Yesterday, I had the privilege to be one of a handful
of distinguished speakers to kick off the Servant-Leadership &
Service-Learning (SL²) Conference hosted by the Pacific Islands
University. Founded in 1976, the
501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization , PIU has provided accessible and
transformational Christian college education to the young men and women of
Micronesia. The conference attempted to
recognize the value and relevancy of Service-Learning in the real-world
experience, demonstrate and understand the practical implementation of
Service-Learning and increase and improve the application of Service-Learning
methodologically. Here is what this
Blogger shared to the 75 in attendance in Barrigada, Guam:
"I want to thank the Pacific Islands University
for the opportunity to speak today. For 38 years, they have been a leader in
educating the young people of Guam and Micronesia and this conference could not
have come at a better time . Servant-Leaders are being called upon all across our community to share their thoughts
on many important issues: minimum wage, economic development, the military
re-alignment in Asia, protecting our healthcare and environment. The public discourse by Servant-Leaders will
translate into public policy and greater awareness of the things that matter
most to our people and greater Micronesia. It is this awareness that was
impressed on me as a young person that has led me to you all here today.
My father was a US Marine. Back in the 1960's most young people like him
at the time were trying to find their way in Guam. For many like him, the attraction of a sharp
dressed Marine led him from a for sure college career at University of
California Berkeley to the battle fields of Vietnam. A patriotic American. Hence at a young age, he taught me and my two
brothers early on that if we were ever called to duty to our island or nation that we should answer the call. I wasn't sure what that really meant as a young boy and eventually a teenager-that was
until I joined the Interact Club in high school in San Leandro, California. Linked to Rotary International, the service
club experience taught me that there was much I can do as a young person to
help those less fortunate. It taught me
the values of being a leader in a community which needed more people to step
forward. The meetings started with pizza
and sodas. And yes-I went for the
food. What I later found was that
discussing, organizing and actually engaging in a service project was very
rewarding for me personally. Candy grams
morphed into road cleanups, which morphed into helping public television fund
drives and the list grew and grew. The
experience inspired me later in life to establish the first Interact Club at
Notre Dame High School when I joined the Rotary Club of Tumon Bay in 2011. We will talk about that more in a bit.
Stewardship. A
quality of a leader that many truly do not understand. A true leader is focused on protecting and or
being responsible for the well being of others.
In 2003, I was content as an Anchor-Reporter at KUAM-TV-the fourth
broadcast station I had worked for in my 13 year career. I was able to travel
the region, met people from all walks of life and laughed and cried with each
and every one of them. I knew my
stories mattered. I knew that the
awareness I brought to our viewers via the hundreds of interviews was objective
- allowing each to make up his or her own mind on the news of the day. I knew that I was protecting the rights of
many by giving a voice to the silent. It
is a profession that is still today a valuable and important one. This exposure did catch the eye of many-in
particular a person I least expected.
The day was like any other. A phone
call. A drive. An office building in Agana was the
destination. I thought it was another
news story. It turned out to be
something more. It was on a morning in
December 2002. I was asked to join the
Office of the Governor of Guam. I had this single question for Former Guam
Governor Felix Camacho. Why me? His response was swift. You are young. You are smart. You are a Chamorro. I know you will do a good job. Then the voice of my Dad filled my mind-if
you are ever called to duty to your island or nation you answer the call. That was the start to an eight year
appointment with the Camacho Administration.
Everyone who worked for Governor Camacho was guided by the simple
mantra-stewardship. Many a Cabinet
Meeting. Many a meeting in the
office. Many a talk with the people of
Guam from Yigo to Umatac. There was
never more of a common goal and
challenge to protecting and being responsible of the services to the people of
Guam. From education to public safety to
health. I and the men and women who
served-including some of those in this room-were guided by this mantra.
Stewardship, I learned, was not about just this one
chapter in my life that took me to the halls of Congress, to the Executive
Office Building of the President of the United States, the West Wing of the
White House, US Embassies in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, military bases around the
world and the seats of governments from Majuro to New Zealand. It was a philosophy that needed to be an important part of my everyday life
moving forward. Stewardship-there helping me each day.
When my appointment ended and went back to the private sector for a company and then as a business owner, I felt a void in my life after
public service. Helping others can be contagious. Helping others does more to lead others to
being good corporate citizens. As a
Rotarian, guiding the young people of the NDHS Interact, St. Johns and JFK
Interact Clubs, I am proud to mentor 150 high school students a year in making
them think more about the value of Service Above Self and to also remind them
that it doesn't look too bad on a college application. Their service projects have been important
and served many in our island community. My company-gives much time to help develop
the capacities of small businesses on Guam.
We have worked with a number of companies to help them traverse the
bureaucracy of the business license process, legal establishment of a
corporation, the registration to do business with the island's number one
industry-the federal government and network with other small businesses and even large
ones. Our goal-help us and others
achieve our collective economic destinies as a successful company and further
grow our community here and Micronesia. Serving others the center of all of this.
Having had the privilege to advise island leaders from the Marshall
Islands to Palau, the interaction and insight has shaped much of my thought on
serving others through my public service and now my small business. I learned this particularly powerful lesson
from current Palau President Tommy Remengesau during his first term -the oceans
do not separate us, they bring us closer
together. It is this message that I give you today and why the SL2 Conference
is important towards bring folks like you together and fostering this important
value. I will say that businesses in
Guam and the region need to have stewardship training or insight into
stewardship more than ever before.
Businesses can take the idea of stewardship and bring to bear something
as important as a living wage-a positive value system that encourages
reciprocal lending of time and resources to better our island society. The discussions of such will continue to
bubble up from time to time.
It is the
SL2 Conference that we need to bring to others.
This room is filled with bright young minds. Ask yourselves-why can't we share our stewardship
values with others. I call this our
first step together in that. I am not
the end all in this issue. I am not even
and expert in it-as each day poses one struggle after another to challenge me
and other business owners to do the right thing. Students are not removed from this. You teachers that are here too must take up the mantle
of leadership driven by stewardship. The
more teachers and students that can embrace this simple but powerful idea, the more we can
expect our communities to grow for generations to come. I ask that we embrace what you learn
here. Take all that you can back to your
homes, schools and communities. I leave
you with this great quote from John Maxwell-"People do not care how much
you know until they know how much you care."".
With support of the Guam Public School System, the PIU Conference did much to advance efforts to develop our new set of leaders on
Guam and in the world. It was a great
experience for this Blogger. Something
that I would love to do again to help grow our leaders of tomorrow.