Text by Mary Antoinette M Magallanes | All photos by Marco Villanueva
Xavier University - College of Agriculture celebrated its 28th Manresa Days from August 19-22 at the Manresa Farm.
This year’s theme, “Agriculture at the Center Year 2” further strengthened the college’s aim to bring agriculture’s important role front and center.
“We want to emphasize the centrality of agriculture in our daily lives,” says Dr Maria Rosario Mosqueda, dean of XUCA.
A mass at the University Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and an opening program, which included an interpretative dance competition, at the Manresa Farm kicked off the four-day celebration. The opening program was graced by students, faculty and staff from the College of Agriculture and XU president Fr Roberto C Yap.
Yap recalled the great contribution of Fr William Masterson in the establishment of the College of Agriculture.
“He [Fr Masterson] said, when he came here, that ‘We have to set up a school of agriculture.’ He was a great visionary looking for world development, saying that agriculture is really the center for the development of the island of Mindanao and of the whole country, and that insight is still very true until today.”
Yap added that he is “very happy that among all the Ateneos, only Xavier University- Ateneo de Cagayan has an agriculture school.”
The Manresa Days celebration is not limited to the XUCA community but is an event for all. In fact, guests, visitors from other colleges, and students from different institutions in the city also joined in the festivities and activities in the farm.
A tour, held on the second day, gave visitors a chance to explore the 64-hectare complex and paved the way for the college to showcase its finest products, services, and programs to the public.
Manresa Days also featured different recreational activities to cater to people of all ages.
The celebration included food sales, techno demo, and puppet shows among others. Various food stalls and booths from the different courses in the college flooded the Manresa Farm, too.
Not only was Manresa Days an exhibition of products and programs but also a showcase of intellectual and physical competences.
Students from Bugo National High School, Cugman NHS, Gusa Regional Science High School, and Immanuel Mission International School also visited Manresa to compete in the High School Quiz Bee while teams composed of high school students and teachers took part in the “Manrazing Race: Inter-School Edition.”
A 5K fun run, tagged as the “IP Color Run,” was also held during the third day in behalf of the indigenous people scholars in Bukidnon.
Meanwhile, spectators gathered around the rodeo arena to witness one of the much-awaited events of the celebration, the annual rodeo skills competition dubbed as “Rodeo sa Ateneo.”
Different teams from the various courses in the college showed off their skills in lassoing and pinning down cattle. Team Manresa Farm A emerged as the champion for this year’s rodeo competition.
Nights in Manresa are just as lively and festive as it is during the day. With the innate jovial spirit of the Aggie community, the third night of the Manresa Days was filled with laughter and amusement as the Aggie Night hyped up the crowd and made the celebration livelier with the annual Ms Rodeo Competition and its newest addition, the search for Mr Rodeo.
Maia Marbella, representing Manresa Farm A, was hailed as this year’s Ms Rodeo while Anton Valiente from the XU Bullriders bagged the Mr Rodeo 2015 title.
The Alumni Fellowship Night and “Rodeo sa Ateneo” awarding wrapped up the Manresa Days festivities.
The College of Agriculture was founded by Masterson in 1953, while he acquired the Manresa Farm in 1955. It has been the home of the Aggie community of XU, shaping leaders embodying the college’s battle cry to mainstream agriculture in the face of a globalized world.
