The UST EHS 70 will hold their homecoming reunion dinner at the Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan, Rizal on Friday Night April 23, 2010. April 24 and 25 will be an outing in a private home in Tagaytay. Please stay tune for further details.
The planning committee have condensed the schedule into one weekend to give the Balikbayans from the US to spend more time with their families and relatives.
Let us give our thanks to the organizers for their great effort in making sure this event will be memorable and successful.
Here are some updates on the Quadricentennial celebrations of UST.
As the 400th anniversary of the University of Santo Tomas draws nearer and nearer each day, the big plans drawn by no less than the university Rector, Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P. also begin to become more visible not only to the Thomasians but also throughout the world.
With the last line of the university hymn “Imbued with Unending Grace” as the theme for the quadricentennial festivities and projects, the UST will definitely showcase how four decades of Catholic education contributed to the growth of the Philippines.
Here are the festivity highlights:
1. 400 Books at 400
A project of the University where 400 book titles will be published by no less than the oldest printing press in the Philippines, the UST Publishing House. A coffee table book which will serve as the 400th title of the project will be published to commemorate UST’s 400-year history, containing archival photographs, lithographs, and stories about the University’s rich heritage. According to Giovanna Fontanilla, Office for Public Affairs Director,the said coffee table book would be out by 2010, to be followed by the 2011 supplement on 2012.
2. Thomasian Global Trade Expo
A trade expo that would feature all successful Thomasian Alumni led by Thomasian tycoons such as Jollibee Foods Corp. president Tony Caktiong, and Mercury Drug president Vivian Que-Ascona in July 2010.
3. UST Sports Complex
The four-storey sports complex will house a basketball court, with bleachers to accommodate 5,792 patrons. Aside from basketball, the complex will also house the facilities for badminton, fencing, table tennis, indoor track, dancing, gymnastics, and a fitness center. There will also be classrooms, administrative offices, and space for food concessionaires. A multi-level parking space will also be built outside the gymnasium.
The new gym will also serve as a museum that will enshrine all the trophies, medals and other memorabilia of various UAAP championships the university has won throughout the years. Championship banners will also hang from the rafters of the gymnasium.
4. Thomasian Alumni Center
Inauguration of the four-storey UST alumni center, to be housed in the renovated old UST Gym, an Art Deco structure and the country’s first school gym, on Dec.. 19, 2010. The center will the center would serve as a multi-function building for alumni events, and would have lodging rooms for visiting alumni.
5. Renovation of UST Swimming Pool
The UST swimming pool, the country’s first Olympic-size swimming pool, will also be renovated with its tiles changed so as to form the UST seal that could be seen from the air.
6. International Conference of the International Council of the Universities of St. Thomas Aquinas
An international conference among the different universities of St. Thomas Aquinas where “relevant challenges and opportunities related to higher education in the light of St. Thomas Aquinas’ philosophy” are expected to be discussed.
7. Grand Celebratory Parade
A parade from Rizal Park to UST on Jan. 27, 2011 a replication of the 1911 celebration, followed by the unveiling of the “Tetra Global” monument which will also serve as the grand opening of the University’s quadricentennial festivities.
8. Tetraglobal sculpture
The much-awaited unveiling of the 18-feet Tetraglobal sculpture, designed and executed by internationally renowned Thomasian sculptor Ramon Orlina representing the universal reach of the Thomasian community with figures representing the various stakeholders: a Dominican priest, a professor, and one male and one female student (modeled by two alumni in show business—Piolo Pascual and Charlene Gonzales-Muhlach) .
9. UST Quadricentennial Watch
A UST Quadricentennial watch, designed by Swatch will be available.
10. Special Commemorative bills, coins, and stamps
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will issue special commemorative bills and coins, while the post office will issue special commemorative stamps.
11. Declaration of the Main Building as a National Heritage Landmark
Declaration of the eight decade-old Main Building with its distinction as the first earthquake proof building in the Pilippines as a national heritage landmark on Jan. 25, 2010, followed by the mounting of a marker on January 28 at the España gate. The marker will also be the location of the time capsule where the Class of 2011 will be immortalized as their names will be included in it.
12. UST Exhibit at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris
The holding of an exhibit on the legacy of UST at the UNESCO central headquarters in Paris.
13. World’s Longest Living Rosary
The “world’s longest living rosary” to be participated in by the entire Thomasian community of 42,000 students reciting the Holy Rosary together as they assemble in the UST campus and surrounding streets on Feb. 11, 2010, good for an entry in the Guiness Book of World Records.
14. World’s Largest Chorale Performance
Another good entry for the Guiness Book of World Records as world’s biggest choral performance, with some 40,000 voices performing the “Ode to Joy” at the Quadricentennial Closing rites.
15. Lumina Pandit
An international exhibit of the University’s collection of precious and significant collection of books, documents and other historical treasures the university library has accumulated through four centuries. Example of which is are a remaining original copy of “Doctrina Christiana,” the first book printed in the Philippines, a rare copy of a book by Copernicus, academic records of the fathers of our nation (since UST served as the country’s “department of education” until the inauguration of the first republic), four presidents, six Supreme Court justices and many other outstanding alumni of UST and other rare documents.
16. Grand Thomasian Fashion Fair
A fashion show sponsored by the College of Fine Arts and Design.
17. Mr. and Ms. Quadricentennial
A pageant that will showcase the beauty, wit and intellect of the Thomasian community.
18. Quadricentennial Song and Flag
The Quadricentennial Song, “Ako’y Isang Tomasino” and Flag which was presented at the 400 Days to 400 Years countdown will serve as the official song and symbol of the 400th anniversary.
19. World premiere of the grand opera on the life of Benavides;
The Conservatory of Music, with some alumni, will also stage several operas at the CCP, while an operetta on the life of Benavides, founder of the university is being written.
20. Visit of the Pope and the King of Spain
The hoped-for visit of Pope Benedict XVI and King Juan Carlos of Spain in time for the launching of the Quadricentennial Year.
21. Simbayan 400: Tomasino para sa Simbahan at Bayan
The quadricentennial’s “centerpiece project” which will consolidate Thomasian efforts to develop communities in some 400 Gawad Kalinga villages will involve the students’, faculty’s and alumni’s expertise in four main areas: site planning and development; livelihood generation; education for peace and values formation; and health.
According to Fontanilla, “We are prepared. We are now drumbeating toward 2011. We just don’t want to broadcast all the activities yet so that an element of surprise would be established,” she said.
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