The Corona virus will change us forever. According to the dictionary, a paradigm shift is defined as "an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way." Just as the Corona virus has shattered lives, disrupted markets, exposed the competence of leadership and systems of government, revealed ways we interact with each other and even with family members, blocked travel, changed our work and study habits, reshaped our eating, playing, and loving, and reframed our grocery shopping and errand running, COVID-19 is keeping everyone in their homes, perhaps for months, readjusting our relationship with the government, remolding our connections to the outside world, and even altering our relations with our God. For example, how will  Christians observe their holiest day if they cannot rejoice together on Easter morning since most churches will remain closed? How can Muslim people celebrate Ramadan if they cannot visit mosques for Tarawih prayers or gather with loved ones to break the feast? Almost all religions at some point in their history have faced challenges to spread their faith or to keep their faith alive under persecutions or war with one another, but never have all religions faced the same challenges at the same time. There is no doubt that COVID-19 is a matter of seriousness for all humanity, not just for the Chinese. Unfortunately, some of clerics are exploiting the issues and inciting their followers to extreme measures, failing to undergird their practice with their faith. Continue reading →

The world is at the war— a health war. Every nation is fighting for its survival. The enemy is not the other nations nor terrorism; it is an invisible enemy, the so called COVID-19. There has been a global spread with cases identified in 73 countries and tens of thousands of people testing positive for the virus. This is not a simple time for any of us, but it is an important time for media and journalism in the Philippines, as it is in the rest of the world, because we are maneuvering in uncharted territory. The coming weeks will be a test of our nation’s resilience, our health system’s sufficiency, and much more. It will also be a test for media and journalists’ ability to continue writing and distributing the news at a time of great personal and national uncertainty. Governments in 73 countries have announced or implemented the closure of educational institutions in an attempt to slow the spread of the disease. The media has been following every step of this problem with multiple stories, but several challenges  face the media during the Coronavirus outbreak, and they can play a role in containing the world health war and potentially saving a plethora of lives.Like many countries and companies across the globe, media can urge people to work from home and to self-quarantine. As countries move slowly to a shutdown and even a possible lockdown, media and journalists need more than ever to follow the news, to report the right balanced informations, to keep the public updated, and to ensure that our government officials operate knowing that there is public oversight. However, new information, new cases, new advice, and new restrictions have been challenging to know how to react. This constantly changing information not only makes it difficult to keep abreast of the story from a journalist’s perspective, but it also confuses anyone trying to follow the story. Continue reading →

Educators on all levels — teachers, principals, and superintendents — know the value of learning science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and of focusing on technology in education. Boles Independent School District (ISD) in Texas, USA has now had several successful years of robotics instruction in the middle school and high school. A majority of Boles IDS students have learned to program and to construct robots with the Lego and VEX EDR hardware. Partnering with Thompson Christian School (TCS), the Social Entrepreneurship Technology and Business Institute (SETBI) invited an engineer, Johnny Tharp, to hold a workshop at TCS on March 9^th, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th. 2020. Tharp assists in the robotics program at the Boles ISD. This year he mentored students who finished second in their state tournament and who qualified for the Create U.S. Open Championship and the VEX IQ World Championship. The workshop covered:

• Facilitation of VEX curriculum
• Basic construction techniques with VEX parts
• Methods of storage, instruction, and robotics classroom management
• Competitive strategies on how to build a robotics program
• Competitive strategies how to join VEX world championship
• Programming in both Vex coding and Vex Code
• Basic Autonomous Control

Participants learned how to program and to construct with two types of hardware. The workshop demonstrated the use of VEX IQ for competitive robotics. According to Engineer Johnny Tharp, “Robotics takes education technology to a new level, creating the next evolution in teaching. That’s because introducing robotics to schools means making STEM skills and knowledge hands-on and fun, to prepare students for the future in a way that feels more like creativity and less like homework. Robotics requires all of the subjects of STEM, so it’s a well-rounded approach to educational technology and learning.” Continue reading →

February 29, 2020

Minority Care International’s goal to raise awareness of the importance of giving was made possible through the community outreach project Tools for Schools. MCI’s scholars experienced the joy of giving by handing out school supplies, Projector,  to the College Education Behind Bars in Davao City Jail on February 29 ,2020. President of MCI’s  Student Association Andrea Cate Carteciano, MCISA Officers , Habail Shyra and Adil Theresa turned over the Schools and office supplies to College Education Behind Bars Vice President Attorney Susan Cariaga MCI teaches that giving is living and living is giving. This was MCI sixth batch of Tools for School in the Davao City Jail. The purpose of the project is to teach the recipients the value of education and to inspire them to become the hope and role model of their generation. MCI is not just giving scholarships and training them in life skills but also is teaching its scholars how to give back to the community. This was an opportunity for students  to return a blessing to the community and to model the values they learned in the MCI program. MCISA students did fund raised and they are the one who sponsored this year’s MCI annual Tools for School project at the jail. MCISA President Andrea said, “It made me feel amazing inside knowing that we were given the chance to give back to the community and see the smile on these students. MCI is making the world a better place.” She encouraged the inmates to continue to do the right thing and not to focus on the past but to learn lessons from it. Also, She urged them to trust the current process they have undertaken in terms of rehabilitation, etc. Living as a community means having a genuine relationship with our God and demonstrating His love and service from our core.  Continue reading →

Davao Del Norte State College (DNSC) and the Social Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Business Institute (SETBI) College Education Behind Bars sealed its partnership with a Memorandum of agreement signed by Dr. Aland Mizell, President of Social Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Business Institute (SETBI); Attorney Susan Cariaga, Vice President of SETBI; the Davao Del Norte State College ‘s President Dr.Joy M. Sorrosa; and Girley S. Gumanao, VP Academic and Research of DNSC, singed the Memorandum of Agreement on February 20,2020 , at the Davao Del Norte State College Conference room. Davao Del Norte State College ‘s President Dr.Joy M. Sorrosa (DNSC). “ we have commonality on purpose and aspiration for drug free Philippines. DNSC President Stated. “ We strongly believe, the drug problem is a social problem; therefore, it is everybody’s problem , and everybody has a responsibility and a role to play. PDL ‘s re-entry begin at the point of their entry into the Prison. And an effective rehabilitation program should be in placed before PDL’s transition from custody to into society and begin their new lives. This is what we believe at the College Education Behind Bars. Not only ensure that PDL serve their sentences in a safe , secure setting but also to return them to their communities and families as restored , reform , rehabilitated and law biding citizens. We have bene committed to changing lives, one inmate , one day, at a time. A variety of opportunity and outlets are devoted to the pre- release process at the College Education Behind Bars, four year college degree, recovery programs, Senior High Schools degree, Vocational training, faith based courses, life skills development help prepare e PDL for long term success.” Dr Mizell said.  Continue reading →

The US drone strike at Baghdad’s international airport that killed Major General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), has opened a new, yet in a sense an ongoing, Middle Eastern drama. There is an international outcry, and, of course, even Democrats are trying to whip up hatred for President Donald Trump for the killing of Qassem Soleimani. There is no question that Soleimani was at the top of Israel’s target list. Seemingly, Israel did not want to confront Iran directly but wanted the U.S to do its dirty work.  America has also had General Soleimani in its sight for a long time, but has always refused to kill him, fearing the consequences. Now Tehran has accused the United States of state terrorism, claiming that General Soleimani was a courageous, wise, rational visionary who engaged in a life long struggle to make the world a better and safer place for everyone. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the United States terrorist assassination of one of Iran’s top military commanders has, in fact, opened the gates to an ugly course of action which might sooner or later, come to haunt its people across the globe. However, President Trump stated that Soleimani was plotting “imminent and sinister attacks” on American diplomats and American personnel, but that we “caught the general in the act and terminated him. Soleimani led a shadowy elite military organization called the Quds Force. The U.S says that in recent months the group has backed Iraqi militia who have launched several attacks on U.S personnel, including a recent attempt to storm the American Embassy in Baghdad. The Pentagon reported last spring that between 2003 and 2019, Iranian militia, presumably led by Iran’s second in command, Suleimani, killed many  Americans, or 1 out of 6 combat related American deaths in Iraq. But leftist liberals disagree on how to characterize this killing, for example, questioning if what happened would be comparable to Iran killing a high ranking US military official or the director of our CIA with a bomb on US soil. The problem is that General Qassem was not on Iranian soil but rather on Iraqi soil when he was killed. In other words, leftist liberals are accusing America, specifically the Trump administration, of occupying a sovereign state, and thus, assuming authority to destroy its enemies in that role. Further, they question whether an actual attack on Americans was “imminent.” Continue reading →