ISUFST math student wins gold in RCAF 2026 photo contest

SIBALOM, Antique — Arniel Clarite, a Bachelor of Secondary Education major in Mathematics senior from the Iloilo State University of Fisheries Science and Technology (ISUFST) Main Campus-Tiwi Site, clinched first place (gold) in the photo contest of the Regional Culture and the Arts Festival and Conference (RCAF) 2026 on Friday, Feb. 21, 2026, at the University of Antique (UA), this year’s host campus.

He was coached by Prof. Ian John Galupar.

Clarite’s winning piece, entitled “Behind the Scene: Tireless Hands Forming Culture and the Arts,” feels like a whisper about work. Through softened shapes in the foreground, viewers are gently led into a small workshop where an elderly woman shapes clay with quiet concentration.

The space around her carries the marks of years — stained metal, stacked materials, surfaces that tell their own history. Yet the focus remains on her steady hands and unhurried posture.

The image does not glorify hardship; it honors perseverance. In one honest frame, it captures patience, livelihood and the quiet pride of making something by hand.

The victory came in a field of entries from eight participating state universities and colleges under the Regional Association of State Universities and Colleges (RASUC) VI: ISUFST, Iloilo Science and Technology University (ISAT U), West Visayas State University (WVSU), Northern Iloilo State University (NISU), Guimaras State University (GSU), Capiz State University (CAPSU), Aklan State University (ASU) and host UA.

Held under the theme “Pagsaulog: Pagpasindungog sa Aton Panublion, Kultura, kag mga Bahandi,” RCAF 2026 continues to celebrate heritage by making people’s stories — especially the often-unseen ones — visible. The annual festival and conference brings together SUCs in Western Visayas to showcase regional talent in culture, arts and academic competition.

Beyond the medal, Clarite’s win reflects a student who has long been showing up for campus life. He is the editor-in-chief of The Sea Treasure and an active student council member.

He also serves as a PAMMCO ambassador and has previously represented the campus as a contestant in a school pageant and as a competitor in interschool journalism and math contests — proof that his eye for story has been trained not only by a camera but by years of stepping into different stages with the same quiet discipline.

In one photograph, Clarite managed to do what good art is supposed to do: honor ordinary labor, make us pause and remind us that culture is not only performed onstage — it is also lived, daily, by hands that keep creating. (Text by Herman Lagon | Photo shared by Ian John Galupar | PAMMCO)