To celebrate the Museums and Galleries Month, several Marinduque State College students share their thoughts about their recent visit to the MSC Museum. This October, prior to the return of the MSC Olympics and in-person classes, BA Communication students from the Institute of Arts and Social Sciences dropped by at the MSC Library and Learning Resources Center where the MSC Museum is housed.

According to one student, “museum really is a great resource to learn about the college and understand its history. We didn’t have the chance to travel back in time to witness how the college evolved, but thanks to the museum, we somehow had a glimpse of it,”  Jurhyss Arsen Natividad, BAC 1B expounded.

Moreover, “The Museum focuses more on the past, while the science centrum, focuses more on the future. Visiting both will make you realize how far humanity have achieved,”  -Endrei Ricahuerta, BAC 1B put it clearly.

In addition, “Museums play a crucial role in preserving local culture. With careful documentation and artifact preservation, a culture can be recorded and remembered regardless of its future. It can also be shared and understood by those from different cultural backgrounds. Here are a few of the reasons museums are so essential for cultural preservation.” -Dany San Elorde, BAC 1B explained further.

And since October is also Indigenous People Month’s, “The National Congress of American Indian writes, ‘The month is a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and the acknowledge the important contributions of native people”  Ella Dela Cruz, BAC 1A imparted.

“At first, I thought the MSC Museum was a big museum like the museums that I have seen before. In my own opinion, they should put things that the school used first, like their first uniform, first instruments that they first establish. But, I am impressed because I saw the old stuff and things that are older than me like the sewing machine, chair, awards, trophies, etc. And also, it is nice to see the former presidents of MSC displayed in it,” Merlyn Dela Cruz, BAC 1A shared her firsthand account.

On another note, one student shared her perspective, “In my opinion, museum can should be both entertaining and educational. Entertaining means students need to be interested in the museum, educational is not just visiting, students must have learned something too about artifacts inside the museum.” Eunice Hernandez, BAC 1A underscored her point of view.

With a more critical stance and honest assessment, “Nowadays our generation has different ways of expressing their thought, story, and belief. As part of millennials, most of us are not interested in visiting museums or the science centrum. We only visit museums or science centrum if this is part of the class activity or a friend’s itinerary. But the question is does the student have an interest in visiting and checking what is inside the MSC Museum? Me, I don’t think so. MSC Museum has limited artifacts and memorabilia to show the students the colorful history of MSC. MSC Museum has its own website to help us to access it easily but I don’t think a lot of us have an interest give time to check what is in there,”  John Edgar Leal, BAC 1A emphatically said.

“MSC Museum is a good place where I can go. As a student, the first time I visited a Museum which is in MSC. The means by which to various goals of the museum seem markedly for a better story for the school as well. If a museum is to teach critical thinking skills, then for the
students, the objects should be extended, and should involve group conversation and challenging open-ended prompts which is connected for knowledge and learnings of an individual. The related objects on view might be important and productive,” Gabrielle Anne Matimtim, BAC 1A opened up.

MSC is celebrating its 70th foundation year from June 21, 1952 and opened the MSC Museum last June 21, 2022. The initial collection is composed of Cong.Panfilo Manguera Collections and Gov. Carmencita Reyes complimentary copies of Marinduque Copy Table Book, Marinduque: The Heart of the Philippines along with artifacts and memorabilia narrating the evolution of Marinduque School of Arts and Trades, Marinduque Institute of Science and Technology with the future Marinduque State University.