De La Salle University, Manila

When I spoke on Service-Learning at De La Salle University in Manila yesterday (Thursday, 15th May, 2024), it was both serendipity and destiny.  It was serendipity because I got to know DLSU when I was asked by a good friend to speak in his place at an event to take place in Taiwan, which is being organised by DLSU.  It happens that I am coming to the Philippines to speak at University of Philippines Diliman and to visit one of our student teams that are doing a project outside Manila, in collaboration with UP Diliman.  Hence I volunteered to come to speak at DLSU, …  

On the other hand, I had attended La Salle College in Hong Kong, Form 6 to 7, 1973-75. It was through contacts at Ls Salle, indirectly, that I obtained a scholarship that enabled me to go to the USA to attend university at University of Rochester.  I had also known for some time that DLSU is one of the top universities doing Service-Learning.  Our team at PolyU is helping La Salle College (HK) to implement Service-Learning and we know that LSC(HK) is collaborating with DLSU.  I have also since learned that DLSU is part of the Catholic organisation Uniservitate, which has a strong connection with Dr. Nieves Tapia of CLAYSS in Argentina, and I got to know Nieves when I attended a CLAYSS conference in Argentina in 2016.  Looking back, it seems to me that I am destined to get to know DLSU. 

DLSU actually started their own SL program in 2010, almost at the same time that we started ours at PolyU.  They are very committed and have already done a lot.  There are similarities as well as differences between our programs.  From the discussions during and after our talk there, we will be talking, and collaborating, a lot more, hopefully.