Raymund Siegfrid Li, a student of the College of Business Administration, joins three other students from the Philippines at the 9th Hitachi Young Leaders Initiative (HYLI) to be held in Indonesia from July 7 to 11.
The HYLI is a community relations program developed and launched in Asia by Hitachi in 1996. It aims to identify and groom potential Asian leaders by bringing them together to discuss regional issues and establish contacts with prominent regional opinion leaders from the private, public and academic sectors.
The initiative offers student participants from Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam a unique platform to broaden their outlook on regional and global issues while promoting Asian values and cross-cultural understanding. The overall theme for this year’s initiative is “Strengthening Asian Partnerships – Economic Integration and Energy Management,” while the specific sub-themes that will be discussed are: “Formulating an East Asian Economic Community – Challenges and Opportunities” and “Energy Management for Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability in East Asia.”
Currently pursing a degree in Business Administration and Accountancy, Li delves into management and marketing to gain a better perspective of the big picture. To supplement his classroom learning, he actively participates in a number of university and national organizations, two of which are the Philippine Junior Marketing Association, where he serves as Vice President for Creatives and the UP Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations, where he is External Affairs Vice President.
One of the Ten Most Outstanding Chinese-Filipino students in the Philippines, Li won several inter-school competitions, two of which are the NCR CUP on Accounting for Partnerships and Corporations and the GSK Enterprise Strategy Competition. Outside the academic setting, he participates in medical and dental missions sponsored by local associations in his community. He also organizes feeding and catechism programs in his parish.
Li joins Adrian Clarc Mundin from Ateneo de Manila University, Paulo Jose Mutuc and Nicole Marie Villarojo, both from De La Salle University at the HYLI. These students hurdled the stringent selection process, consisting of a university shortlist, submission of written essays and interviews by an exacting panel chaired by Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura, who has supported the program from the first HYLI as Education undersecretary.
Twenty-eight students will participate in the 9th HYLI. During the week-long event, the students will participate in two morning forum sessions, a series of closed-door workshop discussions, a press conference to share their recommendations produced during the workshops and a community project.
At the completion of the initiative, students of the 9th HYLI will join the alumni of previous HYLIs to form a strong Asian network of future leaders.