Selene Lee Yu: St. Scho Manila's 2012 Pax Awardee

Selene Lee Yu, Executive Director of Chevrolet Philippines – The Covenant Car Company, Inc. (TCCCI), is this year’s recipient of the PAX Award. The PAX Award, St. Scholastica’s College, Manila’s highest accolade, is given to its outstanding alumnae who have distinguished themselves in the field of service to community and country as well as in arts and sciences.

 

TCCCI was appointed exclusive distributor of Chevrolet in the Philippines in October 2009 after Ms Yu, together with a team headed by TCCCI President and Managing Director Atty. Alberto Arcilla, prayerfully developed a business plan that won the approval of General Motors. From the beginning, the newly formed TCCCI team, guided by its Chairman Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia, Jr. and Chairman Emeritus Mr. Richard L. Lee, recognized that the TCCCI business is a covenant relationship with God, the Chevrolet community and the country. This recognition laid the solid groundwork for the company’s core values and convictions which Ms. Yu has been passionately committed to inculcate throughout the whole organization.

 

She also sits as board member of Volvo Philippines – Scandinavian Motors Corporation which, in 2008, took on the advocacy of forming God-centered youth leaders committed to accountable and responsible stewardship and capable of articulating such leadership principles in a declamation contest called the Voice of Leadership program.

 

Ms. Yu graduated Summa Cum Laude, the highest academic honor, from St. Scholastica’s College, Manila in 1982 with degrees in Bachelor of Science in Commerce major in Finance and Bachelor of Arts major in Psychology. She was also a Student Council President and a recipient of the Mother Birgitta Korff Award for Leadership and Excellence in curricular and extra-curricular activities. She pursued and completed her Masters Degree in Business Administration major in Finance at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1986.  

 

Called to serve Christ, country, and creation

 

“I have learned from God’s Word that leaders must have both integrity of heart and excellent skills,” she said during her speech during the 3rd Annual Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA) Testimonial for Student Achievers. She went on and said that leaders must strive to be fit to be able to serve.

 

First, according to Ms. Yu, “a good leader has to have a focused heart, an undivided heart…I have learned that having focus is a matter of fighting distractions with our human and spiritual will.” She vividly recalled her college days when two college administrators approached and encouraged her to run for Student Council.

 

“Selene, we know you are vying to graduate with honors but if you do, you will be just like many others. But to graduate with honors and be a student council president at the same time will put you in a separate category. Run. Run for office,” rang in her head while she gave these words serious consideration.

 

Looking back, that remarkable experience proved to be a ‘Divincidence,’ or a divine incident. With that, her fourth year in college was a whirlwind of studies and activities. She breezed through the challenges and could only attribute this to God’s grace; her formidable student council; supportive school administrators including Mother Mary John Mananzan, Sr. Mary Placid Abejo, Dr. Remedios Ching, Dr. Cecilia Berenguer Gutierrez, Ms. Ched Amistoso, and Ms. Elenita Cabrera; and, by God’s grace, the will to focus.

 

Secondly, she is convinced that a good leader has to be “intimate with God.” “God knows everything, He sees the big picture. And most importantly, He has my best interest at heart,” she added. “Intimacy with God enables the leader to tap into God’s wisdom, power and direction.”

 

Lastly, a good leader, according to Ms. Yu, will always be “tried and tested in defining moments.” She went on to share that, “each time we past these tests, like steel being forged, we will become stronger (leaders) with deeper convictions to do what is right. Dear Scholasticans, I pray that you may pass every test while you’re still in school, so that ‘doing what is right’ will be ingrained in your hearts.”

 

Once deemed fit, a leader should be ready to serve. This means that a person is willing to Stretch and Sacrifice for the greater good (i.e., leaving one’s comfort zone and to give unconditionally); lead by example; build right relationships; lead with God’s Vision; and, choose ethically.

 

The pioneer

 

God furthered Ms. Yu as His instrument of blessing in 2001, the year when God inspired her to author the “S-Leadership: The Potter’s Way” framework of God-centered leadership. Since its inception, Ms. Yu has been advocating S-Leadership in seminars all over the country and abroad. Her compelling personal experiences of success, failures and restoration made her realize that the world’s practice of leadership often, if not absolutely, sidelines God’s instructions, importance and involvement, consequently resulting in personal brokenness and corruption in society.

 

Through The Potter’s Leadership Academy where she serves as founder, president, and Vassal-in-Charge, she and the Academy teachers have been propagating the S-Leadership seminar to government and non-governmental agencies; medical, educational, business and religious institutions, with the hope of engendering transformation in individuals and cultivating integrity in institutions while spreading the value of stewardship and dedicated service to one’s country. Press release and photo from St. Scholastica’s College, Manila