Now on its 5th year, the USTv Students’ Choice Awards, launched last November 14 at the UST Plaza Mayor, saw special appearances and performances from the artists of different television networks, Studio 23 VJs Gabby dela Merced and Judah Paolo among others.
This season’s USTv was organized by the Student Organizations Coordinating Council and the Central Student Council, in cooperation with the Office of the Secretary General and the Office for Student Affairs.
The event also featured he Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) Director Consoliza La Guardia, who hoped for a better future for the university’s media industry . Performances from different organizations of the university were showcased at the variety show, the highlight of which were the theatrical performance of the Conservatory of Music’s Music Education Production and the back to back performance of the Yellow Jackets and the Salinggawi Dance Troupe.
Gabby dela Merced and Judah Paolo hosted a game which gave away movie tickets to the students. Denise Laurel appeared later to mingle with the Thomasian community. The Faculty of Arts and Letters’ very own Communication Arts professor and one of Shake TV5’s Executive Producers Faye Martel-Abugan came up the stage to introduce the cast of the network’s Wednesday gag show, Ogag which was then followed by an AVP of their current and upcoming shows. The castaways of GMA7’s reality show Survivor Philippines also came up the stage to share their stories and give away freebies. The program closed with performances from GMA7’s talent Mark Herras, who showed-off his dance moves and Pinoy Idol’s Jay Ann Bautista who sang for the crowd. A video presenting greetings from GMA network’s Thomasian alumni was shown in between the performances from their talents.
Booths for the popular programs of the participating TV networks such as GMA 7’s Survivor Philippines and TV5’s Talentadong Pinoy were set up in the event venue in order to give the students the opportunity to participate with the networks through photography sessions with the artists and auditions for talent search.
Despite the presence of energy and amusement in the Thomasian crowd, the organizers and hosts clarified that the real essence of the event was to bring media awareness to the youth. The host explained that the USTv Students’ Choice Awards “is not a showbiz award show ….it focuses on the significant contents of the shows”. In that sense, it is media literacy that the awards promote. One of the messages that the event would want to impart is that media constructs reality and it is everyone’s role to take responsibility of what we are viewing by careful selection of television programs.
Also, in line with the launch of the USTv Awards is the opening of the series of exhibit on the different college lobbies of the university. The first will be on November 17-21 at the Beato Angelico Building Lobby and shall be followed at the Education Building Lobby on November 24-28, at the St. Raymund’s Building Lobby on December 1-5, and lastly at the Tan Yan Kee Building Lobby on December 8-12.
The 5TH USTv Students Choice Awards Kickoff’s live coverage was aired on NBN 4, RPN 9, and IBC 13.
