Introducing Victor
On the occasion of receiving an honorary Ph.D. from Pilippine Normal University
Today we are honoring Dr. victor Ordonez, world famous and respected education expert, renaissance man of myriad interests and one of our own, formerly faculty member of Philippine Normal University.
Dr. Ordonez is currently the Director of UNESCO's Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, UNESCO's largest office outside headquarters, responsible for its activities in education, science, culture and communication in 43 countries covering 63% of world's population. As such he has been involved in massive literacy campaigns in India and Bangladesh; primary school expansion in China, Nepal, and Laos; structural reform in countries undergoing rapid transformation toward the market econmoy such as Kazakstan and Mongolia; social science analysis of regional problems like mega-urbanization and worker migration; the establishment of transnational computer based networks for different disciplines; the redefinition of the role of higer education in Asia; the more effective use of basic education to combat poverty and unemployment and to reach the unreached; the redesign of curricula to build a more tolerant non-violnet citizenry of the future; the preservation of cultural sites like Ankor Wat in Cambodia, Pagan in Myanmar, Hue in Vietnam, and the rice terraces in Banaue. This makes him UNESCO's most senior and importnat officer in the world outside of Paris, and the highest ranking Filipino not only in UNESCO, but in the entire galaxy of the United Nations.
The path that led to this pinnavle of responsibility was paved with early success and outstanding achievements. By the time he was 23 years old, he had completed a Ph. D. in Oriental Philosophy. By the time he was 25, he had accumulated a total of seven academic degrees, in different fields, with perfect scores in almost every subject, with four summa cum laudes, one magna cum laude, and two cum laudes. By the time he was 30, he had added three post-doctoral scholarships, at the University of Wisconsin, at the Asian Institute of Management and at the Harvard Business School. I know of no other person who has educated himself so much, so quickly, so young, and so well.
His ability to pursue simultaneous degrees translated into handling multiple responsibilites. Before he was 30, he has already served as institutional planning officer, academic dean of a college in Bacolod, Ford Foundation consultant, chairman and faculty member of the UP-PNU consortium on educational management, Graduate School Dean of both the College of Education and the College of Business of De La Salle University. He was not only younger than most of his faculty he was even younger than many of his graduate students.
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