{"id":31494,"date":"2018-03-28T12:30:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T04:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=31494"},"modified":"2018-03-28T12:30:43","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T04:30:43","slug":"student-org-named-tech-visionary-at-tayo-awards-for-efforts-to-revitalize-agri-through-biotech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2018\/03\/28\/student-org-named-tech-visionary-at-tayo-awards-for-efforts-to-revitalize-agri-through-biotech\/","title":{"rendered":"Student org named tech visionary at TAYO Awards for efforts to revitalize agri through biotech"},"content":{"rendered":"

For promoting and revitalizing the appreciation of agriculture among the youth, the University of the Philippines Genetic Researchers and Agricultural Innovators Society (UP GRAINS) from the University of the Philippines \u2013 Los Ba\u00f1os was recognized by Lenovo Philippines as an Outstanding Tech Visionary in this year\u2019s Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations (TAYO) 15 awards.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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From left: Dr. Erick Vernon Dy, Head-International Students Division, Office of Student Affairs, UPLB; Allen Nazareno, Head-Students Organization and Activities Division, Office of Student Affairs, UPLB; Maritess Mojica, Administrative Officer, Office of Student Affairs, UPLB; Camille Antonio, PR Manager, CID Communication (Lenovo Philippines\u2019 PR Agency); Atiana Inzon, UP GRAINS member; Albert Caraan, UP GRAINS member and Project Head of Lakbioteknolohiya Camarines Norte; Alexandrinne Pinca, UP GRAINS Secretary; Mark Mariano, UP GRAINS President<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Now on its 15th year, TAYO is considered the nation\u2019s premier search for outstanding youth organizations that have created a huge impact in addressing the country\u2019s pressing concerns.<\/p>\n

The Lenovo Outstanding Tech Visionary award is a special citation given to the organization\u00a0with the most meaningful project that addresses key issues through the innovative use of technology. For its project\u00a0Lakbioteknolohiya\u00a0(Lakbay-bioteknolohiya), UP GRAINS was chosen by Lenovo Philippines among this year\u2019s 20 TAYO Finalists. Together with the award, the organization was also given PHP 20,000 and a Lenovo laptop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith their project\u00a0Lakbioteknolohiya, UP GRAINS showed dedication and creativity in addressing the long-standing problem of the public\u2019s lack of interest in agriculture. This is in line with Lenovo\u2019s \u201cDifferent is Better\u201d philosophy that is built around a fundamental belief that innovation is the best way to address challenges and embrace progress,\u201d said\u00a0Lenovo Philippines Country General Manager Michael Ngan.<\/p>\n

Formed in 2014 by Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Biotechnology (BSABT) students, UP GRAINS is a service-oriented academic organization that promotes agriculture through various activities involving agricultural biotechnology.<\/p>\n

Lakbioteknolohiya\u00a0is an information and workshop drive held in high schools and communities where agriculture is the main source of income.<\/p>\n

Most of the lessons taught are from UPLB\u2019s curriculum, such as DNA extraction, Hydroponics, Plant Disease Diagnosis, and Fermentation Technology. Hands-on exercises on urban farming and agricultural biotechnology experiments are also included in the workshop, and all of these are geared towards improving agricultural production and maintain quality agro-environments.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs scholars,\u00a0and because UPLB is the only school that offers\u00a0a course in Agricultural Biotechnology, we took it upon ourselves to teach the masses the many benefits of agriculture and encourage them to engage in the practice,\u201d said\u00a0Albert Caraan, a member of UP GRAINS and the Project Head of Lakbioteknolohiya \u2013 Camarines Norte.<\/p>\n

The first division-wide edition of\u00a0Lakbioteknolohiya\u00a0saw members of the organization teaching in the province of Camarines Norte, where an estimated number of 300 students and teachers participated. After the project, Caraan revealed that the participants used the knowledge that they obtained to conduct their own research and activities in order to help improve their region\u2019s agriculture. This came in the form of published investigatory papers and modern gardens with hydroponically grown crops, which provides better yield.<\/p>\n

But for Caraan, the most important takeaway from the project is the renewed interest among the youth to take up agriculture in the future, both in college and as a career option.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing the students\u2019 willingness to take up agriculture-related courses really made our day, as this has been objective ever since we began in 2014 \u2013 to promote agriculture in order to attain a very strong agricultural sector in the near future. Despite being a country that heavily relies on agriculture, the number of students taking agriculture-related courses has unfortunately dwindled throughout the years, and the sector badly needs more people,\u201d said Caraan.<\/p>\n

Lenovo has been the exclusive technology partner of the TAYO Awards Foundation since 2012. Aside from providing the selection committee laptops and tablets to be used throughout the awarding process, Lenovo also awards all declared 10 Outstanding Youth Organizations a Lenovo laptop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are honored to be once again partners with the TAYO Foundation, and we congratulate the TAYO Awards for reaching 15 years. At Lenovo, we always strive for innovation, and every year we look forward to see how the various youth organizations work together to make the world a better place. Our partnership with the TAYO Foundation gives us the perfect opportunity to help these organizations achieve their goals,\u201d said Ngan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For promoting and revitalizing the appreciation of agriculture among the youth, the University of the Philippines Genetic Researchers and Agricultural Innovators Society (UP GRAINS) from the University of the Philippines \u2013 Los Ba\u00f1os was recognized by Lenovo Philippines as an Outstanding Tech Visionary in this year\u2019s Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations (TAYO) 15 awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":31495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[645,5917,312,3431,3434,5915,5916],"class_list":["post-31494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-csr","tag-lakbioteknolohiya","tag-lenovo","tag-tayo-awards","tag-ten-accomplished-youth-organizations","tag-university-of-the-philippines-genetic-researchers-and-agricultural-innovators-society","tag-up-grains"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}