Before the school year 2020-2021, the Jaime V. Ongpin (JVO) Foundation organized an initiative to provide assistance for the JVO scholars in Ateneo de Iloilo-Santa Maria Catholic School (AdI-SMCS) as a response to the new form of learning brought by the pandemic.
The said initiative was launched by the Ateneo de Manila University’s Office of the University Development and was benefacted by Mr. Roberto V. Ongpin and Ms. Michelle Ongpin Callaghan.
After multiple consultations to determine the most effective way to help the students, the JVO foundation decided to lend iPad units to 26 scholars and personal computers with web cameras to 10 scholars of AdI-SMCS.
“This is a great initiative of the Foundation. They understand the effects of the pandemic, of the study-at-home demands of the students, and were proactive in helping them. They know that their scholars are financially challenged. The foundation does not only have scholars here in ADI but in all the Ateneo schools all over the Philippines,” said Fr. Neupito J. Saicon SJ., chairperson for the JVO Scholars Committee towards the noble initiative of the JVO Foundation.
These scholars went through a thorough selection process to decide the recipients of the devices to be loaned. The Learning Support Office of the school is requested for the monitoring and managing of the iPad units.
“This project is a commendable project especially during this new normal in teaching and learning. In this pandemic, a device is required to facilitate learning and the performance of school tasks,” said Ma’am LLane Subong, head of the Learning Support of AdI-SMCS.
All JVO scholars will be receiving the units for school use. These will only be temporarily lent to them and will be turned over by the end of the school year. Every quarter, the scholars will turn over the iPad units to the Learning Support Office of the school to check for defects or issues on the borrowed units.
The iPad Loan Agreement Policy along with the JVO Scholarship iPad bank policies and guidelines have been formulated and will be handed out to the JVO scholars during a training and orientation session about the utilization of iPad units on February 3, 2021. This will be spearheaded by Mr. Alren Camposgrado of the Learning Innovations Through Technology (LITe) team.
“I hope that many of our alumni, teachers, parents and even current students understand that not everyone in Ateneo has the capacity to have all these gadgets. We strive to have more scholars in the future and we hope many could help us in that effort,” Fr. Neo added to his statement.