FAITH Colleges: Leading the regional academic landscape through technology and humanities
In the past 23 years, FAITH Colleges has been in the forefront of using of technology in the classroom, ahead of most everybody else. Declared a Center of Development for IT since 2017 by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), FAITH Colleges has been cited by the Department of Education as the Best Implementer of ICT in CALABARZON. And for two years in a row now, the Institution is recognized as one of the top Higher Education Institutions (HEI) with the most number of accredited tertiary programs and the most number of candidate status programs nationwide.
FAITH Colleges is also cited by CHED as the Center of Development for its BS Information Technology and BS Computer Science programs. All of these are aligned with its vision to achieve deregulated status in the near future.
Lives, interruptedAn educational institution thriving in the city of Tanauan, FAITH Colleges actually survived four pandemic school years beginning AY2019-2020, an extraordinary year when Batangas had been hit first by the eruption of a volcano, closely followed by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Looking back, the institution’s dilemma was how to conclude a disrupted school year.
Fortunately ahead of its time, FAITH Colleges has been practicing blended learning—an approach that puts together traditional face-to-face method with online learning elements. For FAITH Colleges’ basic education schools, they use the learning management system (LMS) called GENYO. In the past, this system proved to be especially useful when physical classes were suspended due to typhoons, for example. But its real and full efficacy was tested when Taal Volcano erupted in January 2020. With both teachers and students kept at home, classes were able to continue using this online LMS.
And then the global pandemic happened and challenged our normal. FAITH Colleges immediately shifted to bichronous online learning—the seamless blending of synchronous and asynchronous learning—from preschool, K-to-12, all the way up to graduate studies. And so, FAITH COLLEGES continued to serve its academic community, bringing AY2019-2020 to a successful close.
How to begin a school year under lockdown
For AY2020-2021, FAITH Colleges embarked on a recovery and readiness plan. The Institution took the opportunity to improve the campus, build infrastructure, and acquire new equipment. This is consistent with its campus development plan which has seen the school to put up dedicated dedicated facilities for its different schools—School of Graduate Studies, the Tertiary Schools, Fidelis Senior High, and the FAITH Catholic School.
How to prepare for either lockdown or opening up
In the years of the lockdowns all through AY2021-2022, FAITH Colleges remained true to its vision to make a difference in the nation’s development by nurturing competent, committed, and compassionate students ready to face anything, including an unprecedented global pandemic.
Improvements continued, particularly for the Tertiary Schools that saw upgrades in the facilities for its Allied Health programs. These involved refurbishing its Nursing laboratory and building two new Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) simulation facilities, including a Molecular Biology laboratory. In addition, laboratories for the school’s College of Engineering were upgraded, as well.
How to ease back into on-campus schooling and activities
With the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic seemingly behind and as the public health situation continued to improve, FAITH Colleges opened its doors once again in a very literal sense: resuming classes and activities on campus for the entire academic community after a worldwide disruption.
As the public health situation continued to improve, preschool, K-to-12, tertiary, and graduate school enjoyed limited face-to-face classes in the first semester of AY2022-2023 as part of the expected return to full in-person classes in the second semester of the school year.
It was a return to many of the institutional activities—the biggest event of which was the resumption of the annual week-long Foundation celebration. This was a deliberate move to help students get back into the groove of things. One unique happening was the return of its Incorporation Rites, a tradition of incorporating freshmen into the student body. For AY2022-2023, FAITH Colleges incorporated three batches in succession to include the two pandemic batches of freshmen who were never formally incorporated into the academic community. The annual Recognition Day likewise resumed, yielding a bumper crop of Deans’ and President’s Listers.
Bright Futures Built on Strong Foundations
FAITH Colleges puts priority on creating rich, memorable experiences for its students. Still part of this program is organizing non-academic events like rave parties, concerts, student fairs, and sporting activities. There is also the science expedition to the Taal Volcano island, led by scientists from the University of the Philippines and University of Santo Tomas, under the auspices of the FAITH Arts and Science Foundation.
Crowning the return to normal are the full in-person commencement exercises for all graduating batches, with Chess Grandmaster Eugene Torre delivering the address for the tertiary Schools graduates.
At the recent 45th Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA), FAITH Colleges’ Bachelor of Multimedia Arts students once again bagged the plum award for Best Student Public Service TV Ad award. This is the Institution’s 12th CMMA rock trophy, on top of numerous special citation trophies since 2009.
FAITH Colleges also has a very strong athletic program that includes full scholarships for athlete-students in basketball, volleyball, baseball, football, and e-sports which FAITH continues to dominate. Currently running is the United Collegiate Championship League, the first and only campus-based league that is currently running an in-person competition since the pandemic.
Dream Today, Lead Tomorrow
As FAITH Colleges resumed classes and activities on campus after a worldwide disruption, it continues to responsibly harness technology to close the gap in opportunities to ensure that students are given the same chances for quality education in a world now defined as the better normal. Confronted with new and complex challenges, FAITH Colleges continues to contribute to community- and nation-building in equally different and innovative ways.
