A Tribute to my Mentor, Prof. Tada-aki Tanabe

Prof. Tada-aki Tanabe, the founder of the NU Concrete Lab in 1981

 Prof. Tada-aki Tanabe was my mentor when I took my M.Eng. and D. Eng. programs at Nagoya University, Japan. In 1988, I applied for a Monbusho scholarship to pursue a Master's Degree in Japan. I didn't know any professor in Japan and fortunately, I was accepted by one great professor at Nagoya University in the Concrete Laboratory. I completed my M. Eng. degree in 1991 and then passed the entrance exam for D. Eng with Prof. Tanabe again as my mentor. After three years of academic and research work, I graduated D. Eng. in 1994.

After 23 years, the former students of Prof. Tanabe organized a reunion and a forum as tribute to the great mentor of the Medai Concrete Lab on Aug. 5, 2017. Incidentally, Prof. Tanabe is turning 77 years old this year. It was a happy and momentous event for me as I met my former colleagues in the Tanabe Concrete Lab - foreign students,  Dr. Denzil (Sri Lanka), Prof. Farahat (Egypt), Dr. Yu (China), Prof. Wu (China), Dr. Gupta (India) and Japanese colleagues which includes the present head of the Concrete Lab., Prof. Nakamura and batchmates, Mr. Kannan and Mr. Takatsuji.  I met also foreign graduates now professors from Bangladesh and the new graduates of the Concrete Lab under Prof. Nakamura.

The foreign students had a chance to present a tribute to Prof. Tanabe and an update of their research and professional activities. In my case, I shared my activities after graduating from Nagoya University in 1994 - my teaching tasks at De La Salle University, my networking activities with Nagoya University and other Japanese Universities and the research themes of my students' researches. My story ends with the following slide stating that "it's not just my story but also the story of the legacy of a mentor, Prof. Tanabe" who has passed his "genes" to a new generation of researchers. I summarized the principles that I give credit to my mentor below: 

Finally, I presented my last slide with the quotation, "A truly great mentor is hard to find, difficult to part with and impossible to forget." In Japanese, "Idai na shi wa, mitsukemuzukashiku, hanare muzukashiku, wasure muzukashii - 偉大な師は、見つけ難く、離れ難く、忘れ難し。

Here are memorable slides of the message of Prof. Tanabe during the forum on Aug. 5, 2017.

Here are memorable photos before and after the NU Concrete Lab Forum 

Dinner hosted by Prof. and Mrs, Tanabe (4 Aug 2017)

Prof. Tanabe and Dr. Gupta - Happy Moments!

The Alumni and Students of NU Concrete Lab (50 + strong) gave tribute to Prof. Tanabe

Tweaking De La Salle's CEO Priniciples for the MIllinenial Teacher

In my recent post, I featured power point slides based on the book, De La Salle, CEO (2004) by Napoleon G. Almonte. The slides are the ten corporate leadership principles that can be practically be applied by leaders and managers of organizations. As I reflected on my power point slides, I realized that Almonte’s list is more suited for leaders, managers and administrators. This may be the reason that there is little positive feedback from our faculty especially the young teachers – the millennial teachers when I share the slides at Facebook. “Millennial teachers” is defined hare as teachers teaching the Generation Y Millennials (born between 1981 and 1999) and onwards.  I need to tweak (“adapt” is a better word but “tweak” seems appropriate especially when applied to “millennial” teachers) Almonte’s list of 10 CEO leadership principles so that they become relevant and more appropriate to the millennial teacher. The same 10 principles are adapted but tweaked to be suited to a teacher. The “tweaking” of the 10 principles are personal and based on my experience as a university teacher for more than twenty years.

Read/download the article on the "Ten Tweaked Principles of De La Salle for the Millennial Teacher" at  scribd.com.  TWEAKING De La Salle’s 10 CEO Leadership Principles for the Millennial Teacher by andyoreta6332 on Scribd

10 Leadership Principles of De La Salle for the present times

De La Salle CEO 10-leadership-principles from andyoreta

 St. John Baptist De La Salle was the founder of the Lasallian schools and the community of Lasallian brothers and educators with the order F.S.C. (Fratres Scholarum Christianarum).  St. De La Salle is the patron saint of teaches because he was the pioneer in the training and formation of lay teachers during his time. That's what I know only about De La salle after teaching at DLSU for more than 20 years. 

After attending a spiritual retreat with my co-faculty of the CE Department with Br. Michael Broughton, FSC as the facilitator, I came to understand who De La Salle is. I become interested about his life that I searched for books about him at the DLSU library. I found the book, De La Salle, CEO by Napoleon G. Almonte which is about 10 leadership principles that can be practically be applied by young leaders, teachers and managers of organizations. I contacted the author earlier asking him where the book can be purchased. According to him it is under revision for the 2nd edition but until now there is no copy available. I even suggested that to the President of DLSU Manila to share this book to all faculty and administrators because I believe very few (students, teachers, staff and administrators of DLSU) really know De La Salle.

 I was surprised that in our library there are reading rooms in honor of Philippine heroes and Lasalian scholars BUT there is no reading corner or room about the founder, Sr. John Baptist De Lasalle. The DLSU library has an archive of De La Salle but the books are not easily accessible. I suggested to the library and to the DLSU administrators to create one so that students, teachers and staff will get to know more about De La Salle. There was positive feedback but still I am still looking forward for the De La Salle Corner where reading materials, video and even a live La Salle brother is there to talk about St. De La Salle.

 What are the principles that the modern day teacher and administrator can learn form De La Salle  that he/she can apply in the modern times. While there is no reading room yet about De La Salle, I produced these slides to share the life and leadership of principles of De La Salle. I apologize to the author if his sale for the 2nd edition maybe affected negatively. But I think this is a promotion of the book. It's about time we get to know and apply these principles in our daily life.