Who knew that a former University of the Philippines (UP) student with a 2.56 undergraduate grade point average would one day become one of the school’s most distinguished alumnus and president of a US University?
For Dr. Luis Calingo, the new president of Woodbury University in Burbank, life has certainly been an adventure.
“Yes. Life is an adventure. You should be willing to take risks and it’s not inherent in our culture to do that,” he says. “You should step out of your comfort zone if you want to achieve something.”
Throughout his career, Calingo formerly of Quezon City, Philippines has always stepped out of his comfort zone, and challenged himself to become eventually only the second Filipino-American to head a US university.
In an interview with the Asian Journal, the 57-year-old Calingo shared some of his life lessons, how he broke through the higher education bamboo ceiling, and how early failures shaped the person he is today.
Iskolar ng Bayan
About 40 years ago, Calingo was a freshman student with a scholarship in UP.
Though smart and full of potential, early on in his academic career, he found the freedom of being on his own for the first time too tempting and liberating.
His mother passed away at an early age and Calingo was given the task of becoming a “surrogate mother” to his younger brothers and sisters.
Going to college became an escape from those responsibilities and he went on his own.
He skipped classes. He was a student activist. He hung out and got into trouble with his fraternity brothers.
“Some of the things I did I would be ashamed to admit it to my own children,” he says.
His potential was going to waste. His grades suffered and eventually his scholarship from UP was revoked. He said he was also close to being dismissed from school.
He was out of control until a professor pulled him aside and reminded him about his immense responsibilty to the people of the Philippines.
“At UP, the people pay for your schooling,” Calingo’s professor told him. “That really we are the scholars of the people,” Calingo recalled.
“That statement resonated with me at a young age so you don’t waste the things that you have,” said Calingo. “That whatever it is that you achieve in life is actually the result of things that were entrusted to you. Like the people of the Philippines entrusted in me a college education so that I may be a useful member of society.”
Calingo quickly shaped up but he had a lot of catching up to do.
The professor assigned him to be part of a quiz show and made him form the habit of going to the library and studying.
He received another scholarship for his last two years in college, and though he finished with an undergraduate GPA of 2.56 in Industrial Engineering, he became a College Scholar during his last semester.
“Without the emergence of a father-figure at the UP College of Engineering and a whole lot of luck, my life could have taken easily a turn for the worse,” he said.
He learned the first of many lessons here, he said.
“Work with a purpose. And you’re able to work with a purpose only if you pursue work that you are passionate about.”
Learning from past mistakes
After working for a few years, he returned to UP for a masters degree. This time, he learned from his mistakes the first time around. He hit the books hard.
He enrolled in the MURP program at UP, received grades that were no lower than a 1.25, and graduated at the top of his class the following year. He was also inducted to the Pi Gamma Mu international honor society.
From there, he decided to pursue doctoral opportunities in the US. He was accepted to the University of Pittsburgh, where he studied Strategic Planning.
After receiving his doctorate degree in Pittsburgh, he went on to teach at California State University, Fresno. In his time there, he received three meritorious performance and professional promise awards, which went to only the top 4 percent of the faculty. He was also granted early tenure and early promotions, becoming a full professor before age 35.
Two years later, he was appointed interim dean for a two-year term after the dean was removed.
At 37, he was the youngest business dean at that time, and one of only three Asian-American business deans, and the only one of Filipino origin.
After going on a sabbatical to teach at UP, he realized he wanted to change paths.
He wanted to become more active in the economical growth of Southeast Asia.
In 1993, he went on a three-year leave of absence to accept the founding faculty position in Singapore’s second state, he said.
“At that time, I had developed a strong interest in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, which is America’s highest award for quality, continuous improvement, and organizational excellence.”
He became the first Filipino administrator at Nanyang University.
After a few years in Singapore and lecturing at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, he decided to re-enter the world of academic administration to “be more directly involved in infusing quality and continuous improvement in my own school.”
He became the dean in the College of Business Administration at California State University, Long Beach where he helped the school grow its MBA admissions and improved the school’s national reputation.
In 2005, while he was dean, the school was listed in the Princeton Review’s “Best Business Schools” for the first time.
‘Piercing the bamboo ceiling’
It was also during this time Calingo was hoping to become more than just a dean. He wanted to head a university.
Though Asian Americans are known as great students, not many become administrators in higher education, he said.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Today…the bias has a different target: Asian-Americans. Like Jews in the 1960s, they account for just 1 percent of presidents in American higher education.”
Aside from Calingo, there is only one other Filipino heading a university – A. Gabriel Esteban (also a UP grad) of Seton Hall University.
“These jobs (for presidency) just doesn’t come up,” said Calingo.
Calingo said he beat out more than 48 candidates for the Woodbury presidency, some of the applicants were former University presidents.
He said there is a bamboo ceiling when it comes to Asian Americans and high ranking positions in a university.
But through hardwork and perservance, Asians like he and Esteban have “pierced through those ceilings” with their accomplishments.
Calingo said at Woodbury he’s ready to prove that he’s a capable leader.
Looking back, Calingo may not have been the greatest student early on, but he’s proved that even an average student can accomplish great things.
Sometimes it’s not how you start but the way you finish. Calingo started out as a rebellious teen and has grown into a president, ready to lead.
Calingo will meet with the Filipino community in Historic Filipinotown on August 23.
