Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng rouses a village for STEM education

Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng

Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng wears many hats in the Gokongwei Group.

Aside from being president of Summit Media, she is also senior vice president for the digital transformation corporate services of the conglomerate, one of the largest in the country. Plus, she is part of the investment committee of JG Digital Equity Ventures, JG Summit’s venture capital arm, helping the group spot the next big thing in the startup world.

But what she is particularly proud of is her work as general manager of Gokongwei Brothers Foundation (GBF), the largest private sector provider of scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in the country.

GBF was founded in 1992 by brothers John, Johnson, Henry and James Gokongwei with the goal of “contributing to the country’s progress by providing quality education to its future workforce, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”

As general manager, she is involved in developing the group’s general strategy to have a lasting impact on education in the Philippines.

STEM is the particular focus, as her father and uncles firmly believed that the sciences are a pillar in building industry in the country.

“To become a tiger economy, it is necessary to have a manufacturing base, an industrial base. He (my father) believed that investing in STEM education was very important to achieving this, the Philippines becoming an industrial economy. I think that’s why he felt that he and his brothers should give a part of their own personal fortunes to make this happen,” Gokongwei-Cheng had said.

Over the past 30 years, GBF has put the personal endowment to good use through scholarship grants, technical training facilities, educator professional development, collaborations with industry and community partners, and the development of Centers of Excellence and Development to help elevate the quality of STEM education in the country.

Recently, Gokongwei-Cheng said GBF had decided to focus on scholarships for STEM teachers—1,000 teacher-scholars by 2025—so that they can, in turn, pay it forward to students.

GBF has also piloted a platform called Class Builder that allows public teachers to download premade instructional decks for classroom use as well as mini lessons to help them upgrade their own skill sets. Clearly, GBF cannot accomplish its goals by itself, and this is where being a woman is an advantage.

“I think women in general are more collaborative, empathetic and resilient,” said Gokongwei-Cheng. “Grace Colet, Graciela Mendoza, Tinette Tabuena, Lorie Chavez, the executive team of GBF have patiently built relationships with the [Department of Education], the [local governments] and a lot of stakeholders, knowing that it takes a village to solve education in the country.” INQ