Sunday, July 31, 2016

FMDS-UPOU Recognition Day 2016 Speech

Jabez Joshua Flores, MENRM Student and Chancellor's List Awardee, giving his testimonial to the FMDS graduating class of 2015-2016#FMDSClass2016 Photo by Faculty of Management and Development Studies (FMDS) Facebook Page

Education should not separate us apart from society. It should not breed elitism. Education is not about competition. Instead, education should breed in us compassion toward others having understood that we rely on each other to sustain our existence. Use education as an opportunity for application, as a platform for action. Be educated to develop compassion, educate to share compassion. 


I wrote that quote a few years ago when I was trying to make a vision statement to remind myself why I was studying in the first place. 


I started my journey at UPOU back in 2011. Not knowing exactly how a virtual campus actually works, I took Personal Entrepreneurial Development as my introductory course to the world of virtual learning in 2011. I was motivated and I got hooked. I took New Enterprise Planning the next semester and then Organic Agriculture until the end of 2012. Surprisingly, I adapted and excelled in the ODEL format and the non-formal courses lit a fire in me that eventually led to my application for a masters’ degree in the second semester of 2012. 


Throughout my academic career, I was an average student involved in a lot of extracurricular activities like music and sports. I never received a medal or recognition in high school or college. I was hardworking and persistent but I didn’t excel in taking exams.  What was different though was my constant desire to make sense of what I was learning. I wanted the lessons to be translated into action. 


For three and a half years under the MENRM program, I used my education as a platform for action. I’m very thankful to all my teachers, instructors, professors, and admin staff who were very supportive of my ideas, dreams, and research. I never felt pressure or creative constraint during my time here as a student. 


As I learned more (and also rewarded with good grades) there is the strong temptation to feel above better than the rest, than the common person, or to the person across the street. I always have to remind myself to be in a position of humility and accept that everyone in this world can contribute to the greater good. 


Am I studying for myself? To get good grades? To have a masters’ degree? No, no and no. The more I learn, the closer I get to the issues at hand. It’s the moment when our education becomes a personal mission rather than a distant goal that needs to be finished. 


I thank FMDS and UPOU not just for developing my mind, but for shaping my heart to lead a life of service for our people, the environment, and the country.


Be educated to develop compassion, educate to share compassion. 


Thank you and congratulations to all the graduates. God bless!

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Paulo's Return to Elbi and GFFA Updates

After 5 months, Paulo finally came back from the UK and started working immediately at the Galaxy Farm Farm Away (GFFA). This photo was taken during a Nu Wave Farmers morning picnic at the farm. Also visiting from Makati is Maya who gave us cool new shirts! Dan and Tin-Tin also joined us for breakfast. (Photo selfie by Paulo)
Visiting PhD student, Shun-nan, from UC Santa Cruz, volunteered during one of our afternoon farming sessions at GFFA. He's currently back in the States and will come back next year to do his research in UPLB. See you soon! (Photo by Shun-nan)
Dan, Paulo and I raising our first harvest of eggplant like a prized trophy! (Photo by Shun-nan)
Here's a close up photo of the eggplant we harvested from Plot # 2, Nadine's plot. We got the seedlings from our friend, Mary Jane, from the UPOU Farmers' Market. (Instagram @thebeigetable)
Here's Plot # 1, my own 1x3 plot experiment. I put wooden pallet sidings to control soil erosion. Right now I have eggplant, chili, marigold, kale, camote tops, peppermint, radish, mustasa, and kangkong growing inside the bed. I trying out a no-till method where I can create a very dense, mini-ecosystem with a microclimate within the plot. So just chop and drop, dump and leave. Let's see how it goes. (Instagram: @thebeigetable)
First harvest: two pieces of eggplant from Plot # 2 were given to my girlfriend, Caty. (photo by Shun-nan)
Second harvest: one eggplant from Plot # 1 donated to NWF member, Tin-Tin.
Third harvest: one eggplant from Plot # 2 donated to Kuya Ome of NWF.
We're just happy to be giving away eggplants to our friends right now. And I'm glad that Paulo is back and Dan is regularly helping in the farm. But I still hope that more students would join the Nu Wave Farmers this semester. Sometimes, especially when I'm alone working in the farm, I feel sad that people don't see the value of growing food. It's not everyday that we get the opportunity to have a vacant lot where we can plant fruits and vegetables. GFFA is truly a blessing.

Two greenhouses with  rain collectors were installed a few weeks ago and we have some new tools donated by our friends. Our adviser, Doc Bes, is also working hard to make sure that the farm will be up and running this year.

I really hope more students would volunteer this year. 




Sunday, July 10, 2016

FMDS-UPOU to feature a study on Permaculture in Research Forum


Abstract
Permaculture is a design system conceptualized in Australia in the 1970s in response to urgent environmental issues at that time. Mainstreamed via social media in recent years, permaculture is being practiced around the world on diverse landscapes. The study aims to discover socio-spatial permaculture landscape networks based on a permaculture designer’s Facebook social network. Using social network theory and landscape ecology, the study simulates and predicts how permaculture designers will be able to create invisible landscape corridors called “virtual corridors.” Virtual corridors are determined by computing for the % Linkage Strength (%LS) metric derived from data obtained from two scoring systems developed for the study: the Social Score (SS) and the Permaculture Score (PS). Two hundred eighty six network nodes were initially discovered to be potential permaculture designers via Facebook Group membership. The two scoring systems revealed the top ten network nodes with the highest computed %LS that created virtual corridors. A Meerkat Lite-generated sociogram overlayed on a Google Earth topographic map animated in Camtasia Studio were used to illustrate the discovered network. Then NetLogo was used to simulate and predict the virtual corridor creation process. In the future, the methodology can be used to determine potential study sites for transdisciplinary permaculture research and study the environmental impact of permaculture projects and initiatives on landscape patches. It will also provide practitioners and researchers a framework to better understand how a network of permaculture solutions can lead to macro-scale landscape patch management.

The FMDS Perma GARDEN @ UP Open University

Welcome to the FMDS Perma GARDEN! Officially opened to the public on March 21, 2023, the garden serves as the physical centerpiece for UPOU’...