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The UPAA Alumni Awards 2025
Last August 16, the UPAA Alumni Awards 2025 brought together generations of Iskolar ng Bayan in an evening filled with pride, fellowship, and inspiration. The celebration served as a testament to the enduring spirit of the UP community and its commitment to serve with honor and excellence.
The atmosphere carried the joy of reunion and the quiet pride of belonging to a university that continues to shape leaders and changemakers. Alumni from various batches and disciplines gathered to share stories that reflected the depth of the UP experience and its lasting impact on communities across the country.
At the heart of the evening was the recognition of distinguished alumni whose leadership, service, and integrity have created ripples of change. Each honoree represented the living spirit of Honor and Excellence, uplifting lives and expanding opportunities through their chosen fields.
The night’s program was marked by three powerful messages that captured the essence of being a distinguished alumni, one who serves, leads, and inspires.
This year’s MOST DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, shared a powerful message during the 2025 UPAA Alumni Awards:
“The UP alumni have given much of their time, resources, and energy in the service of the nation. We, the 2025 awardees, delight in having been of direct service to the people and our respective communities as our way of giving back to the nation. Bilang mga iskolar ng bayan, nararapat lang talaga ang pagsisilbi sa bayan. It is this call to serve (beyond personal success) that binds us as one community, reminding us that true honor and excellence find their highest meaning when dedicated to the Filipino people.”
His words echo the heart of the UP legacy: that honor and excellence only reach their fullest worth when they are lived out in service.
President Aranton’s words shine a light on the hearts of this year’s UPAA Awardees that true achievement is never about titles, but about service, sacrifice, and the lives touched along the way.
“The UPAA Board of Directors did not measure worth by titles, nor success by the applause of the present. We sought those whose leadership bends the arc of the possible and whose service leaves a mark deeper than any nameplate.
What you have achieved, awardees, are living testaments that a UP education is not a crown worn for oneself, but a torch passed to light the way for others.
This evening is a declaration as much as it is a celebration: that the ideals of honor, excellence, and service are choices made, often costly ones, when it would be easier to retreat.
You have proven that integrity can survive the temptations of power, that service can thrive even in the leanest of times, and that leadership finds its truest measure in the lives it has lifted.” - UPAA President Robert Lester F. Aranton
Truly, each of Iskolar ng Bayan holds the light to guide those who will come after.
Words of inspiration from UP President Angelo A. Jimenez at the UPAA Awards Night:
“If I have one word to describe the UP graduate, I would choose the word hope. We are givers of hope. We are bringers of hope. We are engineers of hope. We are dealers in hope for our people. Many of them are still, literally, in the dark.
We honor a tradition of service. From the very beginning, service was the purpose of this university. And for over 117 years, we are 117 years this year, we have always honored it to our outstanding alumni. Our motto today is honor and excellence in the service of the nation. And so we are going towards that direction.
Your university is going out there to the underserved areas, reaching out to people who never was able to participate in the opportunities of the country, and which is very critical if our country is to endure.”
The UPAA Alumni Awards 2025 was a reaffirmation of the UP spirit, a collective promise to continue serving with compassion, courage, and conviction. Each story shared and each award presented became a reminder that being a Iskolar ng Bayan is not a chapter that ends with graduation, but a lifelong calling to lead and serve wherever one is placed.
The night closed with a shared sense of pride and purpose. In every heart present lived a renewed commitment to the ideals of Honor and Excellence, and to the enduring mission of the University of the Philippines, to be a light for the nation.
For more photo, click the below albums:
UP Alumni Awards Night 2025 Facebook Album 1
UP Alumni Awards Night 2025 Facebook Album 2
