IN just seven years, Mapúa Malayan Colleges Mindanao (MMCM) transformed the education and academic landscape in the Davao Region.
Through its innovations for the learning and growth of students, MMCM truly made a mark, thus it being above the competition.
To celebrate its foundation, Mapúa MCM successfully pulled off the 7th Foundation Week last December 4 - 9, 2022, highlighting the school’s innovations, talent pool, and camaraderie among the members of the Mapúa MCM community.
“We really prepared for this because this will be the first time we will be celebrating our foundation, we did not celebrate in 2019. It’s the first and it is timely as our students are back to campus and they’re all excited to showcase their talents. We plotted activities for a week-long celebration,” Flora Mae C. Yparraguire, Mapúa MCM’s High School Principal/Foundation Chair said.
The celebration kicked off with the unveiling of the school’s logo to strengthen its rebrand from its former name Malayan Colleges Mindanao, a Mapúa School.
Mapúa MCM President and CEO Dr. Dodjie S. Maestrecampo said the rebrand is to establish that Mapúa MCM’s brand of education is aligned with the academic and technological excellence constantly carried through by its mother school for decades.
Mapúa MCM was founded in December 2015 but operations started in 2018. At present, Mapúa MCM has over 5,000 students in its Junior, Senior High, and College divisions.
Throughout the week-long festivities, students and the whole school community were treated to various events and performances, including bazaars, talent competitions, pet show, e-games, fun run, cosplay parade, and the first search for Mr. & Ms. Mapúa MCM - all in line with the celebration’s theme: Building Future Ready, Resilient Learners through Research and Innovations.
Yparraguire shared that they intend to keep this to be a part of the Mapúa MCM annual tradition.
Milestones, gains through the years
Before the pandemic forced the country’s education system to implement blended learning, Mapúa MCM has been doing it for years ahead.
“We pioneered blended learning in Mindanao. For the past years, we have strived to improve our facilities to attune to the changing educational needs of students and make them comfortable as much as possible, especially when they learn remotely,” Engr. Alejandro H. Ballado Jr., Mapúa MCM’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer said.
The school has been successful in creating Flexible Learning Ubiquitous eXperience (FLUX) classrooms, an instructional approach that allows students to choose how they would participate in a class where each class session and learning activity is offered in-person, synchronously online, and asynchronously online. It has been received positively by students and parents.
Moving forward
Ballado said the school is now planting seeds as it aspires to be a university. For the next school year (2023-24), Mapúa MCM will open its College of Health Sciences offering Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy and Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy.
The opening of new programs is one of the steps seen by the school to be a more comprehensive learning institution beyond architecture, engineering, IT, and business courses.
At present, the school has four colleges: College of Arts and Science; College of Engineering and Architecture; College of Information & Science; and College of Business.
“Two years from now, we are also eyeing BS in Nursing and BS in Dentistry. We also intend to open the College of Medicine. It’s all part of the pipeline in the next seven to 10 years as we aspire to be a university,” Ballado said.
Earlier this year, the school forged an alliance with Arizona State University (ASU) to access learning content developed by ASU and its professors, especially for its business programs and eventually health sciences programs.
“We are also setting up our global classrooms and laboratories. It is basically conducting classes for students worldwide. Applications for the summer immersion program with ASU have recently been opened for students,” Maestrecampo said.
As Mapúa MCM continues to open its doors to learners, the school is committed to providing effective education and efficient learning experience for its students. ASP