Bravo, Clarissa Delgado and TFP!

It was with special interest that I read the recent announcement of Asia Society’s 2016 roster of Asia 21, emerging young professionals from the Asia-Pacific representing the private, public and nonprofit sectors selected for “outstanding achievement, commitment to public service and a proven ability to make the world a better place.”

Now on its 11th year, the selection is envisioned to develop a crop of young leaders to meet the challenges of the 21st century, thus the “Asia 21” tag. Among the 32 new Asia 21 leaders from 24 countries are two from the Philippines: Clarissa Delgado, cofounder and chief executive officer of  Teach for the Philippines (TFP), and Anna Meloto-Wilk, cofounder and president of Human Heart Nature.

Asia Society was founded 60 years ago by John D. Rockefeller III to make connections between the United States and Asia, which was then just asserting itself as a region.

It is Delgado’s advocacy I am more familiar with and whose selection I am especially enthused about, having seen her at work up close. I have served as trustee of both TFP and its forerunner, the Sa Aklat Sisikat Foundation (SAS).

But I truly date myself by saying I had known Clarissa even as a young student at International School Manila (ISM), as an avid book lover and passionate team member of her class in the school’s Battle of the Books competition. Little did we know then that our paths would cross decades later in our shared crusade of upholding the basic inalienable rights of literacy and quality education.

Delgado has an interesting background. She speaks of benefiting from education on both sides of the Pacific, referring to her early years at ISM, high school at Phillips Exeter Academy, college at William & Mary, and a graduate degree in education at Ateneo de Manila University. At William & Mary—the second oldest college in the United States which, she points out with unmistakable alumna pride, has remained a public school by choice—she majored in art and architecture history. It was there where this principle was impressed on her: “that education is a right reserved for all, no matter whom one was born to or where.” It is a principle that guides her today, the very core of the four-year-old TFP, which she oversees.

When Delgado returned from overseas, she was bent on rendering meaningful service to society. “I am a proud Filipina,” she says. “So much of who I am is because of the culture, heritage and family that have surrounded me since birth.” She immersed herself in work at SAS, which was then embarking on research in impact measurement in Tarlac with a team from the Poverty Action Lab of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, running randomized trials on the effectiveness of the SAS reading program.

Delgado says of that initial experience: “It was transformative in cementing the knowledge that education can transform lives. So while my passion for equal educational opportunity and social justice developed over time, my commitment to working for the Philippines is deeply personal.”

While it is a distinct honor to be named among now-800 alumni of Asia 21, including Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, what is viewed as truly special is to be able to make better known the single-minded mission of TFP and its over-200 individuals.

More important to Delgado is the opportunity to share best practices in leadership and to present the core values of the organization at the Asia 21 summit in Seoul in December. These four core values are what she and her impassioned TFP colleagues Patricia Feria Lim and Monette Santos Fider live and work by:

Focus on the mission. The work we do is not about us, but for the country, for the students.

Roll up your sleeves. We are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Build strong partnerships. We cannot work in silos, internally and externally.

Act excellently (and decisively) despite ambiguity. In the work we do, there are many factors that are beyond our control or unknown to us, but we cannot allow these to confound us.

What keep Delgado and her team going in TFP’s principal mission of inviting and recruiting promising college graduates to teach in public schools for two years and have them emerge as advocates for public education in whatever professional career they eventually pursue? The reasons are many: “students who are resilient and gritty, coteachers and progressive government officials who are the unsung heroes of the system, the intelligence and professionalism of TFP staff, the steely commitment of TFP alumni, the positive energy of TFP teachers.”

Delgado has learned many humbling lessons in TFP’s four years. It is a matter of not only tracking down competitive professionals, “brighter and more talented than I” in their skills, but also sharing a common mission with them. She views her role as a builder of a collective environment of trust to enable these professionals and the members of our communities to work together.

And the most important lesson thus far is that “none of this is about any specific individual.”  TFP goes way beyond that.

Neni Sta. Romana Cruz (nenisrcruz@gmail.com) is chair of the National Book Development Board and a member of the Eggie Apostol Foundation.