Saturday, November 6, 2010

Measuring Volunteering in a Jesuit university in the Philippines

“To be men and women for others,” this Ignatian motto is ingrained in students, staff and faculty members of any Jesuit universities in the world. Volunteering is one way of being men and women for others. After three decades since Pedro Arrupe, SJ, coined this Ignatian motto, how is one Jesuit university in the Philippines living up to the motto through volunteering?

 This survey-research seeks to know the extent of participation and distribution of a Jesuit university students, administrators, faculty and staff members who actively and freely took part in the  community outreach and public service activities and programs initiated and implemented by the university and other organizers. Moreover, it also identifies  the motivational factors that affect their spirit of volunteerism.

The Ateneo de Naga University (ADNU) as a modern university serves in four functions; instruction, research, extension and public service, and preservation and transmission of culture. The four are expected to flow from and contribute to each other (Javier 1995). Thus far in Ateneo de Naga University, various councils and committees were instituted to put premium on the first two traditional functions, instruction and research. Consequently as in other universities, among the four, the third function -extension and public service as well as the fourth one, are sparingly given the same regard as instruction and research.

Read the whole research here.