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The major takeaway that this course has given me is that poverty should never be viewed through a single perspective only. This realization was revealed to me during the online engagements for NSTP when I learned to apply the participatory and capabilities approach to poverty. Above all, I appreciated most how I was able to integrate both PSYC 25 and SocSc 13 concepts in order to understand the developmental context of our partner institution. I saw how poverty affects cognitive and socio-emotional development through journal articles and the online engagements. Although it is unfortunate that NSTP was held online and much of the “immersion experience” was not available to us, I feel that the online engagements were still fruitful as we were able to identify what approach to poverty is applicable, sustainable development goals, and other relevant interventions needed. Ultimately, the course proved itself relevant as the Philippines continues to endure economic challenges not only during the present but for the years to come.

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I believe that my NSTP engagement aimed to highlight the essence of our privilege. As my group mates and I interacted with our partner community, we were able to see the stark difference between our current living conditions versus theirs. For one, we saw how much the partner community valued their education. The students that we interacted with enthusiastically talked about how excited they were whenever they could learn something new and share it with their community. This was in contrast to how we can sometimes take our education for granted in such a way that we would sometimes complain about all the work we had to do given that it was a standard for us to have. However, we clearly saw how the students tried to overcome every obstacle standing in their way with respect to their access to education– for example, the partner community provides them with educational materials to supplement their learning amidst the online setting (i.e. asynchronous modules, load for better internet connectivity).

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As someone who has never been fond of Economics, I initially had a myriad of apprehensions coming into this course. However, throughout the duration of this course alongside the NSTP engagements, I slowly found myself unravelling vast realities I was previously unaware of. One of the biggest takeaways I’ve had is that of poverty being such a complex and nuanced issue. Prior to this course, I initially saw poverty as something that had a systemic nature to it and that the way to address this issue would be to have a reform of the system. However, certain topics presented throughout the course - such as the different parameters and paradigms - helped me come to the realization that there will always be different ways to view poverty. Poverty does not simply exist in the lack of financial aid, but rather, spans through a vast number of quandaries.

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I feel that it's easy to say how incompetent the government or our administration has been with not just dealing with the pandemic, but also leading the country. And while it is easy to pin point a few examples, the lessons in SocSc definitely gave me a much more in-depth view of the struggles of our country, and how we can potentially fix them. From the different frameworks like the Monetary Approach, to Sustainable Development Goals, to learning about different policies - all of these lenses have been used to determine the factors as to why the Philippines has struggled with issues such as poverty or poor quality education. It was also through these lenses that we were able to identify the problems our partner communities were facing, and formulating systematic and feasible solutions for them through the approaches and ideas given by SocSc. Thanks to this class, I have a better and more descriptive idea of the happenings in my country.

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One of the greatest learnings from this course was how important it is to look at social issues in different angles to understand them in a deeper sense. More often than not, whenever we encounter a problem, we would go for a quick solution. But in reality, there is always a need to pause and analyze the problem in order to come up with a proper solution to get rid of the main cause of the  problem encountered. This subject tied-in with NSTP gave me the opportunity to listen and engage with other people. I was able to understand them more and in a way see the differences and the surprising similarities we all had in common. This course was definitely an eye-opening one. It allowed all of us to understand the depth of some of the social issues we face in the Philippines. I just hope that we also tackled a bit more on how Psychology plays in the development in a country. Overall, I enjoyed this class:D

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In this course and in NSTP, I learned that there is so much more than meets the eye when it comes to issues just like poverty. I used to have a lot of opinions of how the government handles the situation but now I realized that it isn't exactly black and white. Rather, there are so many perspectives that need to be applied and take into account.

I think that this class really taught me how to take careful attention to concepts because it may come off as hard to understand but is essential in the bigger picture. I am glad to have taken the class and I am even more grateful to have learned it from you, Sir Mayo! Thank you!

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My greatest learning is that development entails more than the productivity aspect. It takes into consideration several approaches such as social, political, and holistic development of individuals and societies. Though are different theories in order to help people alleviate from poverty, conversing with them is still one of the most fundamental steps as we can to know their needs through this method. This is applicable in our online engagements in which we got to know them first before supplementing a module that will help them in the long run.

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Through the course and NSTP, I have realized that the country still has so much to improve when it comes to sustainable development, specifically in terms of health. Along with the faulty approach of the government to the pandemic, mental health is still not given enough importance in the country. This is something the country, as a whole, should start prioritizing and given value, for it also affects one's productivity.

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One of my biggest takeaway learnings from the course was the significance of the Agricultural sector in the Philippines. I had always known that it was important to promote the well-being of our farmers, as people who bring the food to our table despite increasingly deplorable circumstances; but learning about how well suited the Philippines is to exporting agriculture, the tariff laws that have deterred our produce, and the cycles that farmers undergo from owning rural farmland, selling it out of debt, to becoming migrant dwellers in the urban sector was simultaneously intriguing yet demoralizing to learn. I believe that this shows the strengths of the course, in how it breaks down trivial concepts like agriculture or intimidating topics like government allocation, and brings the discussion back to seeing how this takes place in our country—even applying it in our NSTP engagements. I would have liked to look into how the other sectors, namely the service and industrial ones, fit into the picture so I can get a sharper idea for how our budget is managed around what we feel is most important, along with how they might contribute to instances of poverty trapping. Nevertheless, this was a course that was equally challenging and enjoyable to go through, and I'm thankful that I was guided well enough to be able to apply my learnings competently so I may remember them in the future. Thank you, Sir Mayo! :)

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My greatest takeaway from this course is how much of a weapon education is, because no one can take it from us. And because of the privilege that we have to be studying in Ateneo, we should use what we learn to help the marginalized sectors and equip them with life skills that will help them get more opportunities. In relation to our engagements with NSTP, we saw how much of an impact we made to our assigned students. Initially, they were unsure of what they wanted to do, but towards the end of our sessions they seemed more confident about their responsibilities.

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The greatest learning I had from this course is how behind our country is with regards to sustainable development. It's easily observable after the NSTP engagements as the community pointed out their housing situations, life at home, quality of education, and financial instability, to name a few.

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I really saw the stark difference of how the pandemic affected different classes in different ways! There’s always been a general conception of how the pandemic has been a rlly big hassle for everyone but the participants shared how the pandemic somehow benefitted them pa and everything and how they went abt the shift to an online set up, so that was an eye opener as to how different classes experience things in different ways

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I think the module I probably learned the most from was module 2 and everything it had to say about understanding and attempting to solve poverty. Especially being tied to NSTP this semester, I gained a lot of insight into what poverty really looks like and why it continues to persist and even worsen for many people. I already knew going into the module that poverty was way more than people just being poor and a lot of societal factors and systems went into keeping them oppressed and away from attaining a good life, but the course helped me learn what exactly those systems look like and why people even continue to support them knowing that they harm others.

Regarding you and the course, I found the detailed async material in each module to be immensely helpful as someone who can’t concentrate during synchronous sessions either from info overload or external distractions. The far out deadlines were also really helpful because not only were they easy to work with but they also gave time for actual thought on how to answer the activity based on our learnings.

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My greatest learning from the course was the difference between economic growth and economic development and the need for us and the government to focus on growing and sustaining our economic development and judging solely on economic income is a setback more than anything else especially in the long term. From the NSTP I learned the importance to empower our youth and to use what resources we have to help develop a healthy form of empowerment.

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My greatest learning from this course is that addressing development in the Philippines is by no means as simple as "just don't be poor". Understanding the things that are happening in country involves touching upon many different things that move society. But I think that helps with ultimately trying to make a change to ensure better lives for all people who experience many kinds of hardship.

Personally, I found it difficult to think about topics remotely related to psychology and other subjects out of my comfort zone. Even so, this course has taught me to be more open-minded and try to appreciate learning about these things.

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Ending the country's struggle with poverty requires the combined efforts of every Filipino who are willing to give their all without thinking of the price they have to pay. I've realized that there are issues and problems that are invisible to privileged eyes—and helping isn't only bound in the classroom or semester because we can always reach out to those who are in need regardless of our circumstances.

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My greatest learning from this course is how important it is that we remain knowledgeable and aware of what is happening in our society and to use our capabilities to empower others.