TALAB 2025 (HE Memo#Y3.41)

HE Memo#Y3.41
25 June 2025

Laudato Si' calls on us to Respond to the Cry of the Earth but also to Respond to the Cry of the Poor. Last year’s TALAB highlighted responses to the cry of the earth with the theme Integral Ecology: Caring for Our Common Home. This year’s TALAB highlights responses to the cry of the poor with the theme, Walking with the Excluded.

Who are the excluded in our society? While they do include those who we think of as materially poor and those who have inadequate access to basic needs, the concept of exclusion also includes those who are discriminated against consciously or unconsciously and thus are not able to fully participate in the life of society, and those who are powerless to influence social decision making.

Walking with the Excluded is one of the four Jesuit Apostolic preferences which emphasizes not only the need to hear the cry of the excluded but to walk alongside them as they face various challenges. Indeed the call to be persons for others has evolved over time to be the call to be persons for and with others.

As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of Laudato Si', and the fiftieth anniversary of two of Ateneo de Manila’s community engagement units, the Office for Social Concern and Involvement, and the Tulong Dunong Program, we invite student organizations, offices, and departments to propose activities around the theme Walking with the Excluded for TALAB 2025.

TALAB, in the first semester of School Year 2025-2026, will be held from October 13 to 31, 2025 with the main TALAB Day taking place on Tuesday, October 14, 2025. On that day, undergraduate classes will be replaced by TALAB activities and undergraduate students will be expected to participate in at least 4 hours worth of activities. Classes will proceed as scheduled on the other days. Graduate students and employees from across the university may walk into the various TALAB activities that will be held at the college campus.

Those who are interested in hosting activities for TALAB 2025 are invited to submit proposals at https://go.ateneo.edu/talab2025proposal. Proposals may be submitted by any student organization, department, or office from any unit of the university. 

For inquiries, please contact the Office of the Assistant Vice President for Social and Environmental Engagement for Development and Sustainability at seeds@ateneo.edu, the Sanggunian ng mga Mag-aaral ng mga Paaralang Loyola (sanggunian.college.org@student.ateneo.edu), or the Council of Organizations of the Ateneo de Manila University (coa.college.org@student.ateneo.edu)

Together let us all work for a genuinely inclusive society!