The 3rd Youth for Leadership Summit
Participate. Innovate. Elevate.
What is it like to be a leader in today’s world? What does it mean to get involved? What should we do to innovate? What if we failed — how do we pick ourselves back up?
These are the type of questions that most of the youth today are asking themselves. The answers, though, often do not come easily. The main goal of this year’s Youth for Leadership Summit (Y4LS) organized by the Professional Staffers-John Clements was to give answers to all these, inspire the young to reach for more and even beyond, and encourage them to create their own solutions to tackle burning issues.
The program started with our keynote speaker Ms. Carolina V. Dominguez — the president and CEO of John Clements Consultants. She talked about Millennials in the Workforce, an interesting comparison between life before all the technology and how it is today. The session was a great mixture between funny and insightful observations that perfectly fit the theme and set the tone for the day.
Noted tennis player and ABS-CBN broadcast journalist Dyan Castillejo, captivated the young audience when she discussed how taking the extra step and participating in various activities throughout her life helped her get ahead and overcome the difficulty of ending her career as an athlete.
“You can’t achieve anything without working hard” was the recurring theme of Dyan’s talk.
Student leader-delegates were eager to ask questions after Dyan’s talk which set the tone for an animated series of open forums. Dennis Pabelico of Professional Staffers-John Clements moderated this portion. Taking off her celebrity hat, Dyan offered to pray over the delegates, with a heartfelt request for spiritual intercession for the Summit’s success. Ms. Castillejo was kind enough to grant requests for selfies, a welcome treat for the audience.
What came next was a talk from the Country Head of Google, Mr. Kenneth Lingan. His talk on the Leadership in the Digital Age described very well the challenges current (and future) leaders are facing and how to overcome them with innovative solutions. A passionate advocate of technological advancements, he was able to “infect” the crowd with his enthusiasm. As a result, many questions followed moderated by Professional Staffers-John Clements Hazel Tolentino, with the audience unmindful of extended time.
Towards noontime three panelists set to lend their insights on the topic of innovation, namely Mr. Oliver Segovia, CEO & Founder of AVA.ph, Ms. Tara Mae Flores, Co-founder and Vice President of STW Family of Companies, and Mr. Gilbert Gatdula, Head of Learning and Development for NGCP. The panel covered many facets of innovation in today’s world, some of which included:
· What do you need to do to stay competitive?
· How do you make your voice heard in an organization?
· What should you do to keep your company on the forefront of technology?
· What advice can we give to youngsters who are finding it difficult to adapt to such a fast-moving world?
The post-talk discussion kept everyone involved; we had interesting questions and Professional Staffers — John Clements moderator, Alina Manaig, masterfully handled the discussion. One of the most notable quotes during this panel discussion came from Mr. Segovia:
“Stop spending all of your time with your high school and college friends. They will always be there, throughout your life. Branch out, make new friends, go to networking events — there are many people who might be able to help you in this world and you will never know until you meet them.”
A welcome respite from the morning’s power-packed discussions was the raffle draw, giving away sponsor prizes to many lucky winners! During the lunch break, the delegates had the opportunity to walk around and visit the sponsor booths, meet other fellow college students and even network with some of the speakers. Before the afternoon program another raffle welcomed the settling in of the delegates.
The afternoon part of the program began with the last speaker of the day to close off the theme and set the tone for our Project P.I.E. Ms. Tweetie De Leon, an international model, TV actress, and health and fitness advocate, spoke about Elevate. She shared her experiences going through the difficulties of life, how she overcame them and how they made her stronger and able to face the next one with more courage. The focus was on how to elevate yourself despite all that; what can you do to go the “extra mile” and shine with excellence?
The crowd went quiet and watched attentively as Ms. De Leon imparted her wisdom and, in her own words, “used the opportunity to give back”. Being the kind and warm person she is, Tweetie took her time to answer all the questions and multiple photos with anyone who approached her.
The last part of our program — Project P.I.E. highlighted six schools finalists whose concepts were shortlisted to present their ideas on how to Participate, Innovate, Elevate their organizations or society in general. All the presentations were well executed and three judges we appointed — Ms. Grace Sorongon (VP and Managing Director of Professional Staffers), Atty. Liezel Chico (VP/Group Head, Human Resources & Administration, Stradcom), Ms. Mary Anne Castro (Talent Sourcing and Resourcing Head, NGCP) — all had a difficult time judging due to the creativity of all the ideas. In the end, however, there had to be winners, and they were:
· MEDILINK Project PARTICIPATE Awardee: De La Salle Lipa — SIKAT — Sitio San Lorenzo Education Program (Education)
· NGCP Project INNOVATE Awardee: Ateneo Gabay — ERYA Program (Education)
· COGNIZANT Project ELEVATE Awardee: Asia Pacific College — Bottle of the Blocks Project (Ecology)
· Organique People’s Choice Award — De La Salle Lipa — SIKAT
Just before the delegates to the 2017 Y4LS left the Meralco Theater, the major raffle drew a most raucous giving away gift packs from Burt’s Bees, Deli, and Faber Castell; gift vouchers from Conrad Manila and Marco Polo Ortigas; complimentary vouchers for overnight stays at Microtel, Discovery Primea. Scholarship vouchers from John Robert Powers were also welcome treats.
Throughout the event we also had several musical performances to spice up the program: Melchora Mabilog sang and gave away album copies. The Summit’s co-host, Roman Manuel, a student radio jockey from San Beda college, Roman Manuel, brought up his guitar and played for the audience. Stephanie Te, the lady host and also a student radio jockey, and studying at De La Salle University, wove the program expertly.
Both Roman and Stephanie complemented the audience as a most engaged, most interactive, and most enthusiastic.
The 2017 Youth for Leadership Summit closed with a grateful address from Professional Staffers-John Clements VP Grace Sorongon, wishing the delegates a great professional future, and underscoring the leadership of John Clements to lead their careers.
Ms. Sorongon profusely thanked the Summit’s generous sponsors and donors, media partners, academic heads, student organizations, and the student leader delegates.
The 2017 Youth for Leadership Summit event staff of Professional Staffers-John Clements and Meralco Theater crew called it a wrap with a resounding:
Thank you and see you next year!
