Name:

Jan Edrian Ariola

Home Institution:

De La Salle University-Manila

Host Institution:

TBA

Award Name:

Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (Global UGRAD)

Award Year:

2024

Bio / Write-up:

Jan Edrian Ariola is a Lasallian scholar pursuing a bachelor's degree in psychology at De La Salle University-Manila. He is currently a student representative of the university's Office of Counseling and Career Services, dedicated to kickstarting successful careers by providing fellow students access to job opportunities.

Building upon his extracurricular pursuits, Ariola is actively involved in social formation and outreach offices. He spearheaded Project Kalinga, a program that provided reproductive and livelihood education to poor communities, and is a leader-volunteer for EHEMPLO, an immersion program that allowed him to experience the lives of agrarian communities in Batangas and Nueva Ecija. Utilizing the skills he acquired from his leadership background, he established sustainable capstone projects targeting the challenges these communities face.

With his unwavering desire to close the gap in learning opportunities, Ariola has served as a volunteer tutor at his community's Brigada Pagbasa Summer Camp, allowing him to assist hundreds of children from underprivileged backgrounds in improving their reading and numerical literacy skills. Hoping to reignite the spirit of volunteerism and make education accessible for everyone, he also founded Project Haligi, a volunteer-based initiative to instill foundational knowledge in incoming high school students.

Driven by the belief that the power to effect change lies in amplifying voices, he has been involved in student council and publication, most recognizable through national winnings in campus journalism in his three-year stint as the Editor-in-Chief of his high school's publication. Recently, he garnered the 2023 Best News and Current Affairs Coverage at the prestigious DLSU Gawad Midya. Furthermore, his interest in visual communication allows him to address pressing societal issues, as attested to by his local and international participation in multimedia art competitions. Through the Global UGRAD Program, he plans on studying community and educational psychology to effectively address socio-economic challenges in education, which he is committed to leveraging for the benefit of the community he serves.