I am excited, blissful, and
nervous all at the same time. Finally, after a couple of years, I am now
finally starting my graduate studies.
I initially applied for a different
program in 2012. However, things in my previous work did not work as I had
planned that prevented me from starting my studies. I have done the entrance
exam, enrollment, and even paid my reservation fee but things just did not work
for me back then.
Looking back, I can say it’s a
blessing. It may be a cliché but it really is! So many things happened in the
past 3 years that my goals and objectives back then are significantly different
from what they are now. Fast forward to 2015, I am now with a different company,
10 years more matured (even 3 years just passed :D) and after a lot of
reflection and consultations with my peers, here I am, officially enrolled and
starting my graduate studies.
Being a Lasallian Business Leader
I am starting this blog as a
requirement for one of my subjects in my first term in my graduate studies –
Business Ethic and Corporate Social Responsibility. If I’m not mistaken, this
is the longest name for a subject in our curriculum and I wonder will this be
just like NSTP but just on a different level?
After our first meeting, I can say it is really is not! I’ve been a Research Analyst before for a multinational data provider company before and I have read most of the financial statements of all the publicly listed companies in the Nordic region especially Norway, Sweden, and Finland. These countries are considered to be at the top when considering corporate social responsibility in the world. I do not claim that I know everything but I can say that I know a bit. Then again, those countries are in Europe and their circumstances are different from what we have here in Asia and here in our own country - the Philippines. With their culture and environment entirely different from ours, I always wonder if we can also achieve the same results if we do the same here.
To give an example, I wonder before why does foreigners afford to be away so long from work about 3 weeks or more straight. Is that alright with their company? Are those paid leaves? Here in our country oftentimes it’s really hard just to be on one day sick leave even if you are really sick. After some time, I found out that their companies put importance on their employees’ well-being. They are encouraged to spend time with their family and their government assist and promotes this through legislation and various incentives. Very recently I had a conversation with a two of my friends; one is a senior account manager and the other a manager at a call center. We were talking about paid leaves and they were telling me that based on our “Labour Code” the law states that the minimum is five per year. I’ve been with prestigious multinational companies before and I enjoyed always having 30 days off (15VL and 15SL). Hearing this, I was really shocked and it made me feel ignorant. Fortunately, I am in this class and Ms. Pia told us that our “Labour Code” is really out-dated and not anymore applicable to our current time. This is not the first time I’ve heard of this but hearing it from graduate school and someone who really know what she is talking about really made an impact to me. My friends told me that if I got more than that I should be happy. I don’t think I can persuade them but at least I know what’s right, humane and ethical.
Life of St. John Baptist de La
Salle
Honestly, I enrolled in the
graduate school without knowing anything about St. John Baptist de La Salle. I
just know that acquiring and developing skills here will be ideal for me to
achieve my medium to long-term goals.
After watching the movie, I came
to know who St. John de La Salle is and the impact of what he has done before
to our current generation. He’s from an affluent family in France and was a
canon in the church but he gave them all up to revolutionize the educational
system. This is in spite objections from
his family especially his sister and uncle and the troubles he had endured from
other teachers and other church people that are jealous of him.
He taught every child he can for
free and he even trained the people who wants to become a teacher. Most importantly, he pioneered the classroom
setting that we still currently have today that is more cost-effective and
convenient compared the one-on-one system before. He may not have earned money
for himself but I realized that he is indeed a “Business Leader” even though he
is a priest and he teaches for free. This is because the community around him
profited by having education to escape poverty. In fact our generation still
profits from his works today.
I also realized that he is a
“Great innovator.” Even with pressures from top church official he still
insisted that having non-priest from the LaSallian brothers, whom he founded,
is alright. This is very much unheard off during that that time but being the
great innovator that he is, he understands the risks at the same time he
understands that there are people who are very talented in teaching but is not
keen on being a priest.
We are living in the modern era
but we can still relate our circumstances to St. John de LaSalle. In our
country, many people are still in poverty and uneducated. We are like St. John,
we are the ones that are educated so we must take the lead like he did and help
the people around us come out of poverty.
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