This school creates — and innovates
At the Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP) Simple things like artfully made benches made from repurposed building materials add to the pleasant atmosphere, elevating one’s mood and keeping everyone inspired.
Innovation is part of the TIP students’ daily lives. You see artistic benches created by students using repurposed building materials. Led by Dr. Elizabeth Quirino-Lahoz, TIP aims to be a bastion of progress that our people desperately need.
I met Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP) president Dr. Elizabeth Quirino Lahoz through a mutual friend and was invited to contribute a passage about teachers in their 50th founding anniversary book: Teacher, Teacher — A Tribute To Teachers Everywhere.
After that affair, I would bump into them (she and her husband and partner Angel Lahoz) every so often as we are practically neighbors. Something about her fascinated me and piqued my interest in strong and willful women of substance.
At our first dinner together, to satisfy this curious drive, I gave her my standard-fare of 20 Questions — a primer of sorts to guide me as I pen a few words. I do believe that there isn’t enough written about women like her.
Beth to her family and friends, Dr. Lahoz is many things: a wife and mother and on top of all that, first and foremost, an educator. She is president of TIP, one of the noted few colleges in the country with highly sought-after internationally accredited programs in engineering and computing or information technology. TIP is among the top destinations for many young aspiring graduates.
The school was founded by her family in the early 1960s, and Beth could easily have waited for the line-of-succession to reach her — but then, this wouldn’t be an interesting story to tell.
In her days as a student, she saw herself pursuing a career in journalism. As editor-in-chief of the Maryknoll College Chi Rho school paper and the publication of the Chi Rho Yearbook in 1973, she took these as natural steps towards her goal.
Through the course of her career, she became a copywriter, information officer, and a corporate communications coordinator, earning her invaluable experience in the field.
But as the story goes, fate had other plans. Beth was tasked to oversee the future of countless young hopefuls — as the leader of an institute for higher education. Taking over as president of TIP in 2003, she hit the ground running and earned for the institute numerous awards and international accreditation for its engineering and computing programs.
On her invitation, I visited TIP’s campus in Quezon City and was genuinely impressed. The students of TIP held themselves high with dignity and discipline that doesn’t seem to put a lid on their youthful and joyous activities. The pristine campus reflects the overall wellbeing of everyone in the school. Simple things like artfully made benches made from repurposed building materials add to the pleasant atmosphere, elevating one’s mood and keeping everyone inspired.
TIP was founded in 1962 by engineer Demetrio A. Quirino Jr. and Dr. Teresita U. Quirino. They wanted to uplift the standard of living by raising the level of education and by making it more attainable for the masses. Up until that time, no other private or public learning establishments offered the same plan — perhaps this is why TIP opened strong and continued to grow until several decades and campuses later. The tradition is upheld and made even stronger by the more-than-able staff under Beth’s leadership.
TIP is currently celebrating its 56th founding anniversary with the theme “TIP Technopreneurs: A New Generation of Lifelong Learners, Problem Solvers, and Innovators.”
The celebrations are from Feb. 1 to 10 and begins with the Service Awards, where TIP honors employees who have been with the school from 10 to 24 years. As a way of sharing with those who are in need, TIP also conducts a schoolwide bloodletting, in coordination with the Philippine Red Cross. This is then followed by anniversary Masses held in both its Manila and Quezon City campuses.
Various student and employee events take place simultaneously in both campuses during foundation week. These activities include the intercampus sportsfest championship games, science technology fair, search for the TIP singing idol, students’ night, employees’ wellness program, inter-department quiz show, TIPTEO sportsfest, annual search for model students, cheerdance competitions, and the most-awaited employees’ night with the TIP chairman.
In 2017, TIP won the top prize for the Energy Innovation Challenge in Singapore with their entry, “Development of a Clay Soil Array Battery.” It is highly likely that these innovations will be part of our daily lives one day and many will benefit from the future the optimistic new generation ushers in.
The Technological Institute of the Philippines is a bastion of progress that our people desperately need. In this fast-paced era where a nation must find a credible sense of pride and mentality that does not involve flashy showbiz fakery or colorful political rhetoric, we must turn to our educators, our teachers. The very people who put other’s future ahead of their own. Dr. Beth Quirino-Lahoz is one such person. This world will surely be a better place with more schools like theirs, cared for by people like her.
