A Case Study on Empowering High School Youth Citizens: The High School Student Activities Program

By Jamaico D. Ignacio




I. Introduction

Citizenship is defined by Miriam-Webster as, “the quality of an individual's response to membership in a community.” In perspective, good citizenship, while utilizing special skills and talents, engages on one’s high involvement in society and its development. With this regard, men and women of various fields have invested themselves to nation-building.

Looking at forming such good citizens, where does it all start? It all begins with citizens at their prime: the youth. Various student activism and involvement activities throughout the country where the youth employ on new ideas and performance in national development are proof that good citizenship starts when citizens are young. But how do such young citizens form? Key to this development is the education system. It is in the school where the young form themselves. Equipped by the schools with knowledge, wisdom, and awareness, the youth engage themselves more on national progress.

Equal to the academic program of a school that harnesses and hones the students’ knowledge, wisdom, and awareness, the Student Activities Program (SAP) is more special in engaging students with their special talents and leadership skills for their formation as good citizens. Within the SAP context, students and their special capabilities are identified, developed, and formed geared towards leadership. This formation of student maturity towards good citizenry is the best mechanism a school can do in the creation of good citizens.

In order to understand the SAP as a mechanism for good citizenry, one must delve into its structures and student involvement within the school framework. To better comprehend such structures and involvement, one must glance through the objectives and standards of the school, the organization structure of the SAP, and the program-activities standard of the SAP. In such investigation, the Ateneo de Manila High School Student Activities Program (AHS-SAP), one of the leading high school programs in the country, can be taken as case study to appreciate the SAP as a mechanism for good citizenry.

II. Objectives and Standards

Objectives need to be identified as guiding tools for the creation of good citizens. To serve as a guiding standard in the education system, each school has a “mission-vision” statement in its pursuance of shaping good citizens. The mission-vision statement, although varying from one school to the other, serves a common purpose of developing young minds toward good citizenry.

The Ateneo de Manila High School centers its creation of good citizens on leadership formation, excellence, and Christian values compatible with good citizenry. The Ateneo High school’s mission is to “form Christ-centered young men of competence, conscience, compassion and commitment who will be a positive transforming difference in the life of the nation.” The school envisions the formation of “servant-leaders... in a relevant learning environment with world class programs.”

With the guiding school objectives courtesy of the mission-vision statement of the school as core objective, programs such as the SAPs have its own guiding principle based on its own field. These standards should conform to the speciality of the program. For the SAP, its specialty is the development of special skills and leadership abilities of a student geared towards involvement: good citizenry. This standard based on its purpose emphasizes the school’s commitment to the formation of good citizens.

The Ateneo de Manila Student Activities Program, keeping in faith with its objectives of forming good citizens through the formation of servant leaders of excellence and Christian values in a high quality program, outlines its SAP standard as “SERVE.” The standard called “SERVE” is a carefully made acronym of the AHS-SAP’s goals:

S - Shape student Leaders by instilling in them the ideals of the school
E - Engage the Student Body in endeavours that would further cultivate one’s love for country
R - Respond to the Needs of the Ateneo High School Community
V - Value Communication through Cooperation
E - Empower Students by Creating Venues through which our resources can be utilized more effectively

The goals of SERVE aim to further advance the development of students whose potentials need to be tapped. The goals basically layouts the way how the SAP can engage to student body: The SAP with its activities and programs should be faithful to the school’s mission-vision. It must engage and heighten the student involvement in activities that expose the students to the issues and realities of the country to give them a sense of love and responsibility for the nation. It should also heighten as well student engagement and involvement on school issues. It should as well strengthen its cooperation with the students to understand the needs of the student body. Finally, the SAP should create and utilize activities and resources like leadership seminars or school-wide projects to empower students in actual groundwork geared towards good citizenry.

III. Structure

The SAP is in its most tangible form through the Student Activities Office (as a school administrative arm) and the Student Government (as the youth involvement venue for the students.) Both the Student Activities Office and the Student Government are responsible in the provision of venues for students to form themselves to be good citizens. These units handle the various activities to be done within the school campus.

AHS-SAP is represented by two units: the “Office of Student Activities” as the administration arm while the “Sanggunian ng Mag-aaral ng Mataas ng Paaralan ng Ateneo” as the youth wing. Both coordinate and plan in the advancement the AHS-SAP’s goals for the holistic formation of the student body.

The Office of Student Activities (OSA), being the administrative wing of the AHS-SAP program, is composed of school employees that coordinate with the student government and moderate the actions of these student activities. The OSA is composed of: the Student Activities Coordinator as overall staff head of the program, the Student Council Moderators as mediator and guide for the council and sub-councils of the student government, and the committee moderators as mediator and guide for special projects committees.

The “Sanggunian ng Mag-aaral ng Mataas ng Paaralan ng Ateneo” (more commonly known as “Sanggu-HS”) is the youth wing of the AHS-SAP. This is the activities venue for the youth. Here students can join various activities, projects, and even the council as a venue for their holistic formation towards good citizenry.

The student government or the Sanggu-HS in activity is defined through three major fields: the batches, the organizations, and the varsity teams. The batches are the year-level batches of classes of the school (the freshmen, the sophomores, the juniors, and the seniors.) The Organizations are the extra-curricular and co-curricular organizations of the schools that cater to the special interests of the students. The varsity teams are the varying competing sports teams of the school that hones students with special sports skills. Besides the three major fields, activities like student elections, fundraising fairs and leadership seminars are also identified with the Sanggu-HS classified as special interests activities.

The Sanggu-HS in form is defined as a student council. The Sanggu-HS in itself is a complex form. The Sanggu-HS as a council is describe at three levels: the Executive board of the Sanggu-HS, the Sub-councils, and the special interests committees.

The Sanggu-HS Executive Board (E-Board) is the epitome of the student council. It is the overall student body unit that plans with the Student Activities Coordinator regarding the objectives and projects for the SAP. The E-Board is composed of a Chairman the represents the student body, a Secretary-General that caters to student-body documents and archiving, a Finance Officer that handles overall finances, and three Vice-Chairmen that represent each major field of the Sanggu-HS. They plan school-wide activities that are loyal to the SAP goals and the mission-vision of the school.

The Sub-Councils are councils that cater for each major field of the Sanggu-HS. Each sub-council with its sub-council moderator handles the special field through student engagement and involvement. These sub-councils are represented by: Assembly of Class Officers (ACO) for the batches, Council of Student Organizations (CSO) for the organizations, and the Athletics Council (AthC) for the varsity teams. Each sub-council have a vice-chairman (which represents the field in the E-Board), a Sub-Council secretary-general, a Sub-Council Finance officer, and the Audit and Inventory Officer for the CSO that handles organization equipment audit and inventory. Adding to this line-up, each sub-council has a core group member.

A core group member is an elected student that represents special areas to the sub-council. ACO has a core team of elected batch representatives. The CSO has a core team of elected organization cluster heads (a cluster is group of organizations ex. Social Sciences Cluster which includes the Political Science Org, Pscology Org, etc.) The AthC has a core team of elected varsity block heads (a block is group of varsity team ex. Basketball Block which includes the UAAP, PRADA, and PAYA baskectball teams.) Each core group member in the sub-council is at the forefront of youth activism as they engage and arouse student involvement and formation.

Special interest committees are groups of volunteers that coordinate with the OSA (through the committee moderators) and the student council to plan and implement a certain special interest project. Such projects are aimed in developing student involvement skills and capacities aimed in forming high school youth geared towards the SAP’s goals and the school’s mission vision. Some of these committees are: the Fair Committee (FairCom), Committee on Elections (Comelec), Constitutional Committee (ConCom), Jesuit High Schools Leadership Convention Committee (JSLC), Freshmen’s Day Committee (FreshCom), Sophomore’s Night Committee (SophCom), Junior’s Prom Committee (PromCom), and the Senior’s Graduation Ball Committee (BallCom.)

IV. Program-Organization

A benchmarking process is an important key in planning, implementing, and assessing student activities being true in its drive of forming good citizens. A process that goes through a standard best practice provides the best of results in terms of activity. SAPs usually set up a benchmarking process for student activities to achieve best results for the structure to execute activities geared towards the formation of good citizens in accordance to the goals of the SAP and the mission-vision of the school.

The AHS-SAP follows a certain standard in achieving the best results from student activities. This standard, as a benchmarking process, is the accepted yardstick of AHS-SAP as it follows a step-by-step process in achieving goals. This standard is dubbed as the “Elements of Effective Organization.” The elements of Effective Organization are: Organization Program Management, Recruitment and Selection, Orientation Program, Development and Training, Team-building, Spirituality Component, Service Component, and Leadership Training and Succession.

The Elements of Effective Organization is a standard of any organization within the school (whether a class, organization, or varsity team) that aims to be active and involved. The Elements of Effective Organization in itself is special as it follows certain components that are special to the school as it follows certain elements that directly follow the mission-vision of the school (the Spirituality Component for Christ-Centered students.)

Organization Program Management involves the membership of the organization to set standards to properly coordinate and organize student activity. A process of pre-production (planning), production proper (implementation), and post-production (evaluation) coordination-organization is the commonly seen standards. Besides the said process, a methodology for the leadership to implement activities with the membership should be set to maximize the development of every member of the organization.

Recruitment and Selection involves proper selection standards of membership for an organization or an activity-project. This process should identify people who can really contribute to the organization or the project. Talents and skills that can chip in to the organization or project should be properly identified from interested parties. Those with great interest and great potential should also be identified.

Orientation Program is a must for every organization or for any project-activity. Properly outlined dissemination of the preliminaries of a certain organization or project-activity should be set to inform the membership or project volunteers.

Development and Training involves for the proper identification of talents and skills of the membership and the honing of these talents and skills within the context of the activities of the organization or a project-activity. A standard for the identification and advancement of skills and talents should be done alongside with the creation of venues for this such as training seminars and allotment of time for newbie to contribute in activities.

Team-building involves the creation of a program that sets cohesion, synergy, and brotherhood between members of the organization. Proper unity for the advancement of the objectives of the organization or of the project-activity is must to gain the best outcome.

Spirituality Component involves a set standard where Christian values, as stated in the mission-vision, should be included in the activities of the organization or project-activity to emphasize an identified communion for the students. Projects or small activities should be done to emphasize spirituality of the membership.

Service Component involves a standard that every projects or activities should serve a purpose of serving and contributing to the community. Standards of identifying objectives, programs, and targeted areas to be served should be set.

Leadership Training and Succession involves the leadership identifying potential successors for future management and training such potential leaders. Programs and activities for training for the potential leaders should be set within a given plan or policy.

V. Outcome and Conclusion

Within the context of the objectives, structure, and program standard of the AHS-SAP, the major outcome is the high involvement of students in terms of community involvement. Organizations, batches, and varsity teams form activities that contribute to society.

Organizations, with an emphasis on talents, use the special skills of the members to contribute in society. This heightens exposure to nation-building with one’s talents. One example is a Social Awareness organization in AHS that joined an election watchdog process of NAMFREL during the 2007 National Elections. Another example is a Sciences Organization that joined an international competition and won that brought honor to the country.

Batches, with an emphasis in fraternity between members, use collectives as a tool to contribute in society. One such example is the contribution of AHS Batch 2009 in the organization of a benefit legacy concert.

Varsity Teams, besides it usual joining of competitions, formulate activities that maximize their talents. One such example is the organization of a sports clinic for the poor to maximize better health attitudes. Another example is the formulation of benefit competitions.

Looking into the mechanism of the AHS-SAP, with its objectives, structure, and program activities standards, the potential in forming good citizens from the young
is heightened by clear objectives that forms students, a structure the provides venues and mediation for students for formation, and programs standards that set the areas for development. With such case, SAP is a good mechanism in forming good young citizens.

Sources
Miriam-Webster Dictionary
Ateneo de Manila High School Student Handbook
Ateneo de Manila High School Website
Beating the Competition: A Practical Guide to BENCHMARKING