Facebook
Twitter
Email
The 5th graders at St. Brigid School are so excited about their new friends in the Philippines. Many of our students live in the neighborhood of the East Village, and, although they experience the diversity of their New York City surroundings, they are enjoying the exposure to a group of peers who live in an environment so vastly different than their own.
“What is the furthest you have ever travelled?” Ayesha asked the students when she came to visit St. Brigid School after the students here had received their first responses from Bungsuan Elementary School.
“Florida.” “Mexico.” “Puerto Rico!” the students responded, proud of their 3-hour plane flights.
Then, Ayesha asked them to locate the Philippines on the globe. With one student’s finger on New York, and one student pointing to the province of Capiz, the class was awed to realize that their new friends lived almost exactly half-way around the world from them.
“How long do you think it would take to travel there?” Ayesha prodded.
“At least a day!” Tarek exclaimed correctly.
St. Brigid students were fascinated to hear about life half-way across the globe, including the Filipino students’ long walk to school, often without shoes. Hearing details of their new friends’ lives, our students are compelled to consider the amenities that they take for granted, such as school-provided breakfast and lunch, art classes starting in Pre-Kindergarten, and the ability to stay in school instead of having to work to earn money for their families.
Despite the environmental and cultural differences between the two groups of students, through their pictures and words, the students are coming to realize just how similar they are.
“My pen pal was born in 2000, the year of the dragon. That means I was born in the year of the dragon, too!” Dareal shared excitedly.
Julian D.’s pen pal wrote to him on Hannah Montana stationery, which our fifth graders immediately felt a connection to.
The students were also elated to find translations on the backs of many of their letters. These guides showed them how to spell different words in phrases in either Filipino or the dialect of Ilonggo.
“I learned how to say beautiful. It looks kind of like my name,” Miranda commented on the word maganda.
Lastly, our students noticed how welcoming and open the Bungsuan Elementary students were in their letters. The effort and care they took in creating their first correspondence with their new friends was apparent. Hopefully, this open relationship will continue and the children on both sides of the globe will learn important lessons in friendship, acceptance, and commitment.
H.Kay Merriman
St. Brigid School, NYC
December 2010
For over two decades, Analisa Balares has been committed to women’s leadership development, entrepreneurship, innovation, sustainable development, and education. She has produced, directed, and co-produced over 100 conferences, summits, events, and media on these themes, with 12 of these conferences and forums through Womensphere.
In the summer of 2007, Analisa founded Womensphere, a unique global leadership community and independent media company that inspires, empowers, connects, and unites women leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, policymakers, scientists, artists, explorers, and women who are creating development and pioneering new trails across all fields and disciplines. In the last three years, as the US and global economies went through crises and upheaval, Analisa and the leadership of the Womensphere Team brought together a community of over 11,000 women leaders, building one of the most powerful new platforms for emerging women leaders, and for women leaders across all fields.
Prior to Womensphere, Analisa launched her career in the Goldman Sachs High Technology Investment Banking group, where she helped execute over $1.5 billion in IPOs, corporate financings, and mergers and acquisitions for companies like open source software leader Red Hat and communications leader Nokia. Her professional experience includes working for Milestone Capital Management, Morgan Stanley’s Energy Investment Banking Group, the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, and the Japan External Trade Organization.
Analisa holds an MBA from Harvard Business School; a BA in Economics & Mathematics cum laude from Mount Holyoke College; and an International Baccalaureate Diploma from Lester Pearson United World College of the Pacific in Canada. While at Harvard Business School, Analisa founded and co-led the non-profit Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), and served as a President of the HBS Entrepreneurship Club, and Debate Coach/Team Co-Captain of the HBS Debate Team.
Following business school, Analisa joined Microsoft as Global Marketing Manager for Microsoft’s blogging and social networking service, where she managed the global marketing launch of Windows Live Spaces in over 30 countries, and led the strategy and execution of Spaces projects around branding, partnerships, events, and online community development. She managed Spaces’ internal partnerships with MSN Entertainment and XBox, and external partnerships with NGOs (Global Fund for Women, Earth Day Network), media companies (ABC, Sundance Channel), and independent music/film/TV festivals (SXSW, MethodFest Film Festival, New York TV Festival).
A global citizen, Analisa’s lifework and inspiration to have impact emerged early: In her teens, she led a team of students pioneering innovative work on wastewater pollution treatment, recycling, and alternative energy production, efforts which won recognition and the Philippine Shell Petroleum Company‘s Outstanding Junior Scientist Award for three consecutive years. She was elected Senate President of the 1st Philippine Youth Environment Congress, where she led drafting the Philippine Youth Environment and Sustainable Development Policy Proposal for the UN Earth Summit in Brazil. That year, she was elected Youth Mayor of Manila City, where she led the passing of 18 Executive Orders into laws to improve the community, education, and environment of Manila. As a Canadian Government scholar to the Lester Pearson United World College in British Columbia, she gave voice to the importance of children’s rights while on the Steering Committee of Canada’s First International Conference on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child held in Vancouver.
In 1999, Analisa founded The Lyons Network, a leadership and career mentoring organization for young women, and for a decade, Analisa co-led the organization of regional conferences on leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship for young women in New England, reaching several thousand young women in the last decade.
Analisa was recently selected as Fearless Woman of the Year 2010 by The Fearless Factor in New York City. Analisa was chosen by the New Leaders Council as one of its 40 Under 40 New Leaders in the United States, and recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential Filipinas in America by the US Filipina Women’s Network. Analisa was also recognized by CBS Radio/1010Wins as its Tomorrow’s Newsmaker Award Winner for Business.
