Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines – Marinduque State University (MarSU) College of Environmental Science Dean Dr. Evangeline Mandia and College of Arts and Social Sciences Faculty Dr. Randy Nobleza have attended the Philippine Human Ecology Consortium Conference on September 30 to October 2, 2024 at the Sculpture Garden, University of the Philippines (UPLB).

In behalf of the MarSU President, the College of Environmental Science dean represented Dr. Diosdado P. Zulueta in the ceremonial Memorandum of Understanding between the UPLB and Human Ecology Institute of the Philippines (HUMEIN) Philippines Inc along with Nueva Viscaya State University Palawan State University, University of Southern Mindanao, and Central Mindanao University.

MarSU Dean Dr. Mandia presented the dreams and aspirations of Marinduque island for strengthening human ecosystems education and future directions for human ecology. Meanwhile, MarSU faculty Dr. Nobleza learned a lot from the discussions especially from the Australian National University plenary speaker Dr. Robert Adam Dyball. The main proponent of Human Ecology from ANU thoroughly provided salient points of Understanding Human Ecology and led a workshop for overview of introduction course on Human Ecology.

Marinduque can count on the new course offering in MarSU in the near future that would have great impact in the community. At the moment, the College of Environmental Studies have started with pioneering 20 students with more than 200 students. Likewise, the College of Arts and Social Sciences have produced of hundreds of Registered Social Workers. Hopefully, MarSU can integrated its Food Technology, garments, environmental sciences with island studies, rights of nature, ecological justice and advocacy work.

(RT Nobleza/Island Innovation Representative)