By Miguel Manotok

By AJ Alarcon and Noriko Yamamoto

On Wednesday, October 8, the Ateneo de Manila Senior High School (ASHS) officially opened Cura Personalis Week 2025, a three-day wellness and community-building event with the theme “Rest, Move, Renew!”

The six teams, each composed of eight mixed Grade 11 and 12 sections, attended their first-day activities — Session A and B of either the Assembly of Class Officers’ (ACO) Interstrand, the Athletes’ Council’s (AthC) Sportsfest, or the Guidance Hub.

The teams — Orange, Purple, Pink, Teal, White, and Black — were introduced during the event’s launch on October 7 at the third-floor Formation and Learning Center (FLC).

The groupings are as follows:

• Orange – 11-Angelis, 11-De Brito, 11-Goupil, 11-Mayer, 12-Acquaviva, 12-Bobola, 12-Gonzales, and 12-Miki
• Purple – 11-Bellarmino, 11-Escribano, 11-Hoyos, 11-Moscoso, 12-Grodecky, 12-Carvalho, 12-Navarro, and 12-Pro
• Pink – 11-Borja, 11-Garnet, 11-Perez, 11-Nakaura, 12-Holland, 12-Daniel, 12-Ogilvie, and 12-Pantalia
• Teal – 11-Brebeuf, 11-Fontoura, 11-Torres, 11-Owen, 12-Arnaiz, 12-Denn, 12-Geronimo, and 12-Oldcorne
• White – 11-Campion, 11-Grande, 11-Realino, 11-Tsuji, 12-Anchieta, 12-Evans, 12-Solinas, and 12-Sullivan
• Black – 11-Gavan, 11-San Vitores, 11-Hurtado, 11-Wright, 12-Beyzym, 12-Kibe, 12-Walpole, and 12-Xavier

The event follows a two-block system per day, in which the first session is held from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., followed by the second from 11:40 a.m. to 1:40 p.m., except on the last day, when it will run from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

ACO Interstand

The ACO conducted activities that merge sections from different strands to “build friendship, rapport, and teamwork within and outside the class and their respective strand.”

The activities took place at the Red Brick Road and its fields, including mega volleyball, dodgeball, a five-station Capture the Flag, and palo-sebo.

Due to rainfall during the event, the affected sessions were replaced with indoor activities, namely movie-watching and Photo Scavenger Hunt.

AthC Sportsfest

Moreover, the annual Sportsfest began with simultaneous matches of football, volleyball, doubles badminton, men’s basketball.

Teams were assigned to different courts of the FLC, with Courts 2 and 5 designated for basketball, Courts 3 and 4 for volleyball, and Courts 1.1 and 1.2 for badminton. 

Meanwhile, the Ateneo Junior High School (AJHS) Football Field was used for the football games.

Guidance Hub

Furthermore, the Guidance Wellness Activities included Zumba, Bingo, Stretching Yoga, and the Creative Room, which featured the “MegaSTAR in the making,” and “Finding the missing piece.”

A plenary talk at the second-floor FLC was also held, where Mr. Matt Dadivas, a guidance counselor from the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), led the first-day session with a talk on academic pressure and burnout.

He discussed the causes, signs, and ways to manage burnout among students, defining key concepts such as academic and emotional pressure, burnout, and emotional regulation.

In the talk, he stated that burnout often stems from either subject-related or peer-related stress.

“The different factors of subject-related stress include lack of interest in difficult subjects, pressure from exam results, struggles with completing requirements, early class schedules, and difficulty understanding subject matters,” he explained.

He added that peer-related stress is common among students, with factors such as uncooperative classmates, overly competitive classmates, poor relationships, bullying, and cheating classmates.

From October 8 to 10, the students will be gathering points from the game results and activity attendance, where one team will be declared the overall champion by the end of the event.