Welcome Message to New Students 2026
by Chancellor Atty. Leo B. Malagar
Maayong buntag.
To our newest Iskolar ng Bayan, welcome to UP Cebu.
For many of you, reaching this day took years of preparation.
There were examinations. Applications. Waiting.
There were sacrifices made by people who helped you get here.
There were moments of uncertainty.
And perhaps there were moments when you wondered whether you would ever make it here.
Today, you are here.
You earned your place.
Getting into UP is an achievement.
But what you do with this opportunity begins today.
And so, on your first morning in UP Cebu, I want to leave you with one question:
What will you contribute?
You do not need to answer it today.
Perhaps you cannot answer it yet.
That is all right.
But I hope you will carry that question with you through your years in this University.
Because right now, you probably have many other questions.
Will I be able to keep up?
Who will my friends be?
Where do I go when I need help?
Kaya ba nako ni?
And, of course:
What can UP give me?
Those are important questions.
But eventually, I hope another question becomes just as important:
What will I bring?
Because you are coming here not just to learn.
But you are also joining a community.
And a university is not something we simply enter.
It is something we create together.
Look around you.
In a few moments, you will meet deans, teachers, staff, REPS, administrators, and people from many offices of UP Cebu.
You may forget some of their names before lunchtime.
That is perfectly understandable.
But remember what they represent.
There are people here who will teach you.
People who will challenge what you believe.
People who will help you discover abilities you did not know you possessed.
People who will protect your rights.
People who will care for your wellbeing.
People who will help you navigate a University that, at times, can become complicated.
And there may be people in this room whom you will someday turn to when UP becomes heavier than you expected.
Because there will be difficult days.
There will be examinations that do not go the way you hoped.
There will be subjects that humble you.
There will be deadlines, disappointments, disagreements.
There may even be moments when you look around and think that everyone else has already figured out university life except you.
They have not.
And there may be moments when you ask yourself whether you truly belong here.
You do.
When those moments come, ask questions.
Seek help.
Talk to your professors.
Know the people and offices being introduced to you today.
Find friends.
Find communities that will sustain you.
Independence does not mean doing everything alone.
And because you belong to this community, you also carry responsibility for it.
Beginning today, you carry a name that has great meaning in this country:
Iskolar ng Bayan.
Those words mean more than being a student in a publicly funded university.
To be an Iskolar ng Bayan is to recognize that your education carries a public purpose.
The Filipino people invest in this University.
So what you learn here cannot remain something that belongs only to you.
Knowledge must eventually travel.
To a family.
To a classroom.
To a laboratory.
To a community.
To public service.
To places where problems have been ignored for too long.
Your education must eventually reach someone beyond yourself.
And that begins with learning how to think.
UP must teach you how to think when the answer is not obvious.
How to ask better questions.
How to examine evidence.
How to disagree without abandoning reason or respect.
How to recognize falsehood even when it is popular.
And in a world where technology can give us answers in seconds—
how to know what is worth asking.
We want you to question.
We want you to imagine alternatives.
We want you to challenge assumptions.
Yes, even ours.
But do it with intellectual honesty.
With respect for human dignity.
With integrity.
With commitment to truth.
This is where our values become real.
Honor is what guides you when nobody is watching.
Excellence asks:
Have I developed my abilities well enough to make a meaningful contribution?
And Service asks the larger question:
Who becomes better because of what I have become capable of doing?
Here in UP Cebu, we say:
Nurtured to Create. Inspired to Innovate. Destined to Serve.
Those words are easy to place on a wall.
Your task is to make them true.
Create something that did not exist before.
Ask whether what has always been done one way must remain that way.
And when you become capable of doing something well, ask whom that capability can serve.
But let me tell you something else.
While we will ask much of you,
you should also expect much from us.
You should expect your teachers to challenge and guide you.
You should expect our offices to serve you with professionalism and respect.
You should expect this University to protect your dignity.
You should expect a place where ideas can be examined freely and responsibly.
And when our systems fall short—as institutions sometimes do—you should expect us to listen.
And to work to become better.
To our faculty, staff, REPS, administrators, and colleagues here this morning:
That commitment is ours to fulfill.
Every classroom teaches our students something about UP.
Every office does too.
Every process.
Every decision.
Every conversation.
May we give these young people a University worthy of their aspirations—and worthy of the trust of the Filipino people.
Because responsibility here runs both ways.
And that brings me back to you.
From your first day, you are already helping create the UP Cebu experience.
You contribute when you ask the question nobody else thought to ask.
You contribute when you bring an idea shaped by your own community and experience.
You contribute when you do your work honestly even when taking a shortcut would be easier.
You contribute when you make room for someone who thinks differently from you.
And sometimes contribution is much quieter.
You notice someone struggling.
You listen.
You help.
You choose kindness.
You refuse to look away.
Not every contribution will be dramatic.
Not every contribution will receive applause.
But universities are built through thousands of choices like these.
So are communities.
So are nations.
You did not simply enter UP Cebu today.
You began helping create it.
During your years here, this University will change you.
And I hope you will have the courage to change UP Cebu too.
Bring the perspectives formed by your families.
Your schools.
Your towns.
Your provinces.
Your experiences.
Challenge us.
Help us see what we have failed to see.
Because a University that teaches you to question must also be willing to be questioned.
Leave something here that was not here before you arrived.
And someday, when your time in UP Cebu is over, your transcript will tell you the subjects you completed.
It will tell you the grades you earned.
Your diploma will tell people the degree you finished.
But those things will never tell the whole story of your education.
So ask yourself:
What can I understand now that I could not understand before?
What can I do now that I could not do when I arrived?
And perhaps the most important question:
Whose life can become better because of what I learned here?
That is where contribution becomes service.
The Filipino people help make your UP education possible.
UP Cebu will invest in what you can become.
And someday, through you,
that education must find its way back to the Filipino people.
Perhaps through knowledge.
Perhaps through discovery.
Perhaps through honest public service.
Perhaps simply through doing ordinary work with extraordinary integrity.
You do not have to become famous.
You do not have to become the most powerful person in the room.
But whatever path you take—
let someone, somewhere, be better because you passed through this University.
That, to me, is the meaning of an Iskolar ng Bayan.
So today, UP Cebu begins contributing to what you will become.
Beginning today, you also begin contributing to what UP Cebu will become.
This is now your University.
Learn from it.
Contribute to it.
Take care of it.
Challenge it.
And someday—
leave it better than you found it.
Because a university is never finished.
Neither are you.
And because UP Cebu is now yours,
help create what it becomes.
Maayong pag-abot sa UP Cebu.
Padayon, mga Iskolar ng Bayan.