Miriam College Alviera, Miriam College’s co-educational campus in Porac, Pampanga, will be offering programs from pre-school to graduate school in phases. Starting SY 2023- 2024, it will open Kindergarten, Grades 1-4, and five courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels to students in the region. 

Central to all its programs is the place-based approach to teaching and learning, where lessons are aligned with the region’s rich culture and traditions, local environment, people, creative industries, and entrepreneurial spirit. This timely and relevant approach allows students to learn different subjects and courses by connecting them to real-life experiences and by relating local contexts to global challenges.
 

Real-world Context, Real-life Experiences 

At the Basic Education Unit, learning will be personal and relatable by connecting the curriculum to themes in the local context and environment. “Place-based learning elements will be infused into the various aspects of teaching-learning in our Basic Education unit to emphasize real-life relevance and application of skills and competencies learned,” says Dr. Jasmin Nario-Galace, MC Vice President for Academic Affairs and Chair of the Program Committee for MC Alviera. 

Nurturing happy, compassionate, and confident young learners is at the heart of the Kindergarten curriculum. Place-based learning approach will be complemented with design thinking where children are taught to use empathy in solving simple problems and carrying out developmentally appropriate projects.

At the Grade school, traditional subjects such as Christian Living Education, English, Filipino and Math will be taught matching real-world context and real-life experiences. Place-based learning will be complemented with project-based approach to teaching, where students are engaged in real-world projects. All these aims to encourage inquiry, promote critical thinking and problem solving, and make students realize how their work can create a meaningful impact in their own communities.

Tailored and industry-driven courses 

At the higher education level, on the other hand, MC Alviera will offer tailored and enhanced industry-driven programs designed to provide students not only the necessary skills needed to build their careers but the heart, mind, and creativity to use them to make a meaningful impact in an ever connected world. Guided by MC President, Amb. Laura del Rosario, and reviewed by the Board Academic Committee, the programs are designed to cultivate 21st-century skills and prepare MC Alviera graduates to succeed in professions where technological shifts are occurring at an ever-increasing pace.

Leveraging on the region’s rich traditions, creativity, innovation, and innate entrepreneurial skills, MC Alviera will initially offer creative undergraduate and graduate programs. These are:

• Bachelor of Design in Creative Industries (4-year) 
• BS Entrepreneurship and Innovation (4-year) 
• Bachelor of Early Childhood Education (4-year)
• Master of Education in Curriculum and Teaching with Specialization in 21st Century Learning (2-year post-graduate)

The Bachelor of Early Childhood Education course is an MC strength that none of the established universities in Pampanga are currently offering.

HEU programs will use relevant teaching and learning approaches that provide students a local context of their chosen course. Complementing this are faculty from international colleges and universities who will be tapped to provide a global context to subjects under the different courses. 
Equally exciting, MC Alviera will offer a one-year Certificate in Digital Animation program as its first technical-vocational offering in the new campus. 

True to its taglines of being a “home of the creative class” and a “gateway to the world,” MC Alviera is keen on offering more unique programs in the next phases of its development that are aligned with the strengths of this growth area in the north and MC’s unique brand of education.