Filipiniana Dance Troupe performed Flaggey Libon and Binanog. The former is a couple dance that imitates the flaggey birds’ movements as they fly and swoop in the air. The flaggey is a common bird in T’boli. The Binanog is a courtship dance inspired by a banog’s (eagle) movement. It also depicts a male caught in a love triangle between two females trying to win his heart.

Meanwhile, UPLB Sandayaw Cultural Group danced Subli and Binasuan. The first is an ancient dance originating from Batangas to venerate the holy cross of Alitagtag. The latter is a colorful and lively dance from Pangasinan which shows off the balancing skills of the dancers as they gracefully maneuver glasses half-filled with rice wine.

Harmonya: The String Ensemble of UPLB played “Isang Daan,” the official centennial song of UPLB. The ensemble is composed of both bowed and plucked string instruments. It ardently dedicates its existence to serving its community through the pursuit of excellence in music.

Other groups performed contemporary dances and original songs.

OVCSA Awarding ceremony

Among the attendees were the winners of the OVCSA’s competitions held during its month-long founding celebration. OVCSA conducted a brief ceremony between the performances to award the cash prizes to the winners previously announced on July 19.

The OVCSA awarded Php 5,000 to Reynaldo R. Isaac, Jr., BS Computer Science, for winning the Office of Student Housing (OSH) Logo-making contest. His logo combined five elements, each with its own symbolism: the OSH monogram (students & stakeholders), a set of stairs (progress), the equal sign (equality), a book (education), and a house (home).

Arianne Richel S. Gundayao, BS Industrial Engineering, was also awarded for winning the OSH Name That Dorm contest. Arianne received a voucher for free accommodation in an OSH-dorm for one semester, worth about Php 3,250, and a cash prize worth Php 5,000.

Inspired by different Philippine languages, she proposed the following residence hall names: Masilib, Makasag, Matayog, Maisog, Kusgan, Makasdig, Agdang, Kasaligan, Hutuhut, Paubus, Maupay, and Naayat.

The OSH competition contest winners were decided based on their creativity, originality, audience impact, relevance to the OSH mandate (for the logo-making contest) and coalescence of the names (for the NTD contest).

OVCSA also awarded Maxine Barnes and John Denyl Torrijos, both BS Nutrition, for ranking first and second place respectively in the TINDIG TikTok Challenge. Maxine received Php 3,000 for first place and Denyl Php 2,000 for second place.

Their performances and other entries are on the newly created TikTok page of OVCSA (@ovcsa.uplb).

After the ceremony, attendees had the opportunity to win prizes in trivia games about the university.

These activities are part of the OVCSA’s 62nd founding anniversary. OVCSA will be ending its foundation day celebration with an interview series which will be launched on their Facebook page in August. OVCSA and its divisions still have many activities lined up for August.