UPLB through the Learning Resource Center (LRC) is set to recruit aspiring UPLB students on Siargao Island for the first leg of the Recruitment Program for the Best and the Brightest (RPBB) this year on April 22, 2024.

LRC is mandated to institutionalize and sustain the RPBB to bring the best and the brightest students in the country to UPLB, democratize access to education in UP as the country’s national university, and promote inclusive and equitable quality education in underserved and underrepresented communities outside Metro Manila and Laguna.

The RPBB also aims to increase enrollment in UPLB, particularly in its three pioneer colleges of agriculture, forestry, and veterinary medicine.

All senior high school students on Siargao Island will be invited to learn more about UPLB’s degree programs, scholarship opportunities, financial assistance programs, and student services at Siargao National Science High School in Dapa and Del Carmen National High School in Del Carmen.

Scheduled to share academic information about and potential career opportunities of UPLB degree programs are Dr. Veneranda A. Magpantay, college secretary of the College of Agriculture and Food Science; Dr. Rosalie C. Mendoza, college secretary of the College of Forestry and Natural Resources; Dr. Rio John T. Ducusin, chairperson of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences of the College of Veterinary Medicine; and Mary Joy J. Ancheta, teaching associate at the Department of Community and Environmental Resource Planning of the College of Human Ecology.

Francisco N. De Los Reyes, director of the UP Office of Admissions, will guide the students through the UP admission process, including the UP College Admission Test (UPCAT).

UPCAT applications for new first-year students for Academic Year 2025-2026 will open on April 15, 2024, making the RPBB more timely and significant.

To encourage more students to pursue their college education at UPLB, Office of Scholarships and Grants (OSG) Director Ariel L. Babierra and LRC OIC Director Gonzalo H. Amante, Jr. will present an overview of available financial assistance programs at OSG, as well as student support services offered by LRC and the UPLB Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.

LRC started visiting various provinces in the country in 2015 to enlighten more high school students on the advantages of studying at UPLB.

At the start of the pandemic in 2020, the team shifted to online recruitment in response to requests from the UP Rural High School and the Philippine Science High School-Cagayan Valley Campus for career orientation for their Grades 11 and 12 students.

A total of 2,766 students nationwide attended LRC’s online RPBB series, the “Nowhere to Go but U.P.! UPLB Recruitment for the Best & the Brightest Webinar Series” in January and November 2021, and “The Future is B.R.I.G.H.T! Build, Revitalize, and Innovate for a Greater Humanity Tomorrow” in October 2022.
LRC held the RPBB in person again last year in Cagayan, Dinagat Islands, Nueva Vizcaya, and Palawan. Under the banner of the RPBB, LRC also led the career trip for UP Integrated School students at the UPLB campus on February 19, 2024. (Jennina Marie Mora)