by AUBREY SHANE LIM
THE UNIVERSITY’S research chief urged Thomasians to hone their gifts and talents, likening them to a treasure that would be lost if not taken care of.
UST Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation Rev. Fr. Jannel N. Abogado, O.P. compared learning to childbirth, saying failure to cultivate one’s talents is similar to the experience of loss after a miscarriage.
“If the baby is not delivered at all, there is the experience of loss. Similarly, if you do not cultivate your gifts and talents with the opportunities that you have, then it is likely that you will not be able to give birth to them,” Abogado said during his homily during the Homecoming Walk of sophomores and juniors on Tuesday, August 23.
“We need to make an effort to cultivate and improve [one’s gifts and treasures], so that they may be beneficial to us and to others,” he added.
Abogado said the students’ “treasure” refers not only to their mind, but also to their “heart and soul.”
“The University will help form you evenly— not just a person with a disproportionately big head, or a person with a disproportionately big heart and soul, but persons who make use properly of mind, heart, and soul,” the vice rector for research said.
Calling Thomasians the “treasures” of the University, Abogado noted that it is UST’s duty to help “nurture the treasure that you already are.”
He encouraged students to actively participate in academic, extracurricular, social, and religious activities and to be “like a sponge.”
“[You must be] ready to absorb as much learning as possible to grow to your full potential while you are here in the university,” Abogado said.
The University celebrated the third Homecoming Mass as part of the in-person Homecoming Walk festivities.
The event was held in three batches. The third batch covered sophomores and juniors from the Alfredo M. Velayo College of Accountancy, the University of Santo Tomas Faculties of Ecclesiastical Studies, the College of Commerce and Business Administration, the Graduate School, the Graduate School of Law, the Faculty of Civil Law, and the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. F
