Filipina Women’s Network’s Professional Development Philosophy

The Professional Development Series builds on the 12 Life Areas of Empowerment which an individual confronts at each stage of adulthood. The program is best appreciated when participants take the Life Empowerment Overview. It provides a practical foundation for career pathing and life planning.

Overview for Career Pathing and Life Planning

Are you in a job and feeling dis-satisfied? Career plateauing? Going through change? Are you looking to launch a new chapter in your life? Graduation? Job transition? Reinventing your business or starting a new venture? At a personal level, are you starting a family, divorcing, empty nesting, retiring?

Change is a constant in our lives and it can mean many different options. We invite you to a hands-on workshop that will give you the ability and confidence to embark on your personal journey in exploring the rest of your life.

We will examine your values, talents and interests using the 12 Life Areas of Empowerment. We will trace your lifeline to discover patterns and observable motivators in your life. We will engage in understanding the nature of change and how to design endings and new beginnings.

Sessions will be led by a select faculty with expertise in the 12 life areas. FWN’s professional development programming (launched in 2002) is based on life and career development theories adapted from the work of Schein, Farren, and Hudson. FWN workshops and seminars are designed around the 12 life areas. We invite speakers who are specialists in these fields to share their expertise with FWN Members. The 12 Life Empowerment Areas are best appreciated when FWN members take the Life Empowerment Overview which can provide a practical foundation for professional development. This workshop series can be taken regardless of education, work experience, age or life situation.

Ignite your spirit! Manage your current life issues and explore your options in each of the 12 Life Empowerment Areas for personal and professional empowerment:

The overview takes a three-dimensional approach—the ability to reflect and learn from our past, acknowledge our accomplishments to date, and design a future that could bring career satisfaction and life fulfillment.

Life EMPOWERMENT Overview (MARILY MONDEJAR)

The overview takes a three-dimensional approach—

• the ability to reflect and learn from our past,

• acknowledge our accomplishments to date, and

• design a future that could bring career satisfaction and life fulfillment.

The 12 Life Areas of Empowerment:

• 1) Community— Participating, volunteering, helping others in our community (youth, politics, schools)

  • Make Me A Filipina Insider —Filipina Women in Public Service—Genevieve Jopanda, Dyanna Quizon, Carmela Clendening, Meriam Reynosa, Rachel Redondiez, April Veneracion Ang
  • Run Filipina Run — Hydra Mendoza, Pat Gacoscos, Myrna Lardizabal de Vera, Thelma Boac

• 2) Economic Security—  Managing personal resources, income, budgeting, savings, investments, insurance

  • Gender Equality as an Investment Concept: Edcelyn Pujol with Charles Schwab

Join the conversation on leveraging investing as a powerful means to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace.

Do Filipina women have a "pobrecita mentality"? What is the Filipina culture in investments, savings, retirement, managing money? Why are we willing to send $$$ to our relatives in our home country but not enabling them to save? With pay inequity, how financially ready are we for retirement? What are our culture patterns? 

There is a strong consensus among international development experts that the status and role of women are the best clues to a nation’s growth potential. Similarly, there is now substantial evidence that the status and role of women may be an excellent clue to a company’s growth potential as well – that the best companies, and therefore the best investments, are those that take advantage of the talents, ideas and contributions of half of the world’s population. Numerous studies have shown that companies that empower and advance women – e.g., through gender diversity on boards and in upper management – are likely to reap the benefits in terms of improved profitability and performance. Eliminating gender inequality and empowering women are finally being recognized, on a global basis, for what they are – urgent moral and economic imperatives. This is as true for businesses and investors as it is for broader economies. Gender equality is fast becoming an investment concept.

AUDIENCE ACTION: Group conversations on issues raised by the speakers. Strategies and actions? 2 minutes for each Group Report.

    Do I have a cultural issue in planning my financial portfolio? What’s the one thing I can do when I leave the session?

• 3) Environment and Safety —  Caring about your physical surroundings, e.g., recycling, pollution, waste removal

  • Women in STEM with Lawrence Berkeley Lab (Elizabeth Bautista), Chevron (Marian Catedral King), Recology (Stephanie Medious)

• 4) Family and Kinship —  Caring for life partners, marriages, children, parents, extended family

  • (Chris Robertson, Babe Barton, Byumi Gonzalez, Tita Aida, Jei Africa)

• 5) Health and Well-Being — Mental, emotional and physical health, feeling good about yourself and others

  • (Chris Robertson, Babe B

• 6) Home and Shelter  —  Caring for and improving personal space—home, office, car, desk, my personal space

  • Richard Gervais, interior decorator

• 7) Learning — Acquiring and applying new knowledge, skills, and abilities to different areas of life

  • Visit Mona Pasquil @ the Capitol in Sacramento, CA
  • Writing a chapter in FWN's 2nd book on global leadership
  • Filipina Women Who Code
  • Doing Business in the Philippines - Philippine Department of Trade
  • "Balikbayan" in Filipina Pop culture

• 8) Leisure — Diversifying interests and renewing energy through sports, hobbies, entertainment

  • Filipina Women in Sports
  • So, what's FUN about the Philippines? - Philippine Tourism, Pura Molintas
  • How I turned my hobby to business
  • Filipina Women in Entertainment

• 9) Social Relationships— Getting along with all types of people, nurturing friends, making new acquaintances

  • Surviving, Thriving, Living in social media

• 10) Spirituality — Exploring the meaning of life through philosophy, religion, humor, the arts, nature

  • France Viana 

• 11) Transportation and Mobility — Moving from place to place to take care of our needs as well as our families and friends

  • 30 is the new 50; 40 the new 60? Been There Done That, The Aging of Filipina Women
  • Sol Manaay, Mona Lisa Yuchengco, Evelyn Dilsaver

• 12) Work and Career — Choosing a field, feeling satisfied, contributing to society, creating balance

  • Make Me A Filipina CEO
  • Make Me A Filipina Millionaire
  • Filipina Philanthropy