Dubbed as “Workshops from Home (WFH),” the Ateneo de Naga University Office of Student Affairs (ADNU OSA) organized a series of Skills Development Training Workshop (SDTW) for student leaders and organizations this School Year 2021-2022.
The SDTW is the competency-building part of OSA’s Ateneo Leadership Development Program, which has been carried out in virtual platforms since the onset of the pandemic. The OSA has so far delivered two events for the WFH series, and partnered with the Philippine Association of Practitioners of Student Affairs and Services (PAPSAS) – Region 5 Chapter to reach out to students and professionals in other higher educational institutions nationwide.
The most recent installment of the series happened on February 4, 2022, and discussed the theme, “Content Creation and Optimization of Social Media.” The two-hour e-workshop featured John Stephen M. Cornwill, founder and C.E.O. of Cornwill Media, a marketing agency that creates social media advertisements online. It was attended by some 170 student leaders, moderators and staff from ADNU and other universities and colleges.
Cornwill highlighted the benefits an organization can gain by using social media, such as recruiting new members, advertising their activities, and spreading general awareness about the organization. He later explained that these benefits can be obtained through a systematic and cohesive social media plan. Cornwill then proceeded to demonstrate the step-by-step process of crafting a social media plan: (1) Identifying their organizations’ social media goals; (2) Knowing their audience to learning everything from one’s audience; (3) Doing social media audit; (4) Setting up the organizations’ accounts; and (5) Creating a social media content calendar, which includes the date and time of posting, the type of posts, social media platform to be used, and what audience is being targeted.
After his presentation, Cornwill grouped the participants according to their organizations and tasked them to create their respective social media plan using the steps he presented. 2 ADNU Student Organizations, namely the Association of Bicol Business Students (ABBS) and Peer Coaches, Kaabay, and Student Volunteers (PCSKV) presented their social media plan during the plenary session. After the presentation of the 2 student organizations, Cornwill proceeded to answer queries from the participants during the open forum.
The first WFH event was held the whole day of August 28, 2021, and gathered 180 participants in ADNU and nationwide.
The resource speakers for this online workshops were Rodolfo SB. Virtus Jr., ADNU OSA Director and PAPSAS Region 5 President; and Ralph jacinto A. Quiblat, Director of the Ateneo de Manila University Loyola Schools Office of Student Activities (LS-OSA) and PAPSAS National Public Relations Officer.
Virtus served as the resource speaker for the morning session, “Virtual Activity Planning and Organizing”. He discussed the importance and process of planning virtual activities, icnluding several practices done in the face-to-face activity planning which are still applicable to the new mode. He shared several practices done by the OSA in conducting its online activities, such as the conceptualization of possible themes/topics, writing of concept papers and invitations. He then advised the participants to prepare for possible challenges encountered in implementing activities online, such as the power interruption and loss of internet connection.
Virtus further invited two program officers from OSA, Vonns Swedan Adoremos and Leo Jeremiah Caayao, to give discuss in detail and do a step-by-step tutorial on livestreaming via the digital application Streamlabs, and creating online forms and generating electronic certificates via Google Forms respectivelly.
For the afternoon session, Quiblat discussed collaborative communication and transformative change in student organizations through his presentation “Reimagining Courage”, remarking that courage is what enables student organizations to do collaborative communication and fuels creativity in this changing time. To cope up with the changes presented by the new normal, Quiblat stressed the need for “transformation”, which he differentiated from change – the former being visionary organizing while the latter is problem-solving. He proceeded to enumerating the four kinds of transformation: as reimagining, reform, resistance, and revolution. Quiblat also emphasized the importance of stakeholder engagement, the process of how to effectively communicate, collaborate and interact with the people who have may impact the success of an organization’s endeavor. He then shared practical tips on how practice stakeholder engagement in the new normal.
