By: Hannah Heramia, Kathlyn Ventura
The first half of the Colegio’s quadricentennial year saw a grand week-long celebration as it had been filled with events that prove to be part of the colorful 400-year history of the “oldest college in the country.”
Annually, Letranites are gathered as one to celebrate the glorious existence of the institution. Now on its third year, the community awaits the continuous commemoration for the upcoming quadricentennial year.
With themes already set and divided into categories since the beginning of its celebration, last year’s theme which was “Tantos hombres ilustres formar,” was imbued with grace.
Moreover, the over-all in charge for the celebration, Office of Alumni and Public Affairs (OAPA) Directress Jhennie Caldito-Villar enumerates how they worked on the theme and how they want to have a different output compared to the previous years.
“New glories. We are into the future already of reaping new glories for the Colegio,” said Villar.
She then unveiled this year’s theme: “Conquistar por tu honor nuevas glorias”, which gives emphasis on how Letranites see the future and continue to bring honor to the alma mater.
“Looking forward for renewal, more on conquering new glories for the institution. Setting up history for our celebration,” added Villar.
“We prepared enough like the committee doing the themes, mayroon tayong mga tao kung saan sila ‘yung tumututok sa mga gagawin nilang activities. We want everyone to be involved as much as possible, we don’t want our office to be the soul office who takes care of everything. We want the whole involvement of other organization and other department of the clan,” she continued.
With the Colegio Week occurring once a year for the students of Letran, there is no doubt that Villar and her team play an important role in ensuring the program’s success.
Apart from the usual events like field demonstration, bazaar, RunHueKnighted, and Arriba Fest, Villar mentioned few of the new events added to the week-long celebration such as Women’s Got Talent (WGT), Theater Show, as well as the boodle fight open for the Letran community.
The celebration which is usually held on November was moved to December 17 to 21. Meanwhile, Paskong Arriba will be celebrated on the last day which is on December 21.
“We decided to make the celebration in December, unlike the past years na November. Which there is a change in our school calendar. We decided to move the Colegio Week celebration,” she explained.
“But by next year, we are sticking up with the November celebration,” she assured.
“They will already feel the excitement for the upcoming grand celebration in 2020, Everything is something to look forward to. Everything that we do is not only for the students, employees, alumni. It is for the whole Letran community in general,” she concluded.
Once again, the Letran community will witness a celebration that will showcase a week of recollecting memories to be awakened by nostalgic melodies, definitely another year of celebration to be on the lookout for.