PROJECT citizen is an international program on civic education that has been tried in more than 60 countries worldwide.

It is a pedagogical approach that seeks to impart the critical skills the students need to influence the public policies that affect every Filipino.

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It does by training students to seek public policy interventions to solve community problems. It aims to connect the classroom learning of students on democratic citizenship with activities such as research that immerse them in the community and expose them to the dynamics of public policy formulation, implementation and evaluation.

It is a project initiated by the Philippine Center for Civic Education and Democracy (PCCED) based in the University of Asia and Pacific (UAP) under the auspices of the American Embassy.

Through the efforts of Marife Varela, chair of the Political and Social Sciences Department of University of St. La Salle (USLS) and Prof. Virgilio Aguilar, Political Science Research adviser, project citizen was integrated in the course program of Political Science department in subjects, such as local government and autonomy, current issues and problems in governance and political science research I and II. Thus, the fourth year Political Science students became the pioneering batch in conducting the project citizen program in the Visayas.

The USLS, together with two other schools throughout the country, was chosen to present the project in the University of Asia and Pacific (UAP) on November 12, 2008. The school will be represented by political science students Matthew James Parreño, Jarred Martin Clarianes, Benedick Ledesma, Omar Salong, Mary Angela Magbanua and Mark Jezer Casipe with their adviser, Virgilio Aguilar.

The presentation will showcase the citizen interventions done in the selected community of Barangay 19 under Barangay Captain Jocylin Uychiat.

The group will present how the barangay was chosen, the problems found in the barangay, its policy recommendations for the city and for the barangay, and its action plans that will be implemented in said community.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/bacolod/project-citizen-integrated-usls-course-program