AJHS CSIP: a story of transitions, courage and commitment

On March 6 - 8, 2020, the class of Cardoner/10-Chabanel went to Sapang Palay, Bulacan for the last Damay immersion trip for School Year 2019-2020 of the Christian Service Involvement Program (CSIP). Days later, at midnight of March 12, 2020, a 30-day lockdown in the National Capital Region was declared by the office of the President. It was the first of the many lockdowns that started on March 15 and lasted until April 14, 2020. Without any certainty on when it would end, and how bad it would become, how could we move forward with the mandate of giving opportunities for exposure, encounter, and interaction to our Ateneo de Manila Junior High School (AJHS) students? How does a social involvement program stay involved when classrooms are closed, streets are empty, and everyone is mandated to stay home?

These were just a couple of questions we had to wrestle with regarding the implementation of the Junior High School’s social involvement of programs as the whole world plunged into a pandemic brought about by COVID-19.

Unprecedented events call for unprecedented measures. Thus, the Christian Service and Involvement Program team dared to recreate and redevelop the programs to fit the new setup. The core of our program is centered on the personal encounters and interactions between our students and partners, and so we had to asked, “How can we reinvent this experience and transform it to fit our online modality?”

By dissecting the core values and competencies of our four programs, the CSIP team managed to craft modules for Dungaw, Danas, Dama, and Damay. Our approach was thus skewed towards a more academic delivery to appeal to the minds of our students.

We also had to craft a new experience that could substitute for our previous outreach and engagement activities, like the Katipunan Fund Drive (KFD), off-campus visits and immersions. This evolved into the Social Involvement Program in Action (SIPA), which became the face of CSIP during the pandemic. In addition to fundraising and engagement, SIPA also became an avenue for students and their families to gather resources and relief goods for the CSIP partner communities.

Back in the good old days, our grandparents would send letters through the mail. These handwritten letters carried what they experienced and felt, and the ink and paper transcended space and time to convey the messages of their writers. The first facet of SIPA is the Letter Cycle Drive, which created connections between the AJHS students and their partners. This gave our students a glimpse of what it was like in “olden” times and also gave them a window into an experience that many FIlipinos went through during the pandemic. 

Another facet of SIPA were the fundraisers and the direct extension of help to its partners. In the face of the oppressive lockdowns that halted our partners’ livelihoods, the SIPA program gave the opportunity to gather resources like food and toiletries for them. Our students were also given the chance to initiate online fundraising events for them. From gaming streams to online concerts, SIPA brought out our students’ creativity and compassion in service of others.

As the pandemic continued to a second year, the students clamored for more engagement opportunities. Thus, the Virtual Meet Up (VMU) sessions were set up. Classes were split into breakout rooms and had focus group discussions facilitated by our colleagues in the Junior High School.

This resulted in a significant spike in donations and initiatives for SIPA after the students heard and felt the struggles of our partners through the VMU. Furthermore, CSIP’s mandate to form our students into persons for others was fulfilled in spite of the pandemic. The physical distance may have been great but the bond between our partners and students remained through the VMU.

Enter School Year 2022-2023. Vaccines were rolled out and the pandemic restrictions were loosened. Malls reopened and the streets were once again filled with people going to work. COVID isn’t gone yet, but looking back, what seemed impossible translated to a worthwhile effort that stayed true to the AJHS’ mandate to form servant-leaders who are committed to serve the country and the global community.

The team decided to continue implementing the previously developed modules in a Hyflex setup that entailed delivering a simultaneous session to onsite and online students from the same class. CSIP’s programs all evolved into a weekly class that allowed us to mentor students more closely and deliver our formation lessons and activities. 
 

As onsite activities continued, we reworked the VMU so that it could provide the students with a more intimate encounter with our partner communities. This new classroom session is the “Reverse Encounter” or “Kumustahan Session with Partners,” and has members of our partner communities being invited to our classrooms to engage in a conversation with our students. How goes a day in the life of a nanay in Sapang Palay? How were they able to weather and survive the pandemic? These were among the questions explored during the Kumustahan Session.

At this point, the opportunity to offer off-campus activities became a real possibility once again. After conducting surveys with the students and the parents, to our surprise, an overwhelming amount of support from both sides affirmed the community’s desire to bring back off-campus CSIP activities. With courage, we rolled out voluntary off-campus activities throughout all four year levels. 

Looking at the volunteer turnout of all off-campus activities, we can glean that the students are truly interested in the initiatives and activities of CSIP, and this affirmation drives us to further improve the program in the years to come.

Advocating social involvement and aiming to inculcate this in the minds and lifestyle of today’s youth is a tough job, considering the ever-changing environment we live in. However, this should not stop efforts to provide creative opportunities according to the call of the times. This was and is the story behind AJHS CSIP through the years, from pre-pandemic to what it is now. We must always have the courage to adapt and to make our programs and activities true to their mission to form socially responsible citizens and servant leaders. And with School Year 2023-2024 well underway, CSIP is committed to offer better and brighter ways to fulfill its mandate to help form every Atenean into a person for and with others.