On campus (but not hanging out)

One courtyard

Main entrance

The "creek"

Adamson has a good feel. The 15,000 students are young—they start after tenth grade—and fill the quadrangles with energy. They wear uniforms designed for each program. Many , we’re told, live with relatives since their parents work in other countries.
The campus is a hodgepodge of buildings: the modern, drab concrete ones found in tropical countries mixed in with Spanish-style courtyards and dense green plantings. (Most of Manila, had been destroyed in WW2.) A river runs through it. Actually, a lovely but polluted creek that university folks are working to clean up.


The educational system is really demanding. Students take 8-10 different courses a semester and faculty teach some 30 hours a week. We can’t figure out how they handle it all—especially with extremely long commutes on rickety transit. Most instruction is in English, but everyone speaks Tagalog. There’s a lot of switching back and forth.

The school is definitely Catholic and Vincentian. Most events begin with a prayer, and there’s much talk of serving the poorer communities. St. Vincent seems an active presence, with a host of events honoring his 350th anniversary. One we attended yesterday was an exhibit of Fr. Banaga’s photographs of sites in France related to Vincent’s life.