“Pursue something worth sacrificing for.”

This is the mantra of 23-year-old Allen Glen C. Gil, a fresh graduate of VSU who is now serving as the youngest faculty member of the Department of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering (DABE).

Mr. Gil was recently awarded as the Most Outstanding Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Student for 2020 dubbed as the Young Maramba Award.

This recognition is the highest national award for agricultural and biosystems engineering students given by the Philippine Society of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineers (PSABE).

Mr. Gil applied last year and received the award during this year’s virtual 70th PSABE National Convention held on April 28, 2021.

Just like many of the things Allen enjoys in life, this was not handed to him on a silver platter rather it was something he devoted himself to.

As an undergraduate student, Allen was involved in various organizations that developed high-impact extension work for the community.

To name some of them, he was the President of the Philippine Society of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineers - Pre-Professional Group Visayas State University Chapter (PSABE-PPG VSUC) from 2016 to 2017.

In the next school year, he was elected as the National Secretary of the PSABE-PPG and as the President of the Terrestrial and Aquatic Restorations by Students Immersed in Environmental Reforms (TARSIER).

He graduated in June 2020 as Cum Laude and as the recipient of the highly-coveted VSU Leadership Award, proving his capabilities as a trusted student leader with great academic standing.

In an interview, Mr. Gil is humbled to receive yet another national recognition.

“I learned very early on throughout my college life that all of us are capable of creating positive impacts, no matter how small they are. Guided by this principle, I strived to pursue not only academic excellence but also student leadership and community development roles to apply the things I know from school and my other international exposures”, Mr. Gil explained. 

Other awards he won include the Most Outstanding Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Student Leader Award accorded to him in 2019 by the PSABE in the 69th edition of their annual national convention in April 2020.

With this back-to-back recognition, he became the second Viscan to win both the Young Maramba Award and the Most Outstanding Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Student Leader Award, following Engr. Jessie James D. Layan.

Now he is continuously engaged in various youth organizations that are geared towards climate and environmental action, civic engagement, and sustainable development in Eastern Visayas and beyond.

Recently, he led a team of Viscan volunteers called #TabangPH with membership spread across Region 8 who provided relief at the start of the pandemic by distributing do-it-yourself face shields, face masks, and home-made disinfectants when supplies of these materials were still very limited and mostly unavailable for public use.

Because of their prompt and community-based actions, #TabangPH was selected as one of the 20 finalists for the 2020 edition of the Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations (TAYO).

In his student years, he was also given the chance to travel the world to learn and showcase his youth leadership skills by being part of various international grants. He was an exchange student fellow for almost a year at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) from October 2018 to August 2019.

He was also the official Philippine delegate to the 2018 Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Regional Workshop held in Vietnam, the Philippine delegate to the Youth in Landscapes Workshop during the Global Landscapes Forum held in Germany, and has also represented the country in the 2019 ASEAN+3 Youth Environment Forum (AYEF) held in Thailand.

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