A tough act to follow

"A peculiar characteristic of this batch is that students are concerned about media issues and the national situation. They’re a product of the times—the volatile political situation shaped them.”

- Danilo Arao, "Journalists in the making"

"Kakapakita lang sakin ni bossing Bryant nang March 28 2Bu section ng Philippine Daily Inquirer. In general tungkol 'yun sa batch 2007. Nag-feature sila ng mga mga nagtapos ng Engineering at Journalism sa UP na may potensyal na maging mga bigatin sa mga larangang iyon.

Surprise! Surpise! Lima sa mga 11 binanggit nilang mga Journalism graduate ay interns namin dito sa CMFR nung nakaraang taon. Astig! Congrats kina Mark Merueñas, TJ Decano... Janice Ponce De Leon, Richie Catalan, Melanie Pinlac. Sana tumuloy nga sila sa mundo ng pamamahayag. Kelangan ng propesyon ng mga mahuhusay at mga ethical na mga tulad ninyo!"

- Don, "Asteeeeg! Nice CMFR interns!"

"Oh? Buti tumanggap na kayo ng non-UP interns."

- Text message from friend Calix, after receiving my text of this year's batch of interns

Kudos to our five former interns at the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) whose photos and views were recently published in the Inquirer: Mark Merueñas, TJ Decano, Janice Ponce De Leon, Richie Catalan, and Melanie Pinlac. Congrats as well to the others who have volunteered working or are presently working as volunteers for various CMFR projects: Glenn Perez, Mark Ubalde, and Jake Soriano.

I agree with Prof. Danny's observation about this batch. This batch is particularly concerned and critical about the issues confronting the nation, passionate in their writing and interests, eager to learn and re-learn things, aware of the role journalists play in the society. This is the type of practitioners we should have in the press.

We met this year's batch of CMFR interns in last week's orientation. This year's interns come from various schools in Metro Manila -- the University of the Philippines, the University of Santo Tomas, St. Scholastica's College, and Far Eastern University. And yes Calix, we do accept interns from other schools. It's just that most of the time, the interns applying are from UP. Interns from UP still dominate the batch every year, but we have seen over the last few years a rising number of interns from other schools.

Last year, the most outstanding interns were all from UP, including Janice, Mark, Melanie, and Junette (who now works at CMFR). Will there be students from other schools who will become this year's most outstanding interns? Let's see. But here's hoping to see a batch that is equally great, if not greater, than the previous one. No pressure, guys, but last year's batch of interns was a tough act to follow.

Here's the Inquirer article that included some of CMFR's interns and volunteers.