November 29, 2022 — A total of 47 researches that tackled varied health topics and issues were presented at the 5th and first hybrid Graduate Students’ Colloquium conducted by the UP Manila National Graduate Office for the Health Sciences (NGOHS) with the Graduate Management Team (GMT) on Oct. 26-27. A panel of experts guided the student presenters in honing their presentation skills while the students interacted with faculty and fellow students about their findings, experimental design, and conclusions.
The studies presented delved on the following themes: rehabilitation sciences, health professions education, nursing, pharmaceutical sciences, public health, molecular biology, health policy, and microbiology and pharmaceutical sciences.
“We have proven in the past four editions how stimulating and fruitful the discussions can be and how collaborations within and across disciplines can shape up.
During the first day, NGOHS Director Dr. Leslie Michelle M. Dalmacio welcomed the participants. In a prerecorded message, Chancellor Carmencita D. Padilla said that the conference interactions are productive ways to process and finetune ideas and reach higher levels of clarity. “We have proven in the past four editions how stimulating and fruitful the discussions can be and how collaborations within and across disciplines can shape up. In such a setting, out-of-the box ideas are hatched and from the exchanges and interactions, who knows what novel projects will be conceived as creative insights come into play,” she noted.
In a plenary talk entitled “Journey to a PhD: Quo Vadis,” UP College of Medicine Dean Charlotte M. Chiong quoted Walter Elliot—”Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other,” as she described her journey to earning her Doctor of Philosophy. She narrated that she was interested in research in the United States but decided not to pursue it because she had to prioritize her medical studies. She asserted that she had no regrets in completing her studies.
This allowed her to gain more knowledge and began her research on postnatal maturation of human spinal ganglion cells debunking the theory that when a child is born, they already have the adult complement of all the different hair cells and nerves. Her talk concluded with a video of children who had cochlear implants being interviewed about their experiences, beginning with the first sound they heard and the continuing impact of hearing on them. She concluded by stating her mantra, “no one gets left behind.”
Erlyn Pareja
