11/05/2024
El Camino a la Victoria: A Short Recap of SAHSS Journalism Journey for the 2023-2024 Season.
The road to RSPC 2024 was a nervous one. It has been 5 long years since the seminary last joined the DSPC and most of the contestants from that era are either facing the college life or found new academies for their senior high school education. The seminary needed to start from scratch again. While this sounded difficult, the seminary nevertheless took on the challenge and started the process of rebuilding Spectrum.
Within the span of seven months, Spectrum managed to put up a new roster of writers together with the launching of its digital media outlet. This is largely due to the support of the seminary's principal Dr. Nemia Manlapaz and Dean of Academics, Fr. Mon Marcaida. Fr. Mon's involvement in Spectrum's rebuild process brought fresh ideas and gimmicks such as the Podcasts and live masses.
Adding to the rebuild progress are two new additions to the faculty staff. First is Mr. Gerald Atabay, an english major and former sports writer who was appointed as the new school paper adviser, head of Spectrum's publishing division and head coach for all presscon events. The second person is Bro. Robert Nicolas, a former editor-in-chief of Spectrum who qualified for the 2017 NSPC as an editorial writer in English. He was appointed as the head of Spectrum's digital division and as assistant coach for the writers. Together with Fr. Mon and Dr. Nemia, they formed the current Spectrum Campus Journalists division and trained them for the coming DSPC.
The DSPC 2024 came to be a proving ground for the "baby" journalists of the seminary. Finishing third on overall stats after MNCHS and COLMNHS, Spectrum managed to send nine seminarians to the RSPC which is a good number considering all, except Sem. Kervin Gallego, have no experience in the said contest at all.
The RSPC 2024 was an eye-opening experience for these new contestants. The sight of the different colored divisions and the fresh cityscape of Iriga City brought in them a new world in the field of academics. Being the only seminary in the whole region to have representatives for this event, it instilled a sense of achievement to the seminarian-journalists.
When the contest day came, the seminarians were all cool and collected even in the face of big names and big schools. To say that they did their very best is an understatement. They poured their "all" out for their events and gave a decent fight which what could be described as a punch to the moon knowing that some of their opponents are regular winners of the RSPC. Despite all odds, Sem. Kervin Gallego did a clutch and made it into the top 5 spot for Copyreading and Headline Writing. Earning him a place in the seminary RSPC achievers list together with his coach, Bro. Robert, Sem. Crisanto Calipay who placed 4th in SciTech Writing during the 2019 RSPC held in Naga City, Camarines Sur and former seminarian Arthur Aninang who also placed 4th on SciTech writing in the RSPC the following year.
The end of the 2024 Regional Schools Press Conference marked the start of a new generation of Spectrum Journalism. The seminary have newfound talents who embraced the roles of being seekers and defenders of the truth, coaches and mentors who have experienced the highest levels of the competition, very supportive parents and an amazing set of formators and faculty members.
There is no telling what other things Spectrum could achieve in these competitions. All we know is that Spectrum will continue to grow and improve.
Hail St. Anthony!
