by Penny Angeles-Tan | Feb 19, 2019 | Awards and Competitions
Citi Philippines CEO Aftab Ahmed (left) receives the award given by the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Foundation for Best Photo in the “Creating Sustainable Livelihood Category” together with corporate affairs head Lisa Coory (middle) and citizenship officer Jackie Ampil (right). The photo shows Citi employees assisting the community women of Gawad Kalinga’s Bayanihan Village, as they learn to cook healthy meals for their families and for a home-based business.
This activity is part of Global Community Day, a time-honored annual tradition where Citi employees in different parts of the world come together with their families and friends to share their time, skills and expertise in the cities where they live and work.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Jul 2, 2018 | Business
I am a teacher and I use Canvas in one of the schools I teach in. In all my years odf teaching I’ve used other LMS such as Moodle and D2L. When I heard about this event I wanted to attend. 🙂
Recently, Canvas held its first community user group in the Philippines at the De La Salle University Henry Sy, Sr. Hall. The meeting connected the first Canvas customers in the Philippines to discuss their use of education technology to transform education provision in their institutions.
Principals and senior leadership from Baliuag University, University of the East, Jose Rizal University, De La Salle Lipa, Centro Escolar University and other schools were present, such as the host College of Computer Studies department at De La Salle University and EdTech leadership from Far Eastern University.
Representatives of De La Salle Lipa
Technology has allowed other industries to compete globally and education is no different, with each institution sharing their strategic visions of how they can and will use education technology to enhance teaching and learning as well as compete for students in the region.
Through their use of the Learning Management System Canvas, each of these Philippine institutions are deepening their adoption of the latest innovations in teaching and learning, such as blended and flipped classrooms, which allows for greater focus on student engagement and personalized learning.
Roselle Basa, Program Coordinator for ICT at UE, was among the attendees who were new to Canvas. UE faculty have been training with the LMS since March, and the system will be deployed in full this year. “Canvas allows us to develop courses that are geared to student-centered strategies. It pushes the envelope of teaching strategies development and helps us avoid being confined to the classroom in a very enjoyable and engaging manner,” Basa said.
Canvas from Instructure was created in response to poor user experience of legacy LMS software by its founders as graduate students. They wanted a more flexible and personalized learning experience, one that was mobile and easy to use and extend with a wide variety of learning resources.
As an open, mobile and native cloud-based platform, Canvas allows students to easily access learning materials, take online tests, collaborate on the move, and drive their own learning journey. Teachers are able to deliver more personalized learning, choose from a wealth of learning resources to deliver a richer learning experience, grade tests more quickly, as well as use data in real time to give feedback on student progress. This approach puts teachers and students at the center of the learning environment rather than the technology.
Julian L. Yballe, Regional Director
Regional Director Julian Yballe also took to the podium to explain Canvas’ view on openness and equity of experience. Instructure envisioned Canvas as endlessly extendable open APIs and the ability to add apps via the LTI standard. This allows teachers to use the vast global resources that exist, exposing students to a huge variety of learning materials in a simple and easy way.
Along with this growing partner ecosystem, the Canvas community of global institutions, helps educators from around the world share ideas and experiences both online and at community events such as this user group session. These leading institutions in the Philippines are now contributing to the community with their founding of the first user group in South East Asia.
Yballe underlined this specific focus on student-centeredness. “The feedback for Canvas from every stakeholder in this teacher and learning environment has been positive. And a lot of it is a combination of timing and how student-centered learning is becoming more of a focus due to two reasons, workforce preparedness, so graduates can contribute immediately, and a more competitive environment for a limited number of students, both locally and globally,” Yballe said.
Troy Martin, APAC VP
What’s next on the roadmap for Canvas? APAC VP Troy Martin spoke of the company’s expansion plans in a post-conference interview.
“We’re excited with the customers that have emerged over the last two years in the Philippines, particularly here in Manila, but we are excited to welcome some new institutions from Cebu City and we look forward to hearing from new institutions contacting Instructure about working with Canvas.”
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Jun 18, 2017 | Business
Citi celebrated its 12th annual Global Community Day on June 10, with more than 4,600 Citi volunteers in the Philippines joining the efforts of nearly 100,000 of their colleagues, family and friends in 500 cities in 91 countries and territories to engage in service activities in their local communities.
In the days leading up to and including Global Community Day, Citi volunteers participated in more than 1,500 service projects ranging from urban revitalization to mentorship and job skills training, literacy and education, environmental conservation and disaster relief.
Global Community Day offers a wide range of opportunities to work alongside community and non-profit partners to help improve our cities and neighborhoods.
Michael Corbat, Citi CEO
“Citi’s annual Global Community Day is an important event for our firm and one I always look forward to,” said Citi CEO Michael Corbat.
“It provides an opportunity to deepen our relationships with communities we serve, which is absolutely vital to our business success. And it shows the impact we can have when our people show up in force — nearly 100,000 strong this year.”
Aftad Ahmed, Citi Philippines CEO
Leading by example, CEO for Citi Philippines Aftab Ahmed volunteered on back-to-back weekends starting June 3. Together with hundreds of volunteers, they helped Upper Bicutan National High School get ready for opening of classes by cleaning classrooms, painting chairs, and covering textbooks with plastic to be good as new.
On June 10, he showed support for persons with disabilities by joining their Freedom Walk in Quezon City Circle with nearly 300 volunteers.
“I am heartened to see the strong interest and enthusiasm among our employees, allowing us to set record participation year after year. I know that Citi employees make a difference every day in the communities where we live and work. However, with Global Community Day, we are able to unite across businesses and across the world and really demonstrate the difference a global bank can make,” said Ahmed.
Since the inaugural Global Community Day in 2006, Citi volunteers have contributed more than three million hours of service to Global Community Day projects in hundreds of cities. This year, Citi volunteers led hundreds of community projects across the world, some of which included:
Asia Pacific
Across Asia Pacific, there were more than 250 volunteer activities including:
- In Australia, volunteers led workshops for young people from the Brotherhood of St. Laurence’s “Creating Futures for Youth” program to help improve their employability.
- In China, Citi participated in events that delivered financial education through fun games to children and senior citizens.
- In Japan, volunteers were participating in events to improve the environment, brighten the lives of children with serious illnesses and raise awareness to promote diversity and workplace equality.
Latin America and Mexico
Across Latin America and Mexico, there are more than 100 volunteer activities including:
- In Mexico, volunteers engaged in a range of activities from donating, packing and serving meals to delivering financial education. Citi’s CEO Mike Corbat volunteered at the Emiliano Zapata primary school helping to revitalize learning spaces and joined volunteers at the Food Bank Association to help distribute nutritional food to families in need.
- Citi Venezuela is celebrating 100 years in the country, and as part of Global Community Day, volunteers revitalized the green spaces of the Universidad Central de Venezuela, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
- Together with the Red Cross and the J/P Haitian Relief Organization, Citi volunteers in Haiti were contributing to the reforestation of Canaan in Croix-des-Bouquets by planting 3,000 trees and facilitating an environmental awareness session at a local school on the importance of preserving the environment and
Europe, Middle East and Africa
Across Europe, Middle East and Africa, there were nearly 500 volunteer activities including:
- Across the United Kingdom, Citi volunteers participated in sustainability-related efforts, helping deliver career ready programming for young people, and redecorated a primary school to improve the learning environment.
- In Greece, volunteers revitalized a children’s summer camp to ensure children have a safe and clean place to play.
- Volunteers in Romania beautified the green area of Fundeni Hospital by clearing trash and putting up a playground, a small greenhouse and a picnic area for hospitalized children.
North America
Across the United States and Canada, there were nearly 700 volunteer activities including:
- At Citi’s global headquarters in New York City, Citi teamed up with Feeding Children Everywhere to assemble over 200,000 healthy meals to help combat hunger, beautified and cleaned up green spaces along the Hudson River, assembled and distributed bicycles for low-income youth, and wrote ‘Thank You’ letters and packing hygiene kits for veterans.
- In New Jersey, Citi volunteers created costumes for children in local hospitals, made a difference for young people and veterans by conducting mock interviews for professional IT jobs, and planted at the Wagner Farm Arboretum, a farm that helps increase environmental awareness.
- In Canada, Citi volunteers hosted mock interviews to help youth increase their employability, cleaned the parkland behind Hershey Centre, built a home with Habitat for Humanity and prepared and served meals for those in need.
To learn more about Citi’s citizenship efforts across the globe and to review the 2016 Global Citizenship Report, visit http://citizenship.citigroup.com.
Canvas from Instructure was created in response to poor user experience of legacy LMS software by its founders as graduate students. They wanted a more flexible and personalized learning experience, one that was mobile and easy to use and extend with a wide variety of learning resources.
Across Asia Pacific, there were more than 250 volunteer activities including:
Across Latin America and Mexico, there are more than 100 volunteer activities including:
Across Europe, Middle East and Africa, there were nearly 500 volunteer activities including:
Across the United States and Canada, there were nearly 700 volunteer activities including:
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