National daily Manila Bulletin featured The Lewis College on the front of their Schools, Colleges and Universities Bulletin section (E1), To see the online version of this article, click here (this opens a new window/tab).
By Ida Anita Q. del Mundo(The Philippine Star) | Updated June 23, 2013 - 12:00am
Secretary Imelda Nicolas of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (left). She joins President Aquino and Secretary Albert del Rosario of the Department of Foreign Affairs as they award Antonio Fernando III, a Filipino doctor based in New Zealand, at the 2012 Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organizations Overseas.
MANILA, Philippines - As a businesswoman, Nicolas was vice president for Development of TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc., a New York-based multinational company, as well as chair of the Women’s Business Council of the Philippines. She is also an advocate for women’s rights and good governance.
Indeed, her background has helped her to hit the ground running with a pro-active approach to leading the CFO. “I was a little over a month in office and barely had I warmed my seat as chair of the Commission when CFO already positioned itself at the forefront of the Philippine government’s more strategic engagement with international migration,” she shares on the commission’s achievements so far.
In 2010 the CFO hosted Vision 2020: Responding to the Challenges of Migration and Development, a conference which gathered the many stakeholders involved in migration, from government and civil sectors to the business and private sectors.
“This conference led to the inclusion of more than 60 provisions on migration and development in seven out of 10 chapters of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016, the blueprint of the national government in attaining inclusive growth and the full human development of all our people,” Nicolas shares, adding that this is a notable milestone for the CFO since migration is very seldom brought up in the PDPs, and usually only in terms of remittances and deployment for overseas employment.
“CFO has provided the mechanisms for Filipinos overseas to more actively re-engage with the Motherland,” says Nicolas.
The CFO chair’s flagship program is Diaspora to Development (D2D), which concentrates on ten areas of engagement wherein the Philippine diaspora can become partners for the country’s development: business advisory circle, Alay Dunong program, diaspora philanthropy, diaspora investment, educational exchange, tourism initiatives, Global Legal Assistance and Advocacy program, medical mission coordination, arts and culture exchange, and return and reintegration.
The Philippines has over a century of international migration history… From the first batch of Filipino workers from Ilocos to the current figure of 10.46 million Filipinos overseas as of December 2011,” says Nicolas on why migration and diaspora has been such a persistent concern in the Philippines – an issue inextricably linked to the country’s development.
Last June 3, 2013, The Lewis College welcomed more than 1,000 students in the Basic and Higher Education Department with a brief but meaningful Opening Program. Students were filled with excitement and anticipation to meet their new teachers and classmates for SY 2013-2014. Highlight of this event was the arrival of TLC President, Atty. Loida Nicolas-Lewis, who flew all the way from New York, USA to visit and give an inspirational message to the students. Mrs. Lewis also welcomed the parents who were present, as she admonished the young people to live by "Ora et Labora", or prayer and hard work.
TLC Administrative Officers and other employees were also present, led by Dr. Rose Anonat, OIC, and Ms. Lourdes Callos, BED Principal. GPTO President Dr. Alan Lopez also gave his support and said that this year the Parents' Association will become more active in the development of students' spiritual and moral behavior. To the delight of the students, BED Teachers and selected students also performed special dance and song numbers! A rousing exhibition of the TLC Drum and Lyre Corps in Elementary and High School level were also witnessed by the students. Mr. Christian Jamisola was also formally introduced to the students as the new Coordinator for Student Affairs and Services Office (or SASO). The program was hosted by Ms. Janet Siayngco, adviser of 4th year high school students.
Below is a chart of the increased enrollment for this school year:
REPORTING FROM MANILA, PHILIPPINES—The life of America’s most successful African-American Wall Street financier is remembered and celebrated in a most unlikely location, some 8,000 miles from the New York City financial hub where he rose to prominence.
In a quiet province in the Philippines, there is a school that is named after Reginald F. Lewis, who is widely regarded as one of America’s financial powerhouses. In fact, in a short 10 years since it was founded, the Lewis College has gained a good bit of attention for its academic excellence in a school that provides education for students from elementary school through college.
The school was founded by Loida Nicolas Lewis, the widow of the late finance mogul, in her native Filipino province of Sorsogon, a 11-hour drive to the southwest of the nation’s capital of Manila. It was, she explained, a way of honoring her husband’s memory as well as providing needed quality education in the region where she grew up.
“The idea of starting a school was something that I was excited about,” Lewis said, in an interview with BET.com. “It has always been my belief that the best way out of poverty is education."
Indeed, her late husband considered his contributions to educational institutions to be his most important legacy. In the years before his death, he gave vast sums to several schools, including Virginia State andHoward universities. In New York, he gave large contributions to Abyssinian Baptist Church and the New York City scholarship foundation of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, of which he was a member.
As every student at the school knows, Reginald Lewis was a Wall Street lawyer and financier, was one of America’s richest businessmen and was a prominent corporate-takeover dealer. He was a graduate of Virginia State and Harvard Law School.
His $1 billion acquisition in 1987 of the Beatrice Cos., a foods concern, led to the formation of his own company, TLC Beatrice International. He amassed personal assets of $400 million, according to estimates by Fortune magazine. By acquiring the Beatrice operations, TLC became the largest company in the country run by a Black person. He died in 1993 from brain cancer at the age of 50.
In addition to educating students, there seems to be another mission at the Lewis College. The leaders of the school are determined to make sure that students come to know the name and accomplishments of the man after whom the institution was named.
Sorsogon City, Philippines– Niles and Meleneus Perlas, a Filipino couple residing in New York, USA recently donated $5,000 for The Lewis College (TLC) in their desire to support the needy but deserving students in Sorsogon. Half of this amount was donated by KDP Foundation, a foundation set up by Mr. and Mrs. Perlas named after their daughter Kristine Perlas.
This scholarship from KDP Foundation is for students who are poor but have exemplary performance in studies and passed the screening of the TLC Executive Committee. The other half will be for an evergreen loan fund, the Niles and Meleneus Loan Fund which will be made available to qualified TLC graduates who lack funds for processing their papers but are already scheduled to work abroad.
CRNA Niles Perlas is the Chairman of Filipino American Medical Inc. (FAMI), a non-profit corporation founded in 1999 by Mr. and Mrs. Perlas and friends in New York city. FAMI brings American and Filipino-American physicians and other medical professionals to the Philippines to serve the poor. She also worked as an Anesthetist for the Hospital for Special Surgery for 20 years and retired this April. Her husband, Meleneus Perlas, is Vice President of a Real Estate Investment Company and project manager in Jeffries Morris. Together with her husband, Mrs. Perlas has donated in numerous projects in her province of Nueva Ecija and other missions to help the poor in the Philippines. Their family’s charitable work is clearly seen in their medical missions at www.ifami.org. As Mrs. Perlas mentioned, “It is our pleasure to serve the needy.”
CRNA Niles Perlas receiving an award at Malacanang Palace.
In the spirit of philanthropy embodied by Reginald and Loida Nicolas-Lewis, another Lewis family member recently granted a $5,000-dollar Evergreen Loan Fund for The Lewis College teachers with the purpose of later on, accumulating interest which will provide scholarships to deserving college students.
Mr. Gavin Sword, husband of our founder’s daughter Ms. Leslie Lewis-Sword, decided to set-up the “Delana and Rod Sword Loan Fund” in honor of his parents from Nanaimo, British Columbia.
National daily Manila Bulletin featured The Lewis College on the front of their Schools, Colleges and Universities Bulletin section (E1), To see the online version of this article, click here (this opens a new window/tab).
