National archer Jennifer Chan, who brought honor to the country by winning the gold medal in the finals women’s individual compound even of the 25^th Southeast Asian Games in December in Laos, is a graduate of Silliman University.

Chan bested in Myanmar’s Aung Ngeain, 115-112, in the final event and is making public her permanent break from  competing in archery, a press release from SU said. “I’ve achieved my dream in the SEA Games, so this is going to be my last,” she said. Her gold medal in December is her first in the Games since she began competing in 1991.

Also an Olympian, Chan graduated from the SU Elementary School and High School in 1977 and 1982. She later pursued a degree in General Science at Silliman. She is one of the three Sillimanian archers who have made it to the Olympics. The two others are Lisa Ygnalaga and Mark Javier, the lone Filipino archer in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the press release said.

Meanwhile, Silliman University is among five recipients of the Panibagong Paraan knowledge sharing grant of the World Bank. Titled “Multi-Sectoral Forum and Proposal Development on Investing on Young Minds for Household Solutions to Climate Change, Silliman’s project will bring together in dialogs and link students to representatives of key sectors:  academe, government, media, private sector and civil society, the press release said.

The project aims to generate proposals from college students on developing and adopting  practical and cost-efficient home, school or community – based climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. These proposals will be screened and endorsement for eventual funding. Silliman is partnering with two other universities in the Visayas on this project, Central Philippine University in Iloilo and University of San Carlos in Cebu, the press release said.

It will be launched with a moderate panel discussion featuring climate change experts and World Bank officials, among them, Silliman president Dr. Ben Malayang III, who is concurrently member of the Presidential Task Force on Climate Change, and the World Bank Country director, Bert Hofman.

CPU and USC will be connected to Silliman via videoconference during the launching. The launching is a prelude to the dialogs that the three universities will conduct on their respective campuses feature local climate change initiatives and inspire more the students in the development of their respective proposals, the press release said.

Discussions  will involve local representatives from the key sectors and will resolve around having a “green lifestyle” – green technology, green policies and green curriculum.

At the end of the project, the selected proposals will be submitted to the World Bank, the press release added.