Maria Cecilia Tena's Profile

by Ma. Rosalina Flores

“The school represents the students and the students represent the school.”

Polytechnic University of the Philippines, located at Sta. Mesa, Manila is popular for having the lowest tuition fee among the universities and colleges in the Philippines. And one of its most prestigious colleges is the College of Communication, the very first communication school to pass the Level 3 Accreditation in AACCUP history. Accompanied by the college’s achievements are the increasing enrollees yearly, a sign that many students develop a desire of being a media practitioner and a communication disciple someday. But the question is, what really provokes the students to choose a communication career?
To have an idea about profiles of the COC students, I did an interview with Maria Cecilia S. Tena. She is 18 years old and is a third year student taking up Bachelor in Broadcast Communication at Polytechnic University of the Philippines. According to Ms. Tena, her choice of taking up Mass Communication was influenced by her father. When she was young, her father used to watch news while she wanted cartoons. They usually had an argument about where channel should the television be tuned. Because of that everyday exposure to news programs, her father started to give her a background about the works of reporters, their salaries, the incentives they gain and how her father really admire them with all his heart. From then on, Ms. Tena developed the desire of being a reporter someday and being the one to watch by her father on television. As time passed by, her knowledge about media became broader which really boost her urge of being part of it up to the point she graduated from high school and started her journey within the jungle of PUP College of Communication
For her almost three years of stay in COC, she already encountered and passed different kinds of subjects in their curriculum. The course curriculum contained production subjects such as: Audio Video Techniques, TV Production, Radio Production, Drama and Theater Arts, and Multimedia Productions and Editing which gave her the background of what is it like to work on media; and intellectual subjects such as: Writing for TV, Writing for Radio, and Online Journalism which practice her ability on writing scripts and news articles. But Ms. Tena preferred more production subjects than intellectual subjects because she found enjoyment and fulfillment when she came up with a good production results like music videos, romantic flicks and stage plays. When it comes to professors, Ms. Tena told me that COC has both the effective and non-effective professors. There are strict professors that give burden to students as well as very kind members of the faculty who really serve the students all the materials that will help them in their easier learning of the subject. Although this is the situation, Ms. Tena can tell that COC still excels in the business because there are many PUP-COC graduates who are now successful and working on media. On the other pole, the PUP-COC still needs improvement especially in terms of the facilities. Ms. Tena suggested that the college must provide enough electric fans and well-lighting within the COC to speed up the learning of the students. She also added that it’s nice to study if you are in a nice and well-ventilated institution.
After interviewing Ms. Tena, I came up to the conclusion that PUP-COC students are satisfied with the kind of education they get from the institution. Go COC---the certified outstanding college! Reach higher COCIANS!