Fortunes Crown

Author: info@fortunescrown

  • Announcement of Topps to Launch of 2022 Series 1 Collection

    Announcement of Topps to Launch of 2022 Series 1 Collection

    Topps Kicks off 2022 Baseball Card Season with Annual Set

     Leading trading card, a part of Fanatics Collectibles, and sports company, Topps®, disclosed the launch of its yearly, highly anticipated 2022 Series 1 Collection to greet the official beginning of this year’s baseball card season, and to resume its rich heritage in trading cards.

    Boasting a brand-new rimmed base card design, the 2022 Series 1 Collection is a 330-card base set that will be available on 16th February. The 330-card base set includes modern-day stars, beginners who debuted during the 2021 season, 2021 league leaders, and team cards.

    Important players in the 2022 Series 1 Collection

    AL MVP Shohei Ohtani will lead the set, he was voted card number one in the list by fans and will be this year’s cover athlete, being displayed both pitching and hitting on the pack and pack wraps. This year, a fresh collection of young talent including Wander Franco, Jarren Duran, and Luis Gil will obtain their first Rookie Cards. Collectors can also look for autographs and game-used memorabilia cards featuring Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, Fernando Tatis Jr., etc.

    David Leiner, VP of Global Sports and Entertainment at Topps on 2022 Series 1 Collection says,

    “Topps is delighted to launch another Series 1 collection representing the start of baseball card season. Over the previous 71 years of delivering baseball cards, Topps has greeted collectors and fans of all ages to its family each year and is proud to celebrate another season of baseball cards with special moments, rookie players, and groundbreaking all-stars as Topps resume its duty to bringing fans closer to their beloved athletes.”

    Within the set, fans should also search for base card parallels successively numbered from 2022 to individual 1/1 cards, along with insert sets including Generation NOW, Diamond Greats Die Cuts, and Flashiest Fleet. Topps also memorializes the 35th anniversary of its iconic 1987 woodgrain design, which makes its retrieval in 2022 Topps Series 1 Baseball featuring present stars and legends of the game. The Home Run Challenge has returned for another year where collectors can rip, flip and forecast which MLB Superstars will hit a home run, all for an opportunity to win special cards and tickets to the 2023 MLB Home Run Derby.


    2022 Topps Series 1 collection will be obtainable online at Topps.com and in local sports shops and retailers starting February 16th. Topps will also host its first-ever Series 1 Premiere Party on Tuesday, February 15 in Los Angeles, delivering guests with an exclusive look at this year’s collection in the festivity of its release.

    Read More: IndyCar Star Robert Wickens to Return Three Years After the Accident

  • How to Implement an Effective Cause Related Marketing Campaign?

    How to Implement an Effective Cause Related Marketing Campaign?

    Cause related marketing is an effective way for companies to support worthwhile charitable events, elevate the profile of its brands and to position the organization as a good corporate citizen.  It is not a new concept and it has been around for decades.  

    Allen Marketing Communications, a NYC boutique travel and lifestyle PR agency, advises our clients that consumers today are demanding more from companies and they are looking at an organization’s track record for philanthropy.  

    Consumer products such as personal care, pampers, cereals, and liquor companies often clearly state in all Omni channel communication, as well as on product labels that a percentage of sales will be donated to support a particular cause when consumers shop during a specific time period.

    Other successful cause-related marketing campaign enlists support from major retailers and convenience stores to inspire consumers donate $1 or more at the point of sale check out to support breast cancer, hunger relief, heart disease and other noteworthy causes.

    Here are tips for implementing an effective cause-related marketing campaign.

    Inspiring and Simple Messaging.  The name of your marketing campaign matters a lot. Every successful marketing campaign has a compelling slogan or title in it. 

    For example, a breast cancer awareness campaign has used #ITouchMyselfProject to educated consumers about the importance of early detection of breast cancer through self- examination.

    Media Relations is an effective tool to educate consumers about an organization’s philanthropic efforts.  Our savvy team of travel and lifestyle public relations professionals has found that limited time offers — a percentage of sales are donated to support worthwhile charitable causes – are effective for inspire consumers to support particular causes.

    Media relations is an effective tool to secure credible third-party stories in magazines, newspapers, television, radio and online focusing on the limited time offers to stimulate sales while raising funds for charity.

    Strong Videos.  There are a lot of studies that have proved that people tend to read only 20 percent of web page content and are more attracted towards a short video or an image, it is an entirely rational appeal.

    Videos are key for social media outreach to connect with your existing and potential customers.

    Videos are key for social media outreach to connect with your existing and potential customers, and with the intuitive platform of FlexClip, marketers can easily create engaging content to effectively captivate their audience and drive meaningful interactions.

    Event Sponsorships are another way for companies to elevate their profile as a good corporate citizen.  Liquor companies often invest heavily event sponsorships to secure tremendous consumer visibility — event signage, sales promotional items, media relations, banner ads and social media outreach.   

    Concerts, sporting events, as well as charity fundraisers are popular event sponsorships.

    Omni Channel Communication.  It is important for the cause-related marketing campaign to have a unified, seamless message across all forms of communication – media relations, advertising (traditional and digital), social media, email marketing, direct mail and YouTube videos,  

    According to Marketing Drive, “Gen Z shares a preference with older generations for Omni channel marketing, with 87 percent of Baby Boomers, 85 percent of millennials, 83 percent of Generation X and 82 percent of the silent generation saying they prefer a blend of digital and physical channels. Omni channel touchpoints include email, phone, web, in-person engagements, video, social media and printed mail.”

    Cause related marketing as a whole is something all companies should aspire as part of its business model.  It is really important for companies to find a cause they truly care about to have a successful cause related marketing program.

    About Allen Marketing Communications, Inc.

    By Joanna Allen, chief executive officer, Allen Marketing Communications, Inc. has more than 25 years in consumer marketing public relations agency.  Her boutique consumer marketing PR agency specializing in travel, hospitality, food and beverages, wine and spirits, spas and wellness, non-profits and lifestyle brands PR based in New York City. 

    Allen Marketing Communications, Inc. crafts integrated public relations programs using several disciplines — brand building, destination marketing, media relations, social media, cause-related marketing, consumer promotions, special events (press conferences, consumer events, cocktail receptions), media tours — to generate brand and consumer awareness for clients. 

    Read More: Joanna Allen: Leadership In Shaping The Public Relations Industry

  • Arungalai Anbarasu: Delivering Breakthrough Technology and Digital Transformation

    Arungalai Anbarasu: Delivering Breakthrough Technology and Digital Transformation

    Digital Version

    Journey and Inspiration

    As a child, the curiosity of questions like where we came from, how things are built, how the earth was formed among others kept Arungalai Anbarasu awake at night. This made her want to be an astronaut. However, she grew up not knowing that her poor eye vision would never let her pursue that path. Therefore, she went to study the closest thing to it, engineering. She has her master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Science. And her master thesis was on Non-Destructive Testing (NDT), that’s what her employer Waygate Technologies specializes in.

    After university, she joined the famous conglomerate General Electric (GE) into their graduate program called Edison engineering where she learned how technology is used to build and sell solutions that solve different problems in the world like energy, healthcare, transportation, and communication. Therefore, driving a strategy & business from wing to wing became a passion which made her take different roles in GE & Baker Hughes in the areas of finance, strategy, operations, technology, and business leadership up to her current role of Chief Technology & Strategy Officer for Waygate Technologies, a Baker Hughes business. She and her team look at the overarching strategy for Waygate Technologies while delivering breakthrough technology innovation and digital transformation. She also led the industrial X-ray and computed tomography (CT) business in the past few years at Baker Hughes (BH).

    Every role, every experience, every country Arungalai has lived, taught her something new and contributed to shaping her career and personality. The diversity of roles and global nature of her roles before has really helped her look at the strategy for the company in a very balanced yet with an exponential growth approach. Her experiences have also taught her the power of being able to flex from the strategic view to the tactical view to operate the business at best which she very much leverages in her current role. Not only to dream about the future but also to enable the operations to make it real!

    Opportunities Against Difficulties

    As with any company in this age – COVID has thrown at Waygate Technologies a really large wrench. Its key customers were impacted, and that is clearly affecting them – it does no one good to ignore that fact.

    “There are opportunities even in the difficult moments.” With that in view, COVID has also posed a positive aspect where the digital transformation is accelerating in every industry…It is the new beginning for the Digital Revolution! NDE4.0 in Waygate Technologies’ case.

    Overall, if anything good has come out of COVID, it is the fact that drove us further away from each other physically and brought a lot of people much closer together virtually. The manifestation of this in industrial inspection is the drive to data and the drive to a larger level of, remote, collaboration. This coincidentally is precisely what is enabled by the suite of Waygate Technologies’ digital products called InspectionWorks.

    What are the main challenges to achieving the transformation from a device-centric inspection company to a data-centric inspection company? – both internally and externally?

    Transformation exists throughout the process; not just technology. Sometimes, digital transformation is seen as a technology problem only.

    Waygate Technologies is a company with a great heritage – the team traces its lineage back to Krautkrämer and Seifert – people who discovered the technologies and invented the techniques. However, with this heritage also comes a lot of tradition that tends to get up-ended in this world of, quite literally, data-driven micro-second decisions (if you don’t believe in the time scale, just look at the micro traders on Wall Street). ‘Waygatians’ try to address these challenges along with multiple fronts:

    • Move execution to focus explicitly on collaborative partnerships – with customers and partners – this is critical because all these software solutions can become most successful when the team works in close collaboration with customers and partners, and focus exclusively on areas where they can deliver the most value – this allows for scale in a world that is moving at warp speed.
    • The second pillar is that of building the right commercial models – they are so used to selling boxes that even when they sell software, they end up selling it as if they are selling a box – they need to consciously create new ways of doing business – this means trying out new models, refining them and coming up with faster, and more efficient paths to revenue.
    • They need to continue to look long and hard at how to enable sales and commercial success on software and solutions – this requires a completely different mindset that needs to be encouraged, by training, incentives, etc.
    • Finally from a hardware and machine manufacturing business to a software solutions business is a hard shift on technology execution and rhythms – one example is that they are moving to a constant release rhythm – they have set up a quarterly release calendar and they would like to drive a steady expectation from their customers – where like any other major software company’s yearly release event – their customers look to them at certain times of the year for them to release new versions of their solutions – like clock-work.

     

    Women Softening Economy

    Making decisions after considering multiple viewpoints ensures the probability of success from the outcomes is higher & the probability of approach with balanced emotions is higher. Women bring unique perspectives to research and scientific conversation, reduce the skill gap, and foster economic growth.

    Focusing on Digitalization

    Arungalai Anbarasu, the Chief Technology & Strategy Officer at Waygate Technologies, is driving strategy & innovation for the company. In addition to pushing the technology & business models boundaries on industrial inspection solutions, Aru and her team are also focused on the digital transformation of Waygate Technologies and the spearheads of the firm’s evolution into a Digital Inspection Solutions (DIS) provider, taking customers from inspections to insights and from insights to innovations.

    The key enablers that drive strategy, technology, business, security, etc are the team. In this time of the pandemic, it’s extremely important for each one of them to make an extra effort to care about the team, employees, peers. Challenges with the hybrid or home working are different. Addressing the challenges is better solved together. “We are stronger together than alone!”

    The key is empathy and authenticity. This builds a trustful relationship which then breeds into a fruitful partnership when the team undertakes challenges and fulfills transformational activities successfully.

    And practicing what they preach.

    Not encourage your team trying to build a kingdom but create a leap for humanity. The goal is always bigger than power and position–its transformation, innovation, and advancement.

    Lastly, giving the freedom for the team to create and develop within boundaries of compliance, ethics, and safety. People make a business; Business does not make people. So, a business will be successful only if it focuses on the people.

    Leading Breadth of Portfolios

    Waygate Technologies (WT) has the biggest breadth of portfolios and enjoys a leadership position in a large majority of them. They are world leaders in industrial X-ray and CT equipment and are leaders in professional video borescopes among others. The company proudly received the Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Award for the Global Industrial Computed Tomography Solutions multiple years in a row.

    WT’s combination of breadth – visual, ultrasound, X-ray, CT, Eddy current, portables, handhelds, testing machines, cloud services, etc have them placed in a unique position to deliver market-winning cross-modality insights to their customers. The world is moving away from data at single units of time, space, modality, etc.

    For instance, think of your cell phone – phones, since the time of the blackberry, have been able to both browse the net and you can call a restaurant to make reservations. However, today you can ask Siri for restaurant recommendations, and “she” can understand from your browsing history that it is your spouse’s birthday, remembers his/her favorite restaurant and knows which table you prefer and can create a reservation and remembers to add a note to your reservation that you are allergic to shellfish. In other words, we are moving away from delivering individual pieces of data and recognizing the exponential value of connecting disparate pieces of information.

    The inspection and quality industry is going the same way and Waygate Technologies is uniquely positioned to get the industry to that point. There it can look at the powder metallurgy via a CT powder scan, look at the engine blade cast from this powder via an X-ray, assess the assembly quality of the blade into an engine using ultrasound, and inspect the engine on the wing of an aircraft using visual testing. After then it connects all this data via its cloud services and analytics and delivers back to the OEM, information that they can use to make a much better generation of blades next time around. Waygate Technologies will take their customers from detecting defects to avoiding them altogether.

    Data– the Necessity

    One big change factor is Data – while being a buzzword today – is both fortunate and unfortunate. Fortunate because data is truly the bedrock of any communication – after all, all the cellular networks in the world would be completely useless if no one talked on cell phones generating “data”. However, these networks would also be useless if all that flowed out of cell phones were 1’s and 0’s – which is after all the raw data that flows around on these networks. What that analogy was supposed to demonstrate is that data is critical – but it is only one part of what enables any technology (and among them industrial inspection) – the second and equally critical portion is the ability to convert data to insights and/or information.

    “The 1’s and 0’s flowing from a cell phone from my daughter’s hand, through a cell tower, through satellites in outer space, back to my cell tower to my cell phone, really becomes meaningful when my cell phone is able to convert it to true information and when I hear– I love you mum.”

    Similarly, all the data that Waygate Technologies collects from its instruments, and other instruments, whether it is UT data from a competitors machine, MPI data from a 3-rd party testing lab, or images from an operators cell phone – all this data needs to be collected, correctly correlated, associated to the right asset that the team is inspecting. The process is critical but what is really needed is the ability to connect all this data and send back to the asset owner (customer), information on whether he/she needs to pull that asset from the line because it is at critical risk of failure or whether he/she can keep running it for another two years.

    Data and the associated information it carries can truly create a paradigm shift in inspections. There is one thing about inspections that WT’s customers painfully realize – no matter how well they build their instruments, no matter how cutting edge their software is; inspections to their customers are like doctors’ visits for them. The best doctor’s visit is the one no one needs to have.

    Data and information hold the transformative power to realize the Waygate Technologies dream for its customers – to take them from inspecting their assets today to fewer inspections tomorrow, to not having to inspect at all, in the future – after all, as its tag line says, “why detect defects when you could avoid them altogether?” This is what a truly leveraged data-driven solution can achieve for its customers.

    All of these require a strong cultural mindset shift. Waygate Technologies is a company that has historically sold “products” – or boxes. “We must move to envision, create, build, and sell solutions.”

    Waygate Technologies is developing ‘InspectionWorks’ with a DIS strategy, through the phases of acquiring, analyzing, and acting, which is centered around providing its customers with a way to develop an inspection “thread” that runs through their entire product lifecycle. Almost providing a digital asset health passport through its lifetime with the lens of inspection information–complete, centralized & contextualized inspection history of an entire asset – from cradle to grave. InspectionWorks is centered around providing its customers a way to develop an inspection “thread” that runs through their entire product lifecycle.

    The lifecycle of any customer asset goes through three basic phases – design & engineering, manufacturing, and operations. Today, via the use of PLM systems and digital tools the customer has an equivalent virtual “ecosystem” – often referred to as the digital twin. InspectionWorks (IW) will provide to this digital twin, at each point of the lifecycle, a connection to industrial inspections and the data coming out of inspections. Thus, InspectionWorks will be an inspection-centric digital “triplet” to the digital twin. Inspections are typically focused around the last two steps in the product lifecycle, but the data and insights gained from these inspections can also be fed back into the design phase to allow the customer to derive multi-generational value – thus defects coming out of the production and operations phase of today’s asset will allow the customer to design a less defect prone asset tomorrow – and that is how IW will take our customers from detecting defects to avoiding them.

    Promoting Women in STEM

    Above all, Arungalai Anbarasu has a 7-year-old daughter (Ada). The best outcome is that at her kindergarten graduation stated she would want to grow up to be an engineer. Arungalai has always been passionate about promoting women in STEM but after she had Ada, she’s now obsessed. Like any mother, she wants to make the world a better place for her.

    Arungalai heard this in one of the roundtables and it stuck with her.

    “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” ― George Bernard Shaw

    And she is proud to be an unreasonable woman.

    Arungalai would love to encourage all the girls and women to be unreasonable within the boundaries of compliance, ethics, and safety to take the first steps that will create progress for the others. Being first is never easy but it’s fun.

    Read More: Benjamin Talin: Embracing Digitalization More Than Just Digital

  • Nicole Martin: Helping Businesses Access Strategic HR Solutions

    Nicole Martin: Helping Businesses Access Strategic HR Solutions

    The ever-evolving changes in the business world demand adaptation to meet the needs of modern times. Often businesses struggle and fall short of matching up with these changes putting themselves in jeopardy. It requires concrete HR solutions that help organizations to lead through these transformations to develop and execute innovative growth strategies while cultivating robust relationships. Akin to such HR expertise is Nicole Martin, Chief Empowerment Officer and Founder of HRBoost.

    We at Fortunes Crown got into conversation with Nicole to learn more about her journey and how she is changing the landscape of the HR industry.

    Please brief us in detail about the current scenario of the business. How have the customer preferences changed over the years?

    We practice what we preach. This means we accept passive talent interest and pipeline our own talent. When we have a need, we do not have to post an ad and wait. We usually have someone ready to go and waiting for the call. This is essential to our continued growth. What has been interesting during the pandemic is the out-of-state interest we have received from HR talent. It has us thinking. After all, we do believe in open sourcing talent, especially now.

    We have always trended with growth year after year, however, amidst the pandemic, we were hard hit like many. Thankfully, we have successfully returned to pre Covid-19 revenues levels and this is something we are pleased with given the level of uncertainty in the market. We have revealed some new innovative ways to reach our clients and as talent shifts occur, we are ready to help the businesses that seek to retain talent. 

    Could you please walk us through your educational/professional journey? What was the moment that triggered you to step into the business?

    You’ll notice it instantly. I at HRBoost®, love what I do, and do it remarkably well. I’m an accidental entrepreneur. I looked back after starting my own business and said, “I started a business. Whoa!” I didn’t set out to create a boost. I simply followed my passion to help clients understand the importance human resources can play in developing a strong business. Today I am a successful entrepreneur and an HR industry innovator, dedicated to helping small to mid-size businesses realize their potential through their employees.

    A self-professed “country girl in disguise,” I grew up in Montana, where everyone knows you and greets you on the street. I was also lucky to have a great mentor early in life: my mom. My mother is highly spiritual, and she raised me with the philosophy of being happy. She always believed that I am a special person—she ingrained that in me—and I am capable of anything.” 

    At the age of 18, I am ready to start proving my mom right. I left Montana and moved in with my godmother in Libertyville, Illinois. Right out of high school, I got a job as a receptionist at a pre-Y2K firm where I found my passion quite by accident. They were hiring all these computer experts from overseas, but when they arrived, the company just put them in the reception area because they didn’t know what to do with them. “It was just inhumane.” 

    During the same time, I was working on a training program for a college human resources class. I wanted to help these guys out in the hallway, so I just marched into the director’s office and asked him if he wanted to see the training program I created for school. When I was finished with her presentation, the director created a human resources department for the site, hired a manager, and moved 18-year-old me from reception to human resources.

    I have been building HR departments from the ground up ever since. What makes my approach so unique is that I begin with the business’ vision and create HR programs that are completely integrated with that vision. From the hiring process to annual reviews, the programs I create are designed to further the business, boost productivity, and help employees understand why and how their contributions are meaningful.

    When was HRBoost® established? What are the prominent services/solutions offered by the company?

    In 2010, I founded HRBoost® and I had a big vision. Given we are not your Broker, your Attorney, or a 1-800 number. We believe HR expertise is essential to any business as they grow their enterprise. Our Shared Services approach allows businesses to access strategic HR at their pace and budget all while taking a holistic approach to integrating a culture plan that enables their strategic and/or operational plans as a business.

    We deliver skilled talent to our clients. We also believe they need both strategic and tactical resources at the same time. One human is not ideal as there are various cognitive abilities to optimize HR strategically. We believe our shared services approach to the middle market is the PEO Alternative. And yes, the middle market needs an alternative.

    What measures do you incorporate to ensure motivation and productivity within the workspace? How do you respond to criticism and disagreements?

    I am blessed to have truly blessed people on our team. Thankfully, they live our core values and instead of me recognizing every time a core value is witnessed, they have taken peer reward recognition to be a strong reinforcement. Even today, I was thanked by my Admin Extraordinaire for her shoutouts as she just cashed in on a new car seat for her beautiful child. What more can I say? It is all about how you make people feel. 

    What measures do you undertake to ensure optimum customer satisfaction? How much impact does the customer feedback have on the company’s strategies?

    We serve businesses spanning multiple sectors; these include Professional Services, Non-Profit Organizations, High Tech, Manufacturing, Staffing firms, Hospitality, and Healthcare. Our clients are typically from high-growth businesses with 50-250 employees. Our model is to meet the clients wherever they are, thus we provide full-service embedded HR support, a project to project support, culture design and management training, employee programs and assessments, virtual support, and phone support. I am honored to lead a high-performance team of HR leaders who partner with our business clients to meet them wherever they are on their journey, to being the best place to work. We have experienced tremendous growth and proudly nearly every client has been sourced through word of mouth. Our appeal and success are due to our personal dedication to each and every client.

    What was/is your response to the current unprecedented situation?

    We have always trended with growth year after year, however, amidst the pandemic, we were hard hit like many. Thankfully, we have successfully returned to pre Covid-19 revenues levels and this is something we are pleased with given the level of uncertainty in the market. We have revealed some new innovative ways to reach our clients and as talent shifts occur, we are ready to help the businesses that seek to retain talent.

    Ironically, the biggest threat to the marketplace is talent, even now. Only the truly forward-thinking companies will make winning moves even in the downturn of the economy.  

    What are the services/solutions we should anticipate from HRBoost® in the near future?

    We offer small and midsize businesses HR services on an ala carte, project, or retainer basis. We meet our clients wherever they are on their journey to be an employer of choice and we also meet them at their pace and budget. Our Shared Services approach allows us to build HR departments from scratch and align them to business strategy. While we see great value in the middle market, we do have some larger companies that augment their internal HR teams with strategic project initiatives from our team. Software is not HR. And HR is more than payroll and benefits. Building a high-performance culture that drives innovation and profitability requires leaders at all levels. HR infrastructure can uphold the Culture Invitation and once it is strategically aligned and reinforced a company can create workforce alignment empowering leaders to innovate amidst even the toughest climate in business.

    As a decorated leader, what would be your piece of advice for entrepreneurs seeking careers in the business?

    It is my number one responsibility to empower my team of Boosters, invest in ongoing education, tools, and resources to optimize my team. I have faith that they will in turn delight our clients. I was truly humbled when after years of serving on the Advisory Board and being part of a winning organization in my prior roles, my own company took the stage of Best & Brightest ®Companies to Work For in Chicago in 2020. 

    Success is relative. Many people would read my resume or some printed article about me but the real success comes in the joy of doing what you love every day. It is amazing, however, when you turn around and see many others who work for you and source Joy and Purpose through our shared work and creation. Work and Life should be integrated not compartmentalized. I love that there is no real dividing line between work and play for me. 

    I try to lead by example and I also share for the benefit of all. I have published two books that really speak to women, though men have let me know they enjoy them equally as well. The Power of Joy and Purpose is my personal story and I share my 7 Presence Principles as I get asked nearly every day, how do I do it all so joyfully? I don’t do it alone. I also co-authored a book with John Tinghitella last year. We named it, NO FEAR Negotiation for Women, a book where we set forth a process that women can add to their list of abilities and for the greater benefit of our country. Men are about results and Women are about effort. We need both in business.

    *It is our Vision at HRBoost® to bring JOY and PURPOSE to PEOPLE through their Work. It is how we serve our clients and the people that choose to join up on their visions. We live it at HRBoost® and believe everyone deserves it.

    Read More: Digital Advertising: A New Era And A Business Necessity

  • Sister Merceditas O. Ang: Embracing Future-Proof Education

    Sister Merceditas O. Ang: Embracing Future-Proof Education

    Digital Version

     “As we create and traverse new educational pathways in the 21st century learning to reach greater heights, SPUP will Lead, Innovate, Grow, and Serve.”

    St. Paul University Philippines (SPUP) has an awe-inspiring and long-lasting impact on students and teachers. For more than 25 years, the university provides a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate programs that promote intellectual inquiry and independent thought. Sister Merceditas O. Ang, SPC, the university President, is a visionary and transformational leader with compelling ideas beyond frontiers. Consistently honored with local and international awards, SPUP is unleashing its promising landscape of advanced education.

    Teaching and Learning Support

    Trailblazing a future-ready and sustainable holistic education to make a difference globally was a lofty goal and giant leap for St. Paul University Philippines (SPUP) in 2015. Globalization and diversity called for re-thinking and reforms in the education sector vis-à-vis the ASEAN Regional Integration and the K to 12 transition in Philippine basic education. Rising up to the challenges of contemporary times, SPUP launched its internationalization programs and initiatives as a vital component of high-quality education and global competencies of Paulinian students and graduates. 

    A strategic roadmap was crafted on six key areas:

    1) quality teaching-learning and student services 

    2) research and innovation

    3) resource mobilization and human development 

    4) internationalization

    5) creative evangelization 

    6) community services and sustainability 

    Accordingly, the traditional programs and structures were revamped and enhanced. Relevant and innovative new programs were offered with an interdisciplinary approach across borders. Research and STEM education gained momentum. Local and international partnerships and collaborative endeavors with the academe, industry, government agencies, and other stakeholders remarkably increased in a number of partners and levels of engagement. Community outreach and services were provided to the poor and marginalized, and the state-of-the-art physical and digital infrastructures of the university were built along with the human capital investment.

    Response to the Crisis

    Within a span of five years, SPUP has undergone massive transformation and advancement, which abruptly took a turn in 2020 with the COVID-19 outbreak. The SPUP administration, under the dynamic leadership of Sister Merceditas, prioritized care for people and ensured the health, safety, and well-being of the students and employees. Learning modalities catered to the needs and context of the students. Advance technologies facilitated the delivery of holistic quality teaching and learning with high student engagement. No retrenchment was made and all employees received full monthly salaries and benefits despite the financial constraints. Amazing results happened with the value-based, people-centered, positive mindset, technology-driven, agile and resilient approach to survive during the pandemic. 

    In generously and humanely translating challenges into opportunities, SPUP registered a big increase of more than a thousand new students in 2021 and its international students and partners doubled in number. Moreover, local and international recognition and awards were garnered by the university in the fields of social services and human development. Indeed, manifold blessings keep SPUP thriving despite the pandemic complemented with faith and hope for a better tomorrow.

    The Ideal Place for Knowledge

    St. Paul University Philippines was founded on May 10, 1907, in Tuguegarao City by the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres (SPC). It was established with humble beginnings as a small school for basic education spurred by the missionary zeal and sacrifices of the pioneer SPC sisters and lay collaborators. In 1941, the school buildings were used as a military garrison during the war and ravaged during the liberation. The reconstruction and growth of the school had met another catastrophe in 1965 when its buildings were razed to the ground by fire. Like gold tested in a crucible, SPUP had overcome setbacks to flourish and expand into tertiary education and graduate school. In 1982, it was hailed as the first university in Cagayan Valley, in the northern part of the Philippines.  For more than a century of existence, SPUP has proven its tradition of excellence and untarnished reputation of providing high-quality education. 

    The Philippine Commission on Higher Education recognized SPUP as an autonomous university, Center of Excellence in Nursing and Education, Center for Development in Information Technology, and Center for Teacher Training. The University was also cited as Most Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Campus in the Region, Outstanding Student Services in the Philippines, Outstanding Library in the Philippines, Top 3 in the Philippine Higher Education Internationalization Award, and included in the World Universities with Real Impact (WURI). Its global engagements exemplify inclusive and intercultural education, embracing unity in diversity with its more than nine thousand local and international student population.  This year, SPUP celebrates its 115th founding anniversary true to its vision-mission as an internationally recognized institution dedicated to the formation of competent leaders and responsible citizens of their communities, country, and the world.  In setting strategic directions, Sr. Merceditas inspires with wisdom and forward-looking perspectives.

    Establishment and Achievement

    Sister Merceditas O. Ang, SPC believes that “the bottom line of success is not gauged by external rewards but felt as an inner fulfillment, and eventually in the scheme of things it is a life of integrity and service that will have a lasting legacy on humanity.”  She joined the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres in 1994 as a lawyer by profession. Also, she has a degree in Psychology and work experiences in human resource training, counseling, banking, taxation, and corporate law. As a religious sister, she immersed in the spirituality of consecrated life and served in the education ministry. In 2003, Sister Merceditas obtained a Master’s degree in Educational Management and a Ph.D. degree in Educational Leadership and Management in 2005. She wrote and published a paper on Servant Leadership which was presented during the Greenleaf International Conference on Servant Leadership in Indianapolis, USA. She was appointed as President of St. Paul University Surigao in 2006, and as Provincial Assistant for Education in 2009-2014.

    The mission of forming the young as responsible future leaders appealed to her inner calling. She believes that education is a potent factor in national and global development, sustainability, and social transformation. In 2015, as the incumbent President of St. Paul University Philippines, Sr. Merceditas spearheaded the internationalization program of SPUP incorporating global education and technology integration in the curriculum and instruction. She is an advocate of quality education, breakthrough innovations, sustainable development, and strategic growth and networking. She has extensive professional experience and competence in the fields of education, law, research and innovation, internationalization, sustainable development, peace, and social justice advocacy, environmental stewardship, and socio-civic organization. She is also affiliated with various national and international organizations and has dedicated her life to the mission of “love and service.” She has trailblazed innovative programs on holistic human development and published research papers on 21st-century learning, leadership, global education, and education for sustainable development.

    In 2017, Sister Merceditas received the Education Leadership Award by CMO Asia held in Singapore and the Global Education Leadership Award during the World Education Congress in Mumbai, India in 2019. The UNESCO Philippines conferred on Sister Merceditas the Outstanding UNESCO Club Educator of the Philippines Award in 2019. These awards recognized her leadership that fosters future-ready and sustainable global education, specifically citing service-learning engagement, livelihood projects, implementation of the UN SDGs, scholarship programs, health and wellness programs, child development centers, ecological conservation, cultural heritage conservation, functional literacy for adult learners, peace education, global citizenship, family-based disaster management, and commitment to uplift the quality of life.

    Passport to the Future

    The COVID-19 pandemic steeped the flexible and hybrid learning modalities and ushered an immersive virtual learning environment using 3D simulations, artificial intelligence, AVR technologies, adaptive learning, robotics, deep learning, and other educational technologies. Sr. Merceditas envisions SPUP’s future learning environment as a fusion of humanity and technology, thus harnessing the power of the 4.0 technologies to enhance the quality of education and form responsible innovators, change-makers, and solution providers to real-life problems. SPUP is developing its Education 5.0 which is human-centric and technology-driven to hone the future-ready competencies and soft skills of globally competitive graduates. Gearing towards becoming a smart university, SPUP has embarked on its “Digital Transformation with Data Analytics System.”  “We leverage the integration of data science, artificial intelligence, and advanced educational technologies in SPUP’s digital transformation, moving towards a smart university,” quips Sr. Merceditas.

    Engaging the Wider Community

    The basic principles of respect for individuality and uniqueness highlight the policy of inclusivity, interculturality, and diversity of student population transcending differences of culture, nationality, race, religion, and ethnicity. Our students come from different localities in Cagayan and other places in the Philippines, with various cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Also, we have international students from 16 countries, so there is a mixture and integration of socio-cultural orientations. What is interesting and heartwarming is that there is peace and unity despite the diversity among our international and local students, anchored on mutual respect and support for one another.

    Charity and generosity abound in the scholarship programs offered to qualified students especially to the poor, bright, and marginalized. The scholarship is granted to those who excel in academics and athletics, and those who are economically impoverished but deserving. Children of tenured employees are given full scholarships from Grade One until College graduation. Working students are provided with accommodation and food allowance. The tuition fee is low and the payment scheme is flexible to ensure financial affordability. Promissory notes from hard-up parents are accepted and miscellaneous fees are accepted.

    Match Heating Times to Building Future-Ready Society

    Good academic facilities will have a positive impact on the teaching and learning process, student engagement and learning outcomes, health, and wellness. SPUP provides excellent educational facilities and services which are accessible in person, online or offline like the library, guidance, and counseling, computer and science laboratories, ICT, canteen, dormitories, boutique, sports complex, culture and arts center, university chapel, robotics and AI laboratory, and center for research and innovation. Moreover, services are provided on peer-tutoring and collaborative learning, remedial classes, telehealth and counseling, family-based evangelization, teacher consultation, tutorials, and mentoring.

    Holistic education with character formation is embedded in the curricular and co-curricular activities. Our students are immersed in project-based learning related to real-life problems and community issues, service learning to benefit the poor and marginalized sectors in society, and advocacies for social transformation and sustainable development. We develop academic excellence propelled by research and innovation, technology-enabled, enriched with spirituality and social responsibility.

    Spaces to Support Opportunities

    Aptitude test interpretation and career placement program is provided by the Guidance Office as part of the comprehensive student services. A job fair is regularly conducted. The University has an Entrepreneurship/Employment Center that covers start-up innovations, business incubation, training facilities for entrepreneurship, and future-ready job skills. Competencies for a diverse workforce is enhanced with student internship program in local and international industries. 

    Self-awareness, Exploring educational opportunities, and Commitment to become successful against all odds, are primary steps and springboards in college/university studies.

    First, engage in “know thyself” reflection to discover the deepest passion and inner motivation and aspiration as to what you want to do in life which you consider as most meaningful. Second, match your personal and professional goals and talents with the programs and opportunities offered by the university of your choice. Third, commitment and determination to be successful in any profession or calling in life.

    SPUP provides career counseling and placement to prospective and current students and monitors their academic performance and development of life and career skills as lifelong learners and responsible citizens. 

    Read More: Arungalai Anbarasu: Delivering Breakthrough Technology And Digital Transformation

  • World Cancer Day: NCCN joins “Close the Care Gap” by UICC

    World Cancer Day: NCCN joins “Close the Care Gap” by UICC

    On 4th February, this World Cancer Day, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) unites with associations all across the world to attract attention to inequities in cancer care and work to handle them. “Close the care gap” is the new campaign conducted by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) that will promote equity in health care for different races/ethnicities, socioeconomic groups, sexual orientations, gender identities, regions, and more.

    According to Robert W. Carlson, MD, Chief Executive Officer, NCCN:

    The identity and address of a person should not determine the healthcare someone receives. Still, there are disparities in the health care received by the U.S. and other countries. There are differences in health care for different communities of people within the U.S. So this World Cancer Day, NCCN will discover and manage the important barriers that stop too many people from acquiring high-quality cancer care. 

    Previously on World Cancer Day global strategy for eliminating cervical cancer was announced by World Health Organization. According to UICC, the survival rate of women with cervical cancer is more for white women than for black women in the U.S. The mortality rate for cervical cancer is more than 90% in low and middle-income households. Only 20% of the children from low-income households survive from cancer while the survival rate in high-income households is 80%.

    There are significant differences between the cancer care received by different groups of people even in high-income countries like the U.S. So on World Cancer Day, NCCN and UICC tries to uncover and close the care gap received by different communities.

    Dr. Cary Adams, CEO of UICC, says: 

    Healthcare organizations should come together and break down barriers. Over the last 10 years, UICC has achieved a lot in cancer care and control around the world but not handling inequities in society is delaying their progress. Closing the care gap is about fairness, dignity, and fundamental rights to let everyone have better health and live a longer life.

    The NCCN Guidelines in Oncology is a resource that standardizes the best available quality in cancer care and stops improper or insufficient management. Many separate studies reveal that standardized care enhances results, but is not always used equally for all patient groups.

    READ MORE: Immorna Biotherapeutics, Inc. Expands R&D Footprint in RTP, NC