The Ateneo de Naga University College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), along with its department chairpersons and faculty representatives, held a project-based workshop on 19 August 2026, to co-design the CHSS TRACE Database, marking the launch of Phase 1 of the CHSS TRACE-SAIL Project. Held initially at the Instructional Media Center (IMC), the event served as a collaborative venue to establish a clearer, more systematic framework for identifying, classifying, documenting, and strengthening the college’s academic community-engagement initiatives. The workshop was anchored on “Institutionalizing a Service-Learning Culture in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences: Aligning Curricular Engagements with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
The program opened with a Declaration of Purpose delivered by Dr. Ma. Filipinas H. Bana, Dean of CHSS, who emphasized the need to distinguish academic Service-Learning, directly anchored in course learning outcomes and meaningful community partnerships, from the wealth of faculty initiatives, departmental outreach, and student-led co-curricular activities. Clarifying the college’s strategic direction, the session highlighted that CHSS leverages the university’s overarching Service Learning (SL) policy, which is designed to integrate social involvement into the academic formation of students. Within this unified vision, CHSS TRACE and SAIL will serve as the college’s specific implementation framework, explicitly intended to assist CHSS faculty members in meaningfully integrating Service Learning into their courses in alignment with the University’s existing SL policy.
To guide this transition, the CHSS TRACE (Tracking Academic and Community Engagements) Database was introduced as a foundational database for the college and departments’ academic and community initiatives. The heads and faculty representatives were enjoined to refine the current prototype, which was designed by the CHSS Dean’s Office. Using the prototype alongside existing data mapping sheets, participants spent the morning auditing, refining, and adding new entries to their respective departmental records of activities, projects, and service learning course offerings, while mapping course learning outcomes against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In the afternoon, the venue shifted to the Psychology Laboratory on the 2nd Floor of the Arrupe Building, where the participants continued consolidating their data. The session culminated in comprehensive presentations where chairpersons unveiled their respective department’s Service Learning profiles and mapped out actionable directions for a more intentional Service-Learning integration. These collaborative outputs directly support the college’s broader goal of building robust evidence-gathering mechanisms for quality assurance and accreditation standards.
The fruitful writeshop concluded on a high note, with the CHSS Dean’s Office expressing its sincere gratitude and appreciation to all department chairpersons and faculty representatives for their active cooperation, dedication, and shared ownership of the project. Through this writeshop, CHSS has successfully established the first milestone of its TRACE-SAIL project: a documented, validated and sustainable inventory of its rich academic community engagements.
