SM’s Asia Pacific College empowers students with skills for the future

ASIA Pacific College (APC) — a part of the SM group — recently collaborated with the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) as the analytics partner for the 2025 midterm elections, providing their students with authentic, high-impact learning experiences aligned with national service.

ANALYZING THE POLLS Election data visualizations created by the Asia Pacific College student volunteers are made accessible at the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections official website. PHOTO FROM SMIC

The elections saw some 1.2 million first-time voters and about 1.8 million Gen Z voters. Beyond casting the vote, it also provided opportunities for young volunteers to directly engage in meaningful participation in a critically important national exercise.

Thirty-one students enrolled in APC’s Analytics and Artificial Intelligence class and from the Junior Philippine Computer Society took on critical roles in analyzing real-time election data during the vote transmission period. They were mentored by the Namfrel systems group and APC faculty members, both from the academe and industry.

Rhea-Luz Valbuena, executive director of the APC’s School of Computing and Information Technologies, lauded their contribution in helping ensure transparency in the elections.

This collaboration reflects APC’s unique project-based learning model, which blends academic rigor with experiential learning. At APC, students aren’t confined to simulated case studies; they are immersed in real-world environments, mentored by real professionals and tasked with solving actual problems that matter.

The dashboards and insights produced by students can be accessed via elections.org.ph and Namfrel-analytics-apc.org.