Let’s go U.P.! Ahh.. I miss my university days a lot! When I go home and visit PH, I’ll definitely pay my alma mater a visit! It was difficult to swim my way through college, but after 4.5 years, I finally got to wear that sablay. 😉

The University of the Philippines, or Unibersidad ng Pilipinas, is the national university of PH. It was founded in 1908, and consists of 11 campuses nationwide and 1 virtual or open campus. UP Diliman is the main campus, and I will definitely write an entry about it later on. For now, let’s have a look at one of its constituents: the UP Los Baños. (UPLB). If I did not make it to the main campus, I’d probably study in UPLB as it is located in my hometown province.

A little background about the trip: It was a school visit with my buddy, Emman. We were disseminating flyers and letters to schools with DOST Scholars’ organizations re: the DOST Summit. The UPDOST Scholars’ Association, one of my orgs in UPD, holds a scholars’ summit annually. The summit presents lectures and workshops on jobseeking-related topics and current trends in science and technology.

Going back to UPLB, the campus was founded in 1909 and houses National Centers of Excellence and Development in the fields of Agriculture, Biology, Development Communication, Mathematics, Forestry, Agricultural Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Physics, Veterinary Medicine, Statistics, Electrical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering. It is the biggest UP constituent covering 15,000 hectares of campus land! UPD is only 493 hectares. 😛

Some local and international research centers are also located in UPLB, like the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the ASEAN Center for Biodiversity, the World Agroforestry Centre, and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA).

Just like UPD, UPLB houses museums, parks, and nature spots. There you can visit the Makiling Botanic Garden, Anatomy Musuem, Museum of Natural History, Mudsprings, Orchid Nursery, and Parasite Collection Center among others.

For more info and visiting programs, please visit the UPLB homepage: http://www.uplb.edu.ph/index.php/visitors-program

There’s much to see in UPLB. Tha fact that it lies at the foot and on Mount Makiling makes it an interesting destination. Plus, the weather is almost always nice (if not for the occasional rainshowers)! Too bad, we only had a couple of hours to stay there. ;(

Anyway, that’s it for UPLB. 🙂 Today, I bought pinayodyssey.com. Hope to get a better blogging experience later on.. 😉