In its inception, SIHAY National Biology Olympiad (SIHAY NBO) started as a regional inter-high school quiz competition on February 8, 1997, at the D.L. Umali Hall Hailed as the organization’s flagship event and culminating activity for Cell Week, SIHAY is the Filipino translation for “cell,” originating from the union of si- (silid) and -hay (na may buhay). Committed to being at the frontier of pr
omoting academic excellence, SIHAY has developed progressively through the years. It included other activities such as laboratory techniques demonstration, poster-making, and essay-writing contests and became known as the SIHAY Biology Competition. In 2006, the first-ever SIHAY Biology Congress was held, with wider sets of activities such as workshops, seminar series, and research competition. Eventually, the target audience widened: from being a Luzon-wide activity, it became nationwide in 2016. In 2017, it became the SIHAY National Biology Olympiad, opening its gates to the entire country. Marking its 20th year, it was dubbed as an OLYMPIAD—similar to the Greek’s quadrennial culmination of athleticism through their Olympic games—to commemorate the fourth quadrennial anniversary of immense revolutions Cell Biology, and the two glorious decades of awakening the inner biologists in the Filipino Youth, giving rise to today’s visionaries in biology. In its entirety, it was the realization of the visions through which this event was built upon — shaping the future of biology in our country, one student at a time. For its 23rd year, SIHAY NBO takes on a new facet as it launches the SIHAY.plugged, the first-ever online installment of SIHAY! With the theme “Decoding Archives: Unravelling the Biologic Code through Molecular Data Acquisition and Analysis,” SIHAY.plugged aims to tackle Bioinformatics by transitioning its sub-events into an online set-up without compromising its quality and capability to uplift the youth’s awareness of Cell Biology. SIHAY will constantly aim to inculcate among its participants the biological and holistic excellence (exemplified by competitions such as poster-making, science feature writing, research competition, and quiz contest); academic scholarship (through symposia and techniques demonstration); most importantly, camaraderie and harmony – the same virtues upon which the organization was founded.
