DE BELEN, Janine Angelisa S.

NSTP 1 Section 9

2016822931
Ms. Cecilia Magdasoc

Summative Reflection
National Training Service Program or better known as NSTP has been
and is a program that aims to instill nationalism in us young Filipinos. For our first
term, NSTP 1 came in the form of seminars that tackled the following themes:
Leadership & Social responsibility, National Situation, Public Health, Gender &
Cultural Sensitivity, Urban Revitalization & Countryside Development,
Entrepreneurship, Culture & the Arts, Media Literacy and Philippine Educa tion
on Human Rights.
Our first session (Gender Sensitivity) was lead by Dr. Beverly A. Salsa.
She presented it to us in a way that could be easily understood by people wholl
hear about the topic for the first time. The terms commonly used for gender were
differentiated, such as Sex being the biological characteristics as human (male
or female) and Gender as the culturally and socially constructed concepts or
standards (masculine or female). Gender presentations the terms that people
are most often confused with were also discussed. Such terms include Gender
Identity. This is how a person identifies ones self (woman, man, or
genderqueer). Another is Sexual Orientation which refers to ones preference
for a partner (heterosexual, bisexual, or homosexual). Gender Expression is the
appearance of a person, whether its a feminine, androgynous, or masculine get
up. And finally, Biological Sex which ranges from female, male or intersex. But
keep in mind that intersex is different from transgender since a transgender is the
umbrella term that scopes the transsexual, crossdressers, intersex, performers,
gender bender and hydrogenous. After differentiating the terms, Dr. Salsa taught
us why we should be gender sensitive and how we can practice it. Well, the
single point of this discussion is RESPECT. After all, we are all just humans
before we are one of the many gender preferences, views and beliefs. One way
where we can do this is by using gender sensitive language. Use gender-neutral
pronouns and titles such as flight attendant, firefighter, police officer, etc. instead
of steward/ stewardess, fireman, and policeman respectively. This avoids
ambiguity, misunderstandings, biased and discriminating communication.
The second speaker, Rep. Raymond Palatino, talked about our countrys
National Situation. National situation is all about the history and progress of the
Philippines, and the changes that well need. He discussed with us the
significance of climate change and the threats it poses to our world, our
environment, and our country. He also presented us ways on how we, the youth,
can help the countrys current situation because the youth, when united, have a
voice that can greatly influence and bring about a positive impact.
Our speaker for the third topic, which is Leadership and Social
Responsibility, is Ms. Rose Lyn Rabanera Bocato. She shared with us her

experiences in college and how she grew to be a righteous leader. According to

her, all of us are leaders, in a sense that we are the ones who lead our own lives.
I agree with this because being a leader is also being a follower. A good leader is
someone who has principles, aims for excellence, embraces responsibility, is
emotionally intelligent and above all, dedicates his or her leadership for a certain
advocacy. This is because leadership should be transformative in order to build
communities and unite people in achieving a common goal.
The next topic is Urban Revitalization and Countryside Development. Our
speaker for this session was Ar. Rosario Encarnacion Tan. She emphasized the
importance of creating a place or a space. Not everyone can design houses like
architects, but anyone can surely create a space. To create a space is to be in
harmony with nature, because nature is the best possible home we can have.
You can create spaces by cleaning up dirty places filled with trash, and convert it
into a resting place or a place for entertainment. I also loved one of the projects
of the speaker, because she explained that she used local products or materials
to build the structure. It just comes to show that we can totally achieve or build a
beautiful building while still supporting/promoting the Philippine materials (ex.
Bamboo wood) at the same time.
Public Health is the next topic and it was lead by Dr. Blanca Destura. She
educated us about the common diseases, its sources, and how we can prevent
such diseases. The best way to prevent acquiring viruses or any disease is to be
clean. Sanitation is a major factor to being healthy, because this will wipe out
the bad germs in our body and therefore avoiding the development of
sicknesses. Another way of prevention is to get vaccinated yearly. This is to
familiarize the immune system of the disease so that when the time comes that
you catch that certain disease, your body can battle it out. Lastly, always see to it
that you practice the cough etiquette. Simply cover your mouth with a
handkerchief or a cloth when you cough because you wouldnt want someone to
cough at you and get you infected as well.
The next topic is actually one of my favorite sessions Entrepreneurship.
The speaker was Patis Tesoro and it was very motivating and inspiring. She
focused on how we can develop as a person. We can do this by constantly
learning new things that we take interest in. It doesnt matter if we excel in it or
not, what matters is that we tried, experienced and learned from it. I was inspired
by how entrepreneurship helped develop her art, support local / Philippine
products and financially secure her as well.
Another theme is the Culture and the Arts, which was spoken by Mr.
Angelo J. Aguinaldo. He focused on Youth volunteerism. One of the programs he
mentioned was the Kawit Heritage Tourism where young people can earn money
as tour guides (with special on-the-job training) and at the same time promote the
rich culture of the Philippines. This can benefit our country agriculturally,
economically and culturally.

The second to the last theme is Media Literacy, lead by Ms. Sarah Isabelle
Torres. She is a journalist and a co-founder of an organization in the University of
the Philippines called Out of The Box. I learned a lot from this session because
topic is not that popular in Asia. Media Literacy is all about an individuals
responsibility in media, be it in printed or digital media. All of us are heavy users
of social media, which is why we need to be educated on how we can be media
responsible. One way in which we can do this is to always verify first the
legitimacy of an articles source/s before sharing it on our personal accounts.
This will avoid the spreading of false information. You should also keep an open
mind especially on other peoples opinions, because we should respect their
statement and not impose our beliefs on them. On the side note, never share
your personal details such as your address, phone number, etc. in order to keep
you safe from dangerous situations.
And lastly, the session that really stood out to me was Human Rights. The
speakers were from the Bantayog ng mga Bayani and the 4 of them were all
victims from the martial law era. They shared with us their experiences during the
martial law, and how their basic human rights were violated. Their stories were
truly heartbreaking and maddening at the same time. I became much more
aware of the truth that wasnt taught to us in our years of basic education.
Overall, I learned the importance of education in all the seminars of NSTP
1. Education isnt just the formal concepts we get from school. Education is being
aware of the things around you. It is the act of using all the senses to improve
ones self. It is to constantly learn and try new things even if youre not great at it.
We acquire as much knowledge as we can about almost everything starting from
being aware of the human health, culture and arts, gender and cultural sensitivity,
development of urban communities, business, climate change, media literacy,
and a million more concepts. To be educated is to be open-minded. It means we
dont shut out peoples opinions and knowledge, but we embrace it rather. To be
educated is to be human. We yearn to learn and love all the great things in the
world. We learn about nature, which can lead us to climate change and its effects
on the environment, the economy and even politics. We also continuously learn
and innovate things that involve the improvement of human life, such as urban
revitalization. We are also not afraid to speak out the truth when injustice arises,
even if it costs a lot of lives.
We only have one way but to move forward or to progress and we always
want to have change, but if we dont take the initiate to educate ourselves of
certain things, topics or issues, then how can we finish the chapter and move on
to the next book?