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The quality of education offered by an institution is often determined by the graduates it produces; likewise, the quality of graduates produced by an institution is measured by their performance in the licensure examinations. This study attempted to capture the lived experiences of the top performers in the different health sciences licensure examinations in a selected university.  Descriptive phenomenological method was used to extract information on the experiences of the eight top performers from the four departments: Nursing, Medical Technology, Psychology, and Dentistry who graduated from a selected university in Silang, and are currently working in the Philippines.  A formulated set of questions served as the primary method for data collection. Triangulation of the data utilizing interviews with their deans and instructors was used and thematic analysis was done using Collaizi’s method. Three emergent themes encapsulated the experiences of the informants before, during and after the licensure exam. First is their preparation, with four occurring facets: academic, spiritual, psychosocial, and physical. The next theme is anxiety, wherein all of the eight informants claimed the notion of inadequacy of knowledge and possibility of failing. The last theme is the impact of the licensure exam success in the lives of the top performers, with three commonalities among them: strengthened faith, increased opportunity, and widened influence. It was evident that a holistic approach was seen in the preparation of the informants and despite the anxiety, they were able to perform satisfactorily which brought them advances in their professional career and spiritual life. Holistic approach should be considered in designing learning plans to produce high-performing graduates.

Sexual Media Exposure and its Effects on the Academic Engagement of First Year College Students   Sarika Joann Benjamin1, Jang Juyeon1, Ruzzel Jose L. Miclat1, Mark B. Samson2 1Student, Adventist University of the Philippines 2Faculty, Adventist University of the Philippines mbsamson@aup.edu.ph   Introduction: Hours are spent daily on various types of media, and by choice or not, exposure to sexually explicit material may occur. Although there are several studies conducted on the negative effects of sexual media exposure, there is insufficient information regarding its relationship with academic engagement. This study determined the extent of sexual media exposure, degree of academic engagement and the relationship between these aspects among first year college.   Methods: The study utilized a quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive- correlational design. A purposive sampling technique was used to gather 101 respondents using specified criteria. Differential and Inferential statistics were used in the study. Specifically, the mean, standard deviation, correlation coefficient, regression analysis, t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for statistical analysis.   Results: The study showed that the extent of sexual media exposure of first year college students in terms of frequency and duration are low. The study also revealed that the students have a high degree of academic engagement of first year college students in terms of affective, behavioral, and cognitive faculties. Further, the study revealed that there is no significant relationship between sexual media exposure and student academic engagement. A weak positive relationship exists between sexual media exposure and affective academic engagement. Furthermore, it showed that there is no significant difference in students' academic engagement when religion is considered. A significant difference exists however in the respondents behavioral, affective, and cognitive academic engagement when nationality and sex were considered. Finally, findings showed that sex and nationality are the best predictors of student academic engagement. Discussion: There is no relationship between sexual media exposure and student academic engagement but a weak relationship is perceived in affective academic engagement. Significant difference are seen in the respondents‘ academic engagement when nationality and sex were considered and they are the predictors of student academic engagement. To sustain high degree academic engagement, exposure to possibly distracting sexual media should be studied.   Keywords: sexual media, academic engagement