Carrying himself with an air of dignity and quiet confidence, Lord Pomperada, a CSB graduate of AB-Consular and Diplomatic Affairs (AB-CDA) has worked with the World Youth Alliance (WYA) for years, and is today is the regional director for WYA Asia-Pacific and set to be the next president of WYA. We sat down with him for an interview to talk about his inspirations, his work, and his life as a Benildean leader.
A: World Youth Alliance is a youth organization founded in the year 1999 in New York City. The main advocacy of the WYA is to promote human dignity through policy and culture. That’s where we bring in young people from all around the world to share their ideas and create their own projects. At the same time, we train them to be confident in international issues so that they’ll be able to participate in international fora and represent their own young people in their own countries. WYA is also a UN accredited organization; we work with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) where WYA represents the voice of young people. We have around 1 million members from 160 countries around the world.
Q: What is the office environment like in the WYA office here in Manila?
A: We’re a youth organization, so all the people I work with are young, energetic, and have a lot of ideas, they wanna do a lot of things—they wanna change the world. And it has been very fulfilling in a way that, many of our volunteers find their experience very meaningful, because they’re given so much time to create their own projects.
Q: What drives you? What motivates you? Tell us about your philosophy.
A: I have two philosophies in life as a leader. The first is one is: great leaders create greater leaders. It is not enough for us to become great and successful. The second is that the greatest fulfillment in one’s life as a leader is not only achieving our own dreams but helping others achieve theirs. And I really think that is my guiding philosophy because at the end of the day, all of us want to meaning in our lives—but we don’t find meaning by just being successful alone. I think my work in the WYA is very in line with this philosophy.
Q: How important was being a Benildean in shaping you into the person you are today?
A: I was very, very active in school since I was in first year until I was fourth year. 50% of the orgs, I was part of. Of course, I did have to choose eventually, since you have to prioritize. One of those [orgs which I chose] was the Benildean Press Corps, in which I was a writer. I remember the time wherein, in the news section, I was the lone news staffer for a term and there was an issue of the Benildean wherein the full page was all my articles. It was really funny but it really taught me a lot of things. One of those things was that you don’t give up, even though you’re the last one there. That’s more reason to continue to move on and not to leave the organization. There were a lot of challenges along the way, a lot of people leaving because they wanted to prioritize their education. They say to me “Why are you in an org? You’re still in school to study to get cum laude [or] magna cum laude.” That really motivated me to show them that you can still excel in your academics even though you’re participating in different orgs.
Aside from BPC, I was also the president of what formerly was the Corps of Diplomats, where I also served as a secretary general of the Model UN. I ended up graduating cum laude which was still not bad, despite me running for magna cum laude. I believe that in life you don’t need to be smart. You need to be street-smart. You need to persevere and do hard work. You can still succeed and excel even though you don’t come from a prestigious school. Never doubt your skills or your capacity as a student. This is what I learned in CSB.
Q: You seem very excited and happy to be working in the WYA. If you could tell the students of CSB one to convince them to join the WYA, what would it be?
A: I can say that WYA is one of the best and coolest youth organizations in the world. It would really would help you not only become great leaders, great designers, but to become good people. Good people who contribute to their community, who find fulfillment in their lives by finding this meaning by helping their fellow people. There’s so much young people around the people. So what they need is to teach each other, share ideas on how they can help their countries—and I think WYA is the perfect platform for where can they do this. Also, it’s free to become a member.
Lord left us with uplifted spirits—he showed us how even as youth, our actions have far reaching repercussions and that changing the world is already at our fingertips. You can find out more about the WYA at their website (http://www.wya.net/) and join the World Youth Alliance on their Facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/WorldYouthAlliance?fref=ts)
To cast your vote for Lord in Rappler’s Move Awards, you may visit http://www.rappler.com/move-candidates?campaign_id=1&category_id=5
