PAG-ASA v.1

Trips to the Philippines are always rejuvenating. I am very excited about Exist's progress! (we have renamed it Exist Global). The management team is maturing well and now taking a lot of ownership in driving the company forward. I am very proud of how my "Exist-mates", and soon co-owners of the company, continue to remain curious, enthusiastic and energetic in our collective pursuit of "the better way" for software-driven innovation.

I am looking forward to the days where I am no longer dealing with the day to day. I've started to think about areas where I can contribute to the country. I have always wanted to do something to help advance education for software development. All I needed was a little inspiration and some very useful baseline data from the UP College of Engineering to turn it into action. So I decided to embark on the PAG-ASA initiative.

So what's PAG-ASA ?
It stands for Professorial Achievement Grant for Academic Software Advancement. I made it up :). I like the acronym and filled it in. Seems like a good start but I welcome better suggestions. It is as it sounds, it's a grant program for the faculty focused on computer science and software engineering. The goal is to improve faculty retention by providing income augmentation, in campus work-synergy with businesses and advanced learning.

Educator First Mission
I did not do an exhaustive search but I wanted to be a part of a program that put "Educator first" in its mission. I have benefitted greatly from educators like Marlon Bacani while at DLSU. Exist's tag line of "There's always a better way" is Mr. Bacani's mantra. He was a tireless mentor who inspired his students to go after great things despite challenges. I consider Mr. Bacani's teachings as a significant reason for what I have accomplished thus far. It's also a good way to celebrate the life of a former employee and UP faculty member named Christian Golingho, who in the last remaining weeks, found solace in continuing to do what he loved (writing great software). Both Mr. Bacani and Christian are no longer with us but I am hoping to honor them by becoming an educator advocate through PAG-ASA. It needs to start by improving our educators' quality of life and providing continuous advancement opportunities.

Mechanics
The initial mechanics are derived from the UP college of engineering professorial chair program. Basically, a grant is provided to a faculty member who commits for stay for 5 years and will comply with certain qualifiers. The grant amount is designed to augment somewhere between 25% - 50% of a faculty member's income. Other aspects of the program will build from this. This includes the work-synergy project and advanced learning program. The initial cost per program sponsorship is approximately $15K per grantee for 5 years. I believe setting a goal for 100 educators in the program is very attainable within 2-3 years.

Whats next ?
First is to make sure not to re-invent the wheel. UP has a good program and probably is a good place to start. I am planning to pledge 5 grants next year to kick off the program. I am very impressed by the Ayala foundation and Gilas. I am going to ask Vicky Garchitorena (Gilas Chairperson) for some advise on setting up the foundation or leverage the Ayala foundation infrastructure. It's probably also a good idea to get an educator's take on how this program can best benefit them. Any volunteers?

I am sure that there are a lot of people like me who can attribute their success in life to the quality of education they have receive. I believe that our country's opportunity to produce the best technologists for the highest paying technology job in the world (software development) rests on our educators. I am hoping that an investment in PAG-ASA (or any similar program) will show them that we appreciate it.