Shaping the future of promising young minds
The country does not run short of organizations that help inspire the young minds.
The First Pacific Leadership Academy (FPLA) recently opened its halls to more than 100 junior and senior high school student-leaders from across the Philippines in a three-day summit designed to inspire them to become the country’s next generation of patriotic thought leaders. The students from nine provinces, from Luzon to Mindanao, comprised the second batch of the Academy’s annual MVP Future Thought Leaders Summit.
FPLA general manager and executive director Roy Evalle referred to the summit as an “idea incubation laboratory,” describing the youth as the source of “new and fresh ideas.”
With the theme “Forging Future Game Changers,” the summit provided students the opportunity to learn and engage with the thought leaders who have excelled in various fields of disciplines. Aside from Evalle, this year’s line-up of thought leaders who mentored the students included Shermon Cruz, director of the Center for Engaged Foresight, an innovation and social foresight hub in the Philippines and the Asia Pacific; Ace Aceron, consultant at the social and human sciences sector of UNESCO-Bangkok, and a research fellow at the Japan Foundation-Manila; Thomas Graham, social entrepreneur and founder of MAD (Make a Difference) Travel; Fr. Luciano Felloni, parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish; Dindo Marzan, managing director of Voyager Innovations; Jake Letts, general manager of the Philippine Rugby Football Union; and Paul Ryan Gregorio, head of sports and youth advocacy of Meralco.
“Student leaders were immersed in a string of interrelated interventions meant to nurture the different aspects of their being,” said Jeremy John Pintor, FPLA head for executive education and the summit’s main facilitator. The program was based on James Kouzes’ and Barry Posner’s “The Student Leadership Challenge: Five Practices for Becoming an Exemplary Leader,” and featured 15 structured learning interventions. This program also included a 10- course strengths- based Amazing Race that made use of the Academy’s sprawling 10-hectare campus.
While the summit may have ended with a graduation rites ceremony and a celebratory bonfire, the journey of the student leaders has just started. After the program, each was encouraged to take on a student-led and studentinitiated “Citizenship Project,” which is a means of giving back to their respective schools and communities. FPLA will continue to encourage and keep a watchful eye on the next generation of leaders as they commit to the calling of making a difference.