50 Studes Attend Summer Fest In Davao City

Participants during the summer fest held at the Eden Nature's Park in Davao City.

Some 50 students from across the Philippines attended the Arts Module of the U.S. Embassy’s “Democracy Summer Fest: Engaging Filipino Youth on Democracy through Leadership, Civic Engagement, and the Arts” camp for youths in Davao City from May 10-14.

The Arts Module, the first of three five-day modules in the summer camp, was co-sponsored by the U.S. Embassy with the Commission on Higher Education, Cultural Center of the Philippines, and Commission on Human Rights and helped students explore how the arts can be used to promote democratic values and human rights awareness.

“[The camp] opened me to a lot of cultures because before I was so conservative and rigid, and here I learned how to accept different cultures, which is the essence of democracy,” said one participant Cyrene Kazandra N. Tumaliuan, from the University of Asia and the Pacific.

In the course of the workshop, each participant produced an original work that was displayed, read, or performed for a local audience. Here, performing arts students work on an exercise that develops listening and self-awareness skills, and teaches how movement by one person in a group can affect others.