PROBERS ACTIVITY

Problem Solving, Research, and Outcomes-Based Education for Resiliency and Sustainability—better known as PROBERS—is St. Dominic College of Asia’s community-engagement program for first-year students enrolled in the National Service Training Program (NSTP) under the Department of Arts and Sciences. It equips freshmen with a systematic approach to service-learning that begins with a clear understanding of real-world issues faced by local partner barangays. Guided by the Community Extension Services Office (CESO), students learn to translate classroom theories into practical interventions that promote resiliency and sustainability. The program anchors its design on global aspirations set by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically those linked to good health and well-being, quality education, decent work and livelihood, climate action for the environment, and strong community partnerships. By embedding these targets, PROBERS ensures every activity directly contributes to measurable social impact. It also cultivates a values-driven mindset, urging students to view service not as an extra-curricular add-on but as an academic responsibility. Through this lens, learners develop the confidence to propose evidence-based solutions to pressing communal challenges. Most importantly, PROBERS nurtures civic consciousness early in a student’s collegiate journey, laying a resilient foundation for lifelong leadership and advocacy.

The program unfolds across a carefully structured yearly cycle. During the first semester, CESO spearheads a comprehensive needs diagnosis, deploying tools such as focus-group discussions, and household profiling to identify partner-community priorities. Faculty then weave these insights into lesson plans, allowing students to analyze data in class, brainstorm project concepts, and formulate implementation blueprints. This seamless integration of extension work and coursework ensures that learning outcomes align with authentic community requirements. By semester’s end, each NSTP block has produced a detailed project-development plan complete with objectives, activity matrices, and preliminary budgets. These plans receive iterative feedback from community leaders, subject-area professors, and CESO specialists to ensure feasibility and cultural sensitivity. Once refined, the projects are formally endorsed, moving swiftly into the implementation phase. This hands-on immersion offers students direct exposure to SDG-related themes—whether organizing health-promotion fairs, running livelihood-skills workshops, leading ecological clean-ups, or tutoring out-of-school youth.