Strong Hearts-a-Beating - The First Bar Operations Experience

Strong hearted men and women have filled up the North and South Conference Rooms of the Angelo King International Center for the past three Sundays of September.

Yes, a strong heart fully depicts the passion of service that the volunteers and organizers displayed in handling the very first bar operations of the MBA-JD Program of DLSU-FEU. Each person carries out a task that aligns to one simple purpose: help the barristers. From Saturday night until the afternoon of Sunday these individuals are manning the hotel, expecting errands left and right and conquering lack of sleep throughout the process. Not only that, they have to keep themselves in one piece and stay afloat during the bar operations despite the pressures of assignments galore, gimmick time compromised, and even family hours missed. Needless to say, the two days are physically taxing.

To overcome all of these, it takes a committed person to set aside one’s own needs away for the meantime, and make way for the more urgent need of the barristers. Indeed, one cannot fully circumscribe each sacrifice that the volunteers and organizers give every Saturday and Sunday of September.

But the volunteers and organizers work as a team. In the dramatis personae of the bar operations, the barristers are the graduates of the school who are about to take the bar. Each barrister has a runner. The runners are the barrister’s assistants whose role is to ensure that the barrister feels comfortable. Their activities include everything from preparing food to running errands as well as delivering review materials to the barristers. In the hotel operations, there is also the academics committee that comprises of top-notch students. These law students are the ones who are consulted by the barristers to help them recall certain legal provisions and principles of the subject matter they are taking.

What lumps the whole operation together are the hotel, logistics and food committees. These are the pilots that course the processes, ensuring that the barrister’s requests are delivered efficiently and effectively without detriment to the runners and the academics committee. Facilitating all of these is the support of the school’s management, professors and personnel. Everyone is working as a team that the whole team effort is such an inspiring action to see.

But as mentioned, the purpose remains simple: help the barristers. The volunteers and organizers are not searching for the cure of AIDS nor are they endeavoring to stop global warming. Still, this is service at its very raw but concrete form. It may not make the world a better place to live in, but it surely impacts the lives of the progenitors of MBA-JD of the school – in the long run, the institution becomes stronger as its graduates are empowered. In effect, the persons involved, in whatever way are perpetuating the concept of paying it forward.

As a result, these people who are serving someone with the goodness of their strong hearts are bound to receive karmic benefits that come back in multi-folds at their time of taking the bar – and so long as this practice is continued, our school will make a beautiful history that repeat itself with strong and gracious hearts-a-beating.

Truly, a resounding applause with a big and sincere thank you is in order to all those who assisted in the bar operations!

By: Mary Rocelyn Lim, 3rd yr student of mba-jd program