PAGASA (go4Mentors)
Last month, I officially signed the agreements for the UP professorial grants.
The first 3 grants are funded by Exist Global, Morph Labs and Global Gateway Ventures and are targeted to the UP Computer Science program at UP Diliman. I look forward to working with the CompSci faculty at UP led by Cedric Festin. The program will enable deserving UP professors to get grants for 5 years for academic endeavors that will advance the computer science program.
The grants were named in honor of 2 very important people for me and Exist Global : Marlon Bacani and Christian Golingho.
- Marlon Bacani was our (founders of Exist Global) professor at De La Salle University. Mr. Bacani was a great influence and inspiration early on in my college life. To this day, I can still remember a few of his mantras “Go for Gold” and “There is always a better way”, which during the first 5 years of Exist was its corporate tagline. At DLSU, Mr. Bacani inspired us to excel and win a gold medal for thesis. The mindset of constantly seeking “The better way” and achieving “excellence” has been key to all that I have accomplished. My biggest regret is not being to say “Thank you” in person. I hope that naming a grant under his name will server as a good tribute to a great mentor from his greateful students.
- Christian Golingho is one of Exist Global’s pioneering employees. Christian joined us straight from UP and quickly demonstrated his excellence working on a complex software for one of Exist’s first clients. Unfortunately, we lost Christian at a very young age to cancer. Christian will always be remembered at Exist as a colleague whose passion and dedication to his craft is exemplary. We all picture Christian in heaven with the usual smile in his face toting a laptop.
I am very happy to be a part of the UP Professional Grant program. I wanted to thank Dean Gev for championing this cause and Dae Unisa for introducing me to it. I have gotten permission to emulate it to a larger umbrella called PAGASA where we hope to have a nationwide target to fund 100 professors.
3 down 97 to go.
Add comment September 2nd, 2007