For the members of UP POLITICA (People-Oriented Leadership in the Interest of Community Awareness), political science serves as discipline which exclusively contributes to society through our analysis of power and governance. As an academic organization dedicated to realize this vision, we are consistently creating initiatives in order to promote the discipline as an independent program with wider opportunities and wider applications, and by extension, more specialized niches that only political science students can fulfill.
Indeed, Political Science is a discipline forged as a tool to deeply understand the interplay of power and the society. As a social science, it encompasses a wide array of analysis involving institutions, ideologies, practices, and relations which serve as integral puzzle pieces that complete the overall picture of the dynamism of public life and variability of human political behavior. However, its most common preconceived notion as a discipline in preparation for law seems to limit the discipline’s potential to reach for greater heights in terms of influencing the many agents and structures in the society. The significance of unlocking this potential lies on the fact that politics permeates every aspect of our lives and that power relations serves as a crucial element in every societal conflict or challenge. Thus, the discipline has the ability to provide answers to once unanswerable questions which can make a positive difference in our world.
To serve as an integral step in achieving our organization’s goal, UP POLITICA is organizing “Crossroads 2018: Beyond the Limit Phase 1”, a career assistance forum for political science majors. It seeks to go beyond the limit through expounding upon career paths available to the students once they graduate from the university. We have invited speakers across various fields of professions which will consequently inform students what it is like after graduating from political science and how it has shaped life afterwards. The study of politics paves the way for someone to be a critical thinker which can then serve as a preparation for many promising career options. Truly, the discipline is applicable to a lot of fields but lies mostly at the heart of fields such as governance, public policy, advocacy, media, international relations and many more. With this, the forum also seeks to empower the discipline through emphasizing that it does not only rely on theories but is also engaged in the essential practice of promoting citizenship by driving them to responsible and creative political action.
The forum will be scheduled on September 27, 2018 at Palma Hall Room 207, University of the Philippines – Diliman. We hope to see you there to be able to push you in expounding your career paths beyond the default!