The private University of Saint Joseph (USJ) hosted the four-day “Service-Learning Student Summit 2026”, bringing together students from across Asia and Oceania to showcase community projects, alongside the presentation of the Uniservitate Awards 2026, which took place yesterday, recognising outstanding service-learning initiatives.
Organised by USJ and the Philippines’s De La Salle University, the summit was held under the theme “Reciprocal Convergence: Empowering the Asia and Oceania Region’s Collective Action through Service-Learning”.
The event highlighted how academic knowledge can be applied to address community needs through student-led service-learning projects. The programme featured the Uniservitate* Awards 2026 ceremony, recognising exemplary service-learning initiatives at Catholic higher education institutions across the Asia and Oceania region.
According to a recent USJ statement, first-place awardees will travel to Rome in October to attend the VII Global Symposium, which includes a general audience with Pope Leo XIV.
Addressing the ceremony yesterday, Maria Rosa Tapia, Uniservitate Programme coordinator, described service-learning as a process that transforms both communities and students. “This is the miracle of service learning. Your knowledge finds its purpose. Your service becomes encounter. Your encounter becomes transformation”, she said, adding that the awards recognise students who choose to work alongside communities rather than for them, encouraging institutions across the world to unite through service and solidarity.
Meanwhile, Romina Eloisa Abuan, coordinator of the Uniservitate Asia and Oceania Regional Hub at De La Salle University, said that the awards are “unique” because they specifically recognise service-learning in Catholic higher education. She added that applicants undergo a two-stage evaluation process involving eligibility screening, independent assessments by three faculty evaluators and final interviews before winners were selected. Abuan said that submissions were received from Australia, India, the Philippines, China’s Taiwan region and the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR), demonstrating the diversity of service-learning initiatives across the region, adding that the awards aim not only to recognise excellence but also to encourage universities to strengthen service-learning programmes and share successful practices with other institutions.
Moreover, USJ’s Department of Psychology Associate Professor Vítor Teixeira, one of the award evaluators, reflected on his experience reviewing the projects. Initially sceptical about whether some projects truly reflected their reported achievements, Teixeira said attending the summit and meeting participants changed his perspective. He encouraged participants to become ambassadors for service-learning when they return to their universities. “You students, when you go back to your universities, you are our ambassadors, to make also service learning be part of your programmes”.
The summit concluded with participants speaking about their experiences in their community projects and discussing ways to strengthen service-learning across higher education institutions in Asia and Oceania, with organisers expressing hopes that the regional network will continue to expand ahead of the next Uniservitate Awards cycle in 2028.
*Uniservitate is a coined portmanteau word formed by combining “uni” (from university) and “servitate” (derived from service/servare) to sound like Latin phonetics and reflect the universal mission of the Catholic Church. – Gemini
Romina Eloisa Abuan, coordinator of the Uniservitate Asia and Oceania Regional Hub at De La Salle University (up), and University of Saint Joseph’s (USJ) Department of Psychology Associate Professor Vítor Teixeira address yesterday’s “Service-Learning Student Summit 2026” at the private university in Ilha Verde. – Photos: Khalel Vallo
