Silliman University (SU) celebrates its 122nd Founders Day on August 28, 2023 through a month-long celebration centered around the theme, “Embracing the Future as God’s Gift.”
Dr. Elizabeth Susan Vista-Suarez, College of Performing and Visual Arts dean and co-chair of the 122nd Founders Day Committee, said the theme was conceptualized to “bring forth goodness,” to “move forward, leaving behind the mess the pandemic wrought,” and to “fully embrace the future with open minds and open hearts.”
“(The theme) is a proclamation of God’s unending faithfulness in our lives, [making us] confident, assured, and excited that in the future, there is that present, that gift, awaiting that final moment to be unwrapped,” she added.
The celebration officially kicked off last August 6 with a worship service at the SU Church. Dr. Margaret Helen Alvarez, Graduate School dean, served as the guest preacher.
In Alvarez’s sermon, titled “For the Living of these Days,” she talked about serenity, courage, and wisdom to find meaning and inspiration in the present and future.
The official logo for this year’s Founders Day celebration was designed by Jami Belle Jareño, an incoming second-year Psychology student who was the winner of the Founders Day logo competition.
The design, said Jareño, features hands connecting to a symbol of the SU Church, which “represents the University’s culture of excellence and virtue of prosperity embracing its heritage while pursuing the future as God’s gift to its stakeholders.”
University administrators, faculty, staff, students, and alumni also honored Dr. David and Mrs. Laura Hibbard, who established SU in 1901, through the annual floral offering ceremony last August 10.
Highlights of this year’s celebration include the 61st Outstanding Sillimanian Awards, with five alumni to be recognized for their exemplary character and contribution to their respective fields; the induction ceremony of U-BIX Corporation to the Order of Horace Brinsmade Silliman, through its president, Atty. Edilberto B. Bravo; the annual Parada Sillimaniana and Unity Prayer; the 77th Miss Silliman Pageant; 107th anniversary of the SU Church; and Balik Talent lectures of expert alumni, among others.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa and Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo are guest speakers in two events: a lecture and book launch on press freedom on August 24, and the first grand alumni homecoming and general assembly of the SU Law Alumni Association, Inc. on August 26, respectively.
The student-led Hibalag Booth Festival also has a lineup of activities until August 29, starting with the Parade of Lights on August 19.
Considered a time for reunions, the Founders Day celebration includes various alumni gatherings, including the grand reunion concert of the SU Campus Choristers on August 24 which will feature internationally recognized opera singers Arthur Espiritu and Sal Malaki, and acclaimed Sillimanian ethnomusicologist Priscilla Magdamo-Abraham.
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Photo Caption: Students place flowers at Dr. David Sutherland Hibbard’s statue and Mrs. Laura Hibbard’s photo.
