Special Programs

JAPAN STUDIES CENTER

The Japan Studies Center (JSC) offers an opportunity for learning Nihongo, as well as facilities for research in Japanese history, politics, socioeconomic, and cultural heritage. The JSC also functions as an advisory and resource center for graduate studies on Japanese education and national defense policy to Philippine Japanologists.

It also offers a Master of Arts degree in Education, major in Nihongo. The first of its kind in the Philippines, the course was launched in June 2001. It is aimed at developing and training graduate students to become effective teachers of the Japanese language.

The Center offers scholarship grants in coordination with Japanese institutions and organizations, such as Japan Foundation, Manila; and Japanese universities, such as Rikkyo University (RU) and Kobe International University (KIU).

The JSC is located at the ground floor of the Trinitian Center for Community Development and is open from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm from Monday to Friday.

CENTER FOR INTENSIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING

The Center for Intensive Language Learning (CILL) answers the felt need for language assistance particularly by foreign students enrolled in undergraduate courses of the College and other institutions. Short-term courses offered to individuals and small groups include conversational and written Filipino, English, French, and TOEFL preparation and review from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm from Monday to Friday.

INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP FOR SERVICE-LEARNING

Trinity University of Asia has a long history of community service. Commitment to community service was started by the College of Nursing in 1970 when it had a medical and health care mission in a nearby barangay (village) called Tatalon. The spirit spread out to the College of Education which in turn rendered tutorial services to out-of- school-youth. In 1985, the former Commissioner on Higher Education and former Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Kate C. Botengan, initiated the Community Allied Urban Service and Education (CAUSE) which served as an umbrella for all volunteer works of the different academic units.

In 1992, Dr. Linda Chisholm, then President of the Association of Episcopal Colleges (AEC), brought out the idea of service-learning. Together with the late Dr. Howard Berry, Dr. Chisholm, and Dr. Rafael B. Rodriguez, former President of Trinity College of Quezon City (TCQC), she mapped out the plan to realize the dream of creating a service-learning pedagogy as a tool to make a difference in the ins and outs of academic life. That same year, the Partnership for Service-Learning (PSL) was born. Sponsors were tapped to accommodate its early scholars to come to Trinity to do learning and community service.

Eventually this agenda was realized through the United Board for Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA) and the Colleges and Universities of Anglican Communion (CUAC). A group of carefully selected students came to Trinity and met their Filipino counterparts. The PSL students worked as tutors in the high school and as itinerant farm workers.

Limited funding triggered the continuance of the program; hence, Dr. Rodriguez worked closely with the Episcopal Church, drawing resources from the Bishop’s Fund and speaking in churches to raise money for the community outreach program. In due time, the service and learning grew from all academic units.

In 1995, when Dr. Chisholm’s term was over in AEC, she and Dr. Berry planned out the foundation of a service-learning program in an international setting. Thus from Partnership Service Learning (PSL) evolved the International Partnership for Service-Learning (IPSL) in 1998. That year, as an offshoot of the Wingspread Conference in Wisconsin which reviewed the progress of service-learning initiatives in the US and other countries, a workshop on service-learning was held in Trinity. Simultaneous with the Summer Special Program of IPSL, where more than 20 students from US, Canada, Britain, and Asia converged in the Trinity campus, some 12 service-oriented faculty members from different countries also had their workshop on service-learning. Dr. Chisholm, Dr. Berry, and Dr. Florence McCarthy, Vice President for IPSL Academic Affairs in Asia, led the workshop which trained possible IPSL directors in US and Asia. From thereon, the IPSL in New York had Trinity as partner institution in the Philippines to propagate service-learning.

Service-learning is entirely different from the previous community service commitment. If community outreach service is a purely volunteer work and no credit is being given to the participants, service-learning is an integration of the service component in the academic requirement. It is the concept of linking classroom with the larger world, theory with practice, and puts the students in situations in which they maximize their productivity by working effectively with others (Tonkin, 2004:5). Furthermore, it is an endeavor anchored on symbiotic relationship whereby it is not only the receiving community or partner service agency that shall benefit from the students but the students also learn from the former. The students in this case earn credits in the subject where service-learning is integrated.

With the thrust given by IPSL New York to Trinity, two programs were formed: the Summer Special Program and the Philippine Studies Program. The IPSL Summer Special Program is a 6-week activity held in July to August where 30-40 students from the USA, Canada, Asia, and the Pacific come to Trinity and enroll in the program entitled Theologies of Service. It was formerly supported by the Henry Luce Foundation. The regular program is called Philippine Studies. Here the student spends a semester, summer, or a year at Trinity and chooses from an array of course offerings of the University like History, Political Science, Literature, Sociology, Education, Health Care, and Language (Filipino and Nihongo). The student earns 6-9 academic credits in summer and 12-15 in a semester. Coupled with this, the student serves for 15-20 hours per week in a nearby community or partner service agency.

Adapted to local curriculum, service-learning is appropriated in subjects like Sociology, Psychology, Developmental Communication, National Service Training Program (NSTP), Health Care 1 and 2, and Social Philosophy of Education.

The academic side is being taken care of by respective colleges while the service component is coordinated through the Trinitian Center for Community Development (TCCD). Its Director takes charge of negotiating with the cooperating community or partner agency the corresponding memorandum of undertaking.

Kobe International University-Trinity University of Asia Service Learning