Year of the Dragon! School of Engineering, Architecture, and Information Technology Education (SEAITE) continued to be the bastion of overall excellence after claiming the USL’s 58th Founding Anniversary overall champion once again.
With the five events during the foundation week, the dragons still flaunted their pedigree by ruling three tournaments to capture their second straight championship.
Leandro Daniel Paat, the SEAITE Governor, said in a messenger interview that he is grateful to everyone, especially the SEAITE students, for their support during the foundation week.
“As the governor of the winning department, all I can say is that this is the biggest achievement that the department has achieved for this academic year since the foundation day is the biggest event of the University. I want to extend this success not only to myself but also to my fellow council officers, my organizational officers, advisers, SEAITE instructors, and the whole population of the SEAITE department, not only being the participants but being the biggest supporters of the department into getting the overall champion,” he said.
Due to the rigorous preparation of the department, the dragons harvested 873 points from 131 in socio-cultural events, 126 in special events, 382 in sports events, 144 in literary events, and 90 in visual events.
The Dragons ruled the visual events bagging 1st place in all of the contested visual events except comic strip and mural painting which is very unusual to them. They landed 3rd place in the comic strip and mural painting, which the Peacock and Pegasus claimed, respectively.
In an interview with Jenric Shane Q. De la Cruz, a SEAITE participant in the mural painting, he said that their team got deductions for not being complete for the whole duration of the event.
“We never had a precise figure of what would be painted because we all had double events from which we had moments where only two of us were doing the work versus the other teams who were complete.”
“I considered the possibility that we would not emerge as champions for this year’s mural painting contest, but we still believed as the audiences cheered for us constantly,” he added.
Despite being third this year, they are still grateful for being the people’s choice.
“We are already champions the moment we stroke our brushes against the wall with colors. In the end, we reigned as the people’s choice, the champion of the crowd, and still the fiery masterpiece from the department of the dragons,” he ended.
Meanwhile, the School of Accountancy, Business and Hospitality was not able to bring the crown in the LEONarda den as they fell short by only 30 points from the Dragons.
However, the Lions champed the special and literary events and first runner-up in sports and visual events.
The Peacocks (Senior High School) followed the Lions with 787 points, the Pegasus (School of Education, Arts and Sciences) with 756 points, the Snakes (School of Health and Allied Sciences) with 611, and the youngest team, the Phoenix (Junior High School) with 588 points.
Moreover, Paat had manifested the back-to-back championship of the department in the foundation days since the day he was elected as the governor.
“It was conceived to be the biggest challenge personally and for me as the governor since the day I got elected. Despite the pressure and challenge, I manifested, viewed, and confidently stated that we will be the back-to-back champion,” he said.
“During the foundations, I saw that all the departments also had their best performances. I am not going to lie that they really had better performances, but I always believed in my participants more. That is why I always went to their respective rooms before their performances for them to hype up,” he added.
Paat also believes that the next SEAITE council will also get the job done because they had witnessed how the current council struggled in the University activities.
“To the next SEAITE council, continue to ignite the fire we have started. I am confident that we will have a 3-peat championship for the next school year,” he said.
The awarding ceremony happened on February 18, 2022, awarded by the USL Administration headed by Rev. Fr. Macwayne N. Maniwang, CICM, University President; Dr. Rina M. Reyes, VP for Administration; Dr. Emmanuel James P. Pattaguan, VP for Academics; Dr. Celso L. Tuddao, VP for Finance; Mrs. Maria Leonora M. Cagurangan, Dean of Student Affairs and Services; Mr. Nestor M. Cabrido, Prefect of Men; Ms. Diane Jenalyn Datul, Prefect of Women; Engr. Louie Mar Tumolva, SSC Azalea Adviser; and student leaders that include Khimza Janella M. Cabanlong, Sophia Angelica Corella, Cerene Pearl T. Quilang, Maria Elaine P. Julian, Marc Vincent S. Semana, Ryle Jan M. Bucao, and Kimie C. Umbrero.
Photos by Kennedy Ross Binua
