Impact Story
From Vision to Action: What Fellows Learned Through the Innovation Leaders Program
Bong Eliab, Executive VP at Ateneo de Davao University and UPSKILL Fellow, reflects on how the program shaped his leadership and vision for higher education in the Philippines.
About the Collaborator
The Fellowship was part of the broader U.S.-Philippines Partnership for Skills, Innovation and Lifelong Learning (UPSKILL), a USAID initiative in the Philippines.
Institution(s)
Location
The Higher Education Innovation Leaders Fellowship concluded in December 2024, but the work for the 16 Fellows who graduated is still on going. The USAID-funded UPSKILL Innovation Leaders Fellowship called for the Fellows to develop and work on a project within their own institution. Bong Eliab, Executive Vice President of Ateneo de Davao University in Davao, Philippines, chose a project advancing the Academy for Lifelong Learning within his institution.
In this short interview, Eliab reflects on how the Fellowship deepened his capacity to drive institutional innovation: from shaping long-term strategic planning to aligning sustainability with campus development. Drawing inspiration from Arizona State University’s transformation into a leading education enterprise, he shares how the lessons of the Fellowship translated into real-world systems change at home.
The Higher Education Innovation Leaders Fellowship was more than a professional development program - it was a platform for rethinking what’s possible in Philippine higher education. For leaders like Eliab, the experience continues to inform bold decisions rooted in data, mission alignment, and long-term impact.
Even as the program sunsets, the ripple effects remain, evident in the systems being redesigned, the strategies being sharpened, and the vision now driving change from within.
The transcript of our interview with Bong Eliab, Executive Vice President of Ateneo de Davao University, is below.
Can you give us a brief overview of your project?
Eliab: My project is about the Academy of Lifelong Learning for the University. It was really to strengthen and enhance the offering, especially that we face so much difficulty and challenges on how to run the unit. So my project was how to make it easier for the University to operate and to streamline.
It's been three months since the fellowship ended. How is your project progressing?
Eliab: So far, it's progressing a little faster this time because we have clarified policies within the University on how the faculty can get involved and how can they be compensated in their involvement with the lifelong learning. So we have been offering 35 programs and there are still modules that we have to run, especially for this month. And it has been so far successful and at the same time, it's getting more students to be involved. We're getting also more income in terms of making the program more sustainable.
What does success look like for you in this kind of project?
Eliab: The success for me in this kind of project is not only upskilling and reskilling people in Davao, but how to get those who are in the margins to be re-skilled. And therefore, make them more competitive in the job market because most of these people, they don't get better jobs because of the skills. So through AdD ALL, we hope that we can help more people get employed, especially in the 21st century where AI is important, where skills in terms of technology is important.
You mentioned the number of programs that are being offered in the Institute for lifelong learning as well as the courses that are being offered. Can you tell us more about that?
Eliab: ...And we have students who are 80 years old. We have students who are already beyond their senior years. And they enjoy it a lot.
We have painting, floristry, and installing solar panels in your homes. We have a course on, for husbands, how to do your plumbing at home, plumbing for husbands, cooking for wives. We have culinary arts.
We have, aside from that, accounting for non-accountants. We have stocks and investments. We have a marketing strategy.
We have social media training for those who are in the malls and a lot more. And I think we are into sign language right now. And how to use AI in your startups.”
How did the UDI experience help you with this project?
Eliab: I was not only constrained to do my project. I was able to do a lot more. And therefore, beyond the lifelong learning, I have other projects. And because of that, exposure to innovation initiatives in UDI. And most of these other projects are related to my work, like renewable energy, how to enhance our library, and in terms of how do we innovate our operations. And most of these are implemented within the three months that I have been doing the project with lifelong learning…
And what we saw in Arizona State University was really amazing. And how you can pivot the university in such a way that it becomes more relevant to society. And how do you leverage the location of the university to where you are located and to help solve problems, real problems in the society. That's how people are challenged here. When I told them we have the night market just outside our university. But we have not done any innovation for them for the last decade. And it has been there. So right now our entrepreneurship people are doing a lot of studying. How to introduce fintech to the night market. Our engineers are trying to do something about how we can innovate, for example, the lights in the night market. Because they operate only for about two to three hours at night. And it's very, very constrained…
So those things are new to us because we have been involved for far-flung areas in terms of involvement. But we have not been doing a lot for those people who are just around us. And it has opened a lot of opportunities.
What was your most valuable experience so far in terms of being involved with the fellows program?
Eliab: The most valuable is it opened our eyes to the problems and challenges of higher education in the Philippines. It's a mission, I think, that we have to do on how we can help elevate the higher education landscape in the Philippines. And for me, that's a personal mission. How can we help to put more people in education and at the same time innovate our education so that we can be more competitive in the world in terms of global standing? And I guess seeing a lot of problems in the Philippines, it's distressing and sad, but at the same time, challenging. And for me, it makes me emotional to get involved. For example, how do we redesign our universities so that they really solve real problems in the Philippines? And that, for me, is important.