Navigating through people-oriented professions: On the centrality of humanities and communication in teaching, policy consultancy, IT product development, and social entrepreneurship

When asked about the reason she shifted to the BA Speech Communication despite being already enrolled in a related undergraduate program, Eileen cited her interest in arts and humanities aside from the theories and praxis of communication studies. Envisioning herself becoming a newscaster, lawyer, and public official, then-incoming-college-sophomore Eileen was convinced that the multidisciplinary and humanistic nature of the Speech Communication program would equip her with the skills and attitude essential in the service-centric careers she wanted to pursue.

Interestingly, Eileen found herself treading a different path from what she had planned. In her junior year at the university, she worked part-time as an online English tutor, which opened opportunities for her to establish international linkages and found her first startup, a virtual business communication training hub for multinational companies based in Japan and Germany. In 2012, she accepted a teaching position at the Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts where she served as a full-time instructor for three years.

In 2015, Eileen received a scholarship at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore where she earned her Master’s degree and graduated as a recipient of the Dean’s Leadership Award in 2017. As a scholar, she experienced hands-on action research where policy-based solutions are tested, developed, and implemented to address problems in the community as well as issues on a regional and global scale.

Immediately after graduating from NUS, she worked as a communications trainer, global business development head, and policy consultant for different companies based in Tokyo and Fukuoka, while also helping build what she considers as her first social enterprise: a trading company which exports Japanese agricultural and marine products to Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, and China. She is also currently an IT product designer and her most recent project involves top-tier hotels in Japan and Singapore. Among the many hats she wears, the one closest to her heart is being the founding president of Alea Chocolates, the second social business she is grooming to be a global industry player, which exports Albay’s premium quality Trinitario cacao products to Japan and Singapore, and by 2022 to Hong Kong, United States, and Europe.

Alea Chocolates is Eileen’s way of giving back to her family and hometown in Bicol. It is also her proactive response to the problems she sees in the business models of corporate giants that exploit farmers and practice unsustainable means of production and distribution. Alea Chocolates takes pride in its practice of sustainable agriculture, direct-trading, and profit-sharing that benefit the farmers, chocolatiers, and local producers in Albay.

“At present, I have 20 chocolatiers in the factory, and most of them are housewives. I did not start this company to make a lot of money, you know? I just want to generate jobs and be a fair employer because despite being far from home, I still love the Philippines and I’ve always believed in Filipinos.”

Recalling her college years as a Speech Communication major, Eileen mentioned how all the subjects and all the mentors she had in the department inspired and prepared her for people-oriented professions, for dreams that are not just hers, but shared with others.