| Photo by Kent Pilcher on Unsplash
Part VII of the “Geopolitics-Socioeconomic” Series
This column mentioned last Wednesday the interest of Joseph Ocampo in the “Operation Knightingale” (OK). He is the president of the East Alumni Association of America (UEAAA). After reading the column, he commented that it is “definitely a door opener for our young Filipino aspirants. This is quite ambitious though there are economics and logistics to deliberate on. Professionals of different sectors will have to get involved and collaborate. My area is in academia and finance. I suggest a series of brain-storming sessions.”
Joseph Ocampo is a retired financial management and administration professional with a degree in Business Administration and postgraduate studies in executive programs. He is a CPA and has held many executive-level positions in two academic universities. He is a board member of several subsidiaries, including a credit union, Homeowners Association (HOA), church-finance council, and other non-profit organizations. His work experience extends to 40 years. Like many Filipino-American professionals, his work ethics can be described in the dictum that “action speaks louder than words.”
This journalist met Mr. Ocampo at a Southern California alumni gathering of Siena College of Quezon City alumni. This columnist’s wife is a Siena College alumna. As he likes to be called, Joe mentioned he is promoting and mediating between his former employer, Western University of Health Sciences, and the UE Medical Center, the Physician Assistantship Program (PAP), a growing practice in the United States. In turn, he was informed that OK intends to help to develop a “Nurse Practitioners Program” (NPP). Immediately, there was a meeting of minds as both missions complement each other and help solve the problem of lack of physicians and nurses in many rural areas of the Philippines and the Third World.
“This program can reinvent education in the Philippines, the United States, Canada, and the Third World, especially for students from marginalized families. Thus, it helps families join the middle class ranks and improves their residents’ socioeconomic fabric.”
The UEAAA will hold another global reunion on June 4 to 6, 2025, at the Hilton Vancouver Airport Hotel in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. It had a successful and well-attended international reunion in June 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 2025 event in Canada will be attended by the University of the East presidents, the UE Ramon Magsaysay Medical Center, and other university officials.
Proactive UE alumni from several continents will discuss and embellish the theme of this event, “UE Pride and Hope Amplifies, Generations Globally Unified. “
UEAAA is a California-based alumni organization with chapters in many states in North America, including Hawaii and Canada. One of its missions is to integrate with other UE alumni discipline organizations in North America, thereby presenting a united front on helping and maximizing UE’s academic programs. More information about its activities is found on its website, http://www.ue-alumni-global.com.
Perhaps UEAAA President Joseph and other association officers can conduct a workshop about organizing an alumni cooperative at their reunion in Canada. It may be best to form a co-op to support the OK, the PAP, the NPP, and other socioeconomic programs. For instance, co-op members can also establish a student loan program to help fund the education and board certification of nurses, physicians, and other professional-medical workers in the Philippines, the United States, and Canada.
When graduates start to work in their homeland or North America or Europe, they can begin to pay back the student loans with a voluntary rate of interest. This program can reinvent education in the Philippines, the United States, Canada, and the Third World, especially for students from marginalized families. Thus, it helps families join the middle class ranks and improves their residents’ socioeconomic fabric. Of course, the Filipino-American Fourth Estate can assist in publicizing this initiative based on “Cooperative Economics.” Perhaps press clubs can organize co-ops for interested writers, book authors, editors, and broadcasters. The more, the merrier and socioeconomically relevant.
