Community Engagement through the Distinguished Alumni Webinar Series.
by Levitico Aquino BE’21

It is always within the intention of the fraternity to provide inspiration for the ideals of social service and instill greater interest in serving the country in general and the college in particular. In realizing the vision of service to the motherland, the brotherhood holds several events every year.

The Distinguished Alumni Webinar Series (DAWS), formerly known as the Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series (DALS), is an annual event hosted by the UP Beta Epsilon Fraternity in celebration of the fraternity’s anniversary. It merely began as a series of seminars held at the UP College of Engineering featuring the remarkable alumni of the fraternity in discussing specific topics from their respective fields and industries. However, due to the constraints brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the brothers thought of a new way to continue their tradition of inspiring young engineers and bringing awareness to the field. This led to the transformation of DALS into DAWS.

On the 14th and 21st days of August 2021, the fraternity held its second DAWS commemorating its 92nd Anniversary. Through their insightful lectures, the alumni speakers shared their exceptional knowledge as they engaged the audience, especially the young aspiring engineers. Filled with modern and relatable topics, the event successfully gathered over 100 registrants for both sessions who attended via the Zoom platform. The sessions were also streamed live on YouTube and Facebook with a total of over 500 views.

Featured in the Session 1 of DAWS are brothers Dr. Joel Marciano BE’93, who imparted his exceptional knowledge about the space field through his lecture “Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA): Value Creation in Space for Reset, Rebound and Recover” and Luis Sia BE’16, who shared his salient expertise in entrepreneurship through his discussion about "Fast and Furious: Growing the Internet Economy of the Philippines".

In Session 2 of DAWS, the fraternity featured the alumni brothers Engr. Chicho Mantaring BE '75, who discussed the most critical skills of a successful engineer in his lecture “The Emerging Engineer: Critical Skills Needed" and Engr. John Aldre Jota BE '14, who shared his timely and relevant topic about coping with loss through the lecture “On Death and Dying: Engineering Solutions for Filipinos".

As a successful event for the fraternity and the community, it received an overall positive feedback from the participants especially the College of Engineering students along with the alumni brothers for the praiseworthy quality from organizing the event to the content of the event. This event still proves to be one of the ways UP Beta Epsilon adapts to the contingencies of unexpected realities and stays determined to its intention of instilling inspiration to the heart of brotherhood in bringing unconditional service to the college and community.