GENERAL Santos City is where I finished my pre-school, elementary, and secondary education. Nine years ago, I stepped out from this institution after high school.

It was a big surprise when I happened to see the transformation of my Alma Mater from a small institution to a growing community during the launching of its 25th Anniversary on July 3.

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It was a crisp Friday morning when I joined the silver anniversary celebration of Holy Trinity College (HTC), also the former school of matinee idol Gerald Anderson, who plays the role of David Garcia Jr., on ABS-CBN's top-rating show "Tayong Dalawa" and the home of several champions and "stars" of General Santos.

During the event, a state of the school address (Sosa) was delivered by the school's president, Rey T. Albano, who is also a member of the board of director of the Regional Association of Higher Education Institutions, and vice president of the General Santos City TVET Association.

Though the school has transformed in terms of infrastructure development over the past several years, HTC's visions still lie on pursuing quality education for all.

Albano, in his Sosa, said that HTC has a number of accomplishments, especially last school year 2008-2009.

"Our accomplishments are the outcome of concerted efforts between our school, our stakeholders and partners. These accomplishments are milestones which were made possible by our unified action and untiring dedication to affect best practices and affect life-giving values in society through our various programs and projects. These outcomes are founded on the school's visions to provide quality, accessible, and relevant education," Albano said.

He said the school has proven its worth in the aspect of quality and excellence through the accomplishments of its students in different fields. A few of its faculty also represented the school in various seminars and programs outside the country.

The school is also active in city government-sponsored activities, such as the Yaman Gensan, Gensan Tuna Festival Culinary Expo, and Pasko sa Gensan.

In last year's Yaman Gensan, the school's College of Business Education topped in some competitions including the Business Plan Competition, the Best Product Competition, and the Best Dressed Booth Competition.

The BSHRM, on its first year, under the College of Business Management Education, also ended up as the over-all winner or champion as it bagged the first place in cake decoration, first place in table setting, and second place in market basket competition during the Gensan Tuna Festival Culinary Expo, while the Basic Education was recognized as the first place in Choral Competition and second place in Pavilion Competition during the Pasko Sa Gensan celebration.

"On licensure examination and national certifications, the school has continuously shown its leadership in its Criminology program making us the number one in Mindanao in the Criminology licensure examination performance given last April 2009," the school president said.

For the school year 2010-2011, HTC will be offering new programs to cater to the demand of industries that have continued to grow in Gensan.

"We will be offering Master in Science in Criminology, BS in Accounting Technology, and BS in Entrepreneur. We already opened a new course, the BS and Hotel Management and ladderized our BS Computer Science Program in 2008-2009 under the Ladderization Program of the Tesda and Ched," the president said.

Also, the school offers BS in Information Technology and the Barangay Health Services NC2 and Pharmacy Services NC2 under the Tesda Program this school year.

Albano said the College of Business Administration has additional programs also being offered starting this school year. These are the Accounting Management in the Graduate School, and the Major in MA Education major in Filipino.

To give better service to the students and its stakeholders, the school also undertook several renovations and improvements of its existing facilities.

"The school purchased a P2.1 million worth of computers and equipment for IT improvement and upgrading. This year, they have a budget of P1.5 million for additional IT facilities. The libraries spent around P1 million to increase library collections to include visual aids. They will be given the same budget this year," Albano said, adding that a total of P.6 million was also spent for the Science and other laboratory equipment to include HRM facilities.

HTC does not only strive for quality and excellence, relevance and responsiveness, but also works to become more efficient and effective.

"Last June 16, 2008, the regional office of the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) presented to us the findings of the Institutional Quality Assurance thru Monitoring and Evaluation (Iquame) that Holy Trinity passed the Category B as a Developing Institution in the Philippines. We are the first to be recognized in that category in Region 12," Albano shared.

Aside from being the first which is recognized as "Category B" by Ched, Holy Trinity College was also the first ever private school in General Santos City with Bureau of Immigration (BI) accreditation. This means that the school is legitimate to accept regular foreign students. The certificate of accreditation from the BI was granted to the school last month.

As compared to last year's record, Albano asserted that the school had a significant number of increase in its enrollees.

"Total enrolment last year was 3,775 and the total population as of today is 3,865," he said. "As we improve our enrolment, we as well increase the opportunity of our students to go to school by giving more scholarships. The school spent almost P4million for institutional scholars like entrance scholars, honors, family discounts, trinitarian auxiliary, band, outreach, and athletics."

Albano also announced that the school be using a new school seal. Including in the seal is the form of a "U" shape, "indicating the school's ultimate goal of elevating the status of the school to a university."