Youth leaders of the future

#LoveforCountry #Nationalism #YouthLeaders #DiversityandInclusion

#ONETeam #SNAPS #SageandNotableAdvisesfromPatrickSalazar

The Order of the Knights of Rizal is an Order of Chivalry from the Philippines, created to honor and uphold the ideals of Dr Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines. They sponsor an annual leadership event for student leaders.

In 1993, the annual National Rizal Student Leadership Institute was held in Baguio City. There were over 100 high schools, colleges & universities across the Philippines who sent student leader representatives to the event. As the Student Council President of De La Salle University - College of Saint Benilde, it was my first time to experience being part of a nationwide event with several hundreds of very smart, creative & passionate youth leaders across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao regions.

Every school was asked to do a short presentation on stage to share their regional culture, music, art, religion, aspirations and talent. During the 3-day event, we had several group activities that gave the opportunity for student leaders across different schools to engage, collaborate and commit to be a significant driving force of Filipino youth leaders to help the Philippines become successful as inspired by our national hero, Dr Jose Rizal.

This inspired me to travel around the Philippines. This is why my roles in the automotive industry from 1994 to 2005 were to set up dealerships, implement quality standards, conduct training, and support the overall business development of our dealers in Metro Manila, Pampanga, Baliuag, Cabanatuan, Tarlac, Dagupan, Davao, Cagayan De Oro, Butuan, Iloilo, many more and Cebu. This is also the reason why when I shifted to the BPO industry in 2005, I was very passionate about building and expanding large BPO Sites in Davao, Bicol, Tarlac, Pampanga, and Cebu aside from Metro Manila.

*About the photo

These are my four awesome children in 2014 during one of the many family vacations we spent in Baguio City typically during Panagbenga Flower Festival and in-between Christmas day & New Year’s day.

Each has their own talent, skill and aspiration. All are proud to be Filipinos.

That phenomenal youth leadership event was a great celebration of Love for County, Diversity & Inclusion, and deep culture building to be significant Youth Leaders of the future.