Non-teaching Personnel (NTP) from across all offices of the Naga College Foundation, Inc. (NCF) convened on Monday, October 20, for the NTP Orientation 2025: Research and Extension in Action, held at the Graduate Studies Library, NCF Main Campus.
Driven by the theme, “Empowering Tigers: From Knowledge to Service, From Research to Impact,” the Research and Extension Office (REO) guided employees through the nuances of research and extension services to involve the NTP in action beyond their administrative duties.
Mr. Nikko N. Ricafrente, Coordinator of the Community Extension Services (CES), shed light on the frameworks, policies, and programs that REO implements with partner communities and organizations.
A key part of the forum’s discussion focused on recalibrating the employees on the institution’s community flagship initiative, the ‘MELCHOR Program’ (Mobilizing, Environmental, Livelihood, Capacity Building, Health and Sanitation, Outreach, and Responsible Nation-building), which is composed of multi-sector programs consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Project HANDOG (Hatid-Alay, Nagmamahal, Dalangin, Oras, Gabay), a component of the MELCHOR program, will serve as the NTP outreach initiative focused on providing assistance to partner communities through outcome-based assessment and impact analysis.
Mr. Ricafrente stated that the NTP will spearhead the project, demonstrating their “heartfelt commitment to the community” and symbolizing the institution’s “unwavering dedication to the betterment of our community, where love, assistance, and guidance come together in harmony.”
Mr. Ricafrente also affirmed that “when non-teaching personnel participate in community extension services, they become co-educators in the truest sense.”
“It helps the institution educate not only through instruction, but through compassion, service, and action,” Ricafrente added.
Meanwhile, Mr. Arnel P. Balid, Jr., Career and Placement Coordinator, corroborated the remarkable impact of volunteerism, calling it “the heart of community extension services” that strengthens the program’s success and contributions.
Mr. Balid added that because “volunteerism is of one’s own accord,” the resulting cause or intention achieves the greatest pleasure and fulfillment in outreach triumph.
On the other hand, with the institution’s continuous focus on research and development, Dr. Ronel B. Simon, Research Director, unveiled the NCF 2025 Research Agenda, which calls on stakeholders and partners to vow to robust research in health, education, engineering, criminology, governance, socio-economics, and information technology.
Dr. Simon demystified the research fundamentals and technicalities vital for paper proposals and publication, officially inviting the NTP into the NCF “research fellowship” initiative by highlighting its opportunities, incentives, and innovative outcomes that foster career development.
Present during the orientation were Ms. Teenarose O. Castroverde, Vice President for Administrative and Institutional Affairs, and Ms. Ma. Elisa B. Arendaing, Human Resource Management Office (HRMO) Director, who both thanked the NTP for their receptiveness to the institution’s development in research and extension. | via Jeric Nuñez