Dr. Edgardo E. Tulin, VSU president, encouraged student-leaders to “connect, engage and inspire” during the annual TIME Congress, July 14, 2016.

About 200 attendees flocked the three-day leadership congress named TIME (acrostic for Train, Initiate, Manage, Explore), as patterned from DepEd’s Youth Lead Philippines. It aims to empower student leaders to exercise their leadership skills that are vital to the management of student organizations.

Connect
“Be leaders who can connect motion with emotion,” told Dr. Tulin, suggesting, that as student-leaders, they must do their tasks with compassion and respect the feelings of their members.

The president added, that in order for a leader to connect, he must improve his communication skills, make an effort to share knowledge and expertise more widely, develop a broader perspective and encourage cooperation rather than competition.

Engage
Dr. Tulin reminded everyone that the diversity in the campus and everyone’s engagement are necessary for the growth of the university. Being in a large community like VSU, one serious challenge to student organizations is to make their members feel involved.

He also added that a true leader is someone who enables the full potential of others, listens to others’ opinions and delegates members whom he can trust.

Inspire
The president ended his address by encouraging the student leaders to face the challenges, to win trust, to be authentic, to earn respect and to stay curious, thus, inspiring people.

The University Supreme Student Council (USSC), with the help from the University Student Services Office (USSO), filled the next two days with activities and topics including event management, finance handling, creation of documents, HIV-AIDS trends, student handbook, waste management, and a seminar on first-aid.

On the last day of the congress, the College Supreme Student Council (CSSC) presidents will elect officers for this school year’s USSC from among themselves.

This is the second iteration of the TIME Congress, organized by the USSC which is being held at VSU’s newly constructed Research, Development and Extension Hall.

The T.I.M.E. Congress is expected to end on the afternoon of July 16, Saturday.