Victor Calanog: Flying high

For some, the word hero is such a strong term which conjures up images of Superman, saints, or other forms of martyrs. As for me, I’ve always known that there were heroes among us. There are those whom we admire for their talent and wisdom; those who show us all that passion, dedication and hard work can achieve. There are those whom we admire for their beauty of character; those who unknowingly cast a light on the people they meet. Then there are those exceptional few who lie in between – an inexplicable mix of all those aforementioned and even much more.

Victor Franco Marzan Calanog is one such person. At the age of 28, his long list of accomplishments would certainly never fail to catch anyone’s attention, yet what’s more admirable is the humility he exudes despite all that he’s achieved. Victor, or "Biboy" as many call him, graduated Magna Cum Laude, Management Honors from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1996. Prior to entering Wharton, Biboy served as a faculty member in what was then called the Management Department of Ateneo. He also put up and ran a couple of businesses to supplement his noble but not exactly materially enriching lifestyle as a teacher.

In May 1999, Biboy became the first Filipino to receive the Dean’s Award of Excellence for Service to Wharton for his co-curricular leadership roles as an MBA student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In May 2000, Biboy received the Wharton MBA Class of 2000 Thomas P. Gerrity Leadership Award, the highest award given to one graduating MBA student for excellence in both academic achievement and co-curricular involvement. He’s been moving at full throttle since then, bagging the 2001 Amy Morse Prize as the top doctoral student in his department and recently winning competitive scholarly grants from the Russell Sage Foundation and the Center for International Business Education and Research to fund his research projects.

Biboy is married to the love of his life Christine Yeh, who graduated with Palmer Scholar honors from the Wharton School for her MBA studies last May 2002, and who now works as a consultant in the New York office of Bain & Company. Biboy is currently busy doing research for his dissertation as a Ph.D. candidate at the Wharton School of Upenn. He helps teach courses in international economics, development policy, geopolitics, urban affairs, and game theory. Though, in Biboy’s own words, his real full-time vocation is "to serve as my wife Christine’s house-husband and all around boy-toy." He lives in New York City and juggles his time between Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, DC, where his faculty advisers and co-authors are based. In the following interview, Biboy reveals more about himself and his thoughts on various matters, ranging from getting a good MBA to bodybuilding.

YOUNGSTAR: How’s life in the Big Apple?

Victor Franco Marzan Calanog: It’s been nothing short of wonderful. I enjoy living in the hustle and bustle of an urban environment and New York as the largest city in the US has the kind of scale and diversity that offers so much choice and excitement in terms of what one can do. We live at the heart of midtown Manhattan so we’re just a few blocks away from Times Square and major transport networks, so it’s easy to get around. We’re also just a 10-minute walk from the Broadway theater district. We have friends and loved ones coming over to visit and stay with us every week or two so we get to spend time with those close to our hearts. It is fairly expensive to live here, but we do get what we pay for. We are not ruling out the possibility that we might prefer suburbia to the big city once we have kids and our preference for more space changes.

You’ve accomplished so much. What is it that motivates you?

Awards are icing on the cake. I did not even know the Gerrity Award existed until I received it! I would have lived my life exactly the same way had all of my supposed awards not been made available to me. I just tried to do the best job that I could, given the professional and academic responsibilities I had chosen to take on. Challenging problems and opportunities for contribution excite me. The kind of things I’ve chosen to do as a teacher, entrepreneur and now as a Ph.D. scholar provide many avenues for both contribution as well as tough problems into which I can sink my teeth and get my hands dirty.

And at the end of the day, "accomplishments" are subjective anyway. In my eyes, there are so many people out there who have "accomplished" much more meaningful and inspiring things than I ever have or perhaps ever could.

What do schools look for the most in students applying for an MBA?

I can’t speak for every school, but I believe most US business schools look for candidates who are passionate about what they do, and who are well-informed about the kind of options and resources that specific school communities can offer, given their plans and goals. Why take an MBA at this point in your life? Why apply to this or that specific school? In what way would you make the school community stronger if you were accepted? Would your peers enjoy and be proud having someone like you as a classmate and colleague? The more you can address these questions in a very specific, compelling way in your MBA applications, the better your chances of being admitted.

What are the most important things one should consider when applying for college? For graduate studies?

Any investment in time and education requires an assessment of its potential returns, whether these "returns" come in the form of a better job, faster and/or better progression in one’s career, or self-fulfillment and confidence in the personal formation that university-level education hopes to provide. The better informed you are before you make a choice among different schools and programs, the better use you can make of your time once you do make a decision as to which path to take.

Admittedly the story is going to be a bit different when you consider graduate school options versus college: A lot of the difference is driven by the stage in your life when you are deciding whether or not to enter graduate school. You’ll be a bit older, your preferences will be a bit more defined, and you’ll have different responsibilities and perhaps even different dreams for yourself and your loved ones. At this stage the question of "returns for your time and investment" becomes even more important.

So the bottom-line is do you think you’ll make the most of your experience in college or graduate school – or outside of it – given the range of choices available to you? This is intimately linked with knowing what to do with your life – a question that only you can answer.

What scholarships are available for Filipinos planning to take an MBA abroad?

There are plenty of scholarships for Filipinos planning to take an MBA abroad, but more often than not these are very school- or program-specific or even candidate-specific. You’ll have to do the legwork in terms of figuring out whether specific schools or programs offer financial support, given your personal and professional background. Filipinos who are accepted into top-tier business schools can also avail of educational loans that can cover the entire cost of the MBA – tuition and living expenses included.

What are the most important things you’ve learned in your experience studying abroad?

The more I learn, I realize how much more I do not know. Studying and living abroad exposed me to many perspectives that I may not have gotten to know had I stayed in the Philippines all my life.

You are a mentor to so many young people; what is it that inspires you to help them?

Younger people are the possibilities of our impossibilities. It’s enough motivation for me if I am able to share something that might help young people make better choices or enjoy better opportunities. It’s also my way of giving thanks to the many wonderful mentors who have helped me along the way; most if not all of them lent me a helping hand and believed in me even when I didn’t have much to show for myself. All of my mentors remain my good friends to this day: It is because of them that I decided to become a teacher.

What comment would you give if a student comes and says to you, "Ang hirap, hindi ko kaya yan"?

I would ask two questions: 1) Why is it that you want to spend your time pursuing this particular goal? And 2) Can you honestly say that you’ve tried long and hard enough?

The first question takes precedence. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot." But this assumes that we truly know and are at peace with what we are trying to do or achieve: Why climb this mountain in the first place? Just because it’s there? What might you be giving up by striving long and hard for this one goal? Is there a possibility that after achieving this goal through long, hard work you’ll realize that you neglected other things in your life that might be more important?

People are often surprised by how "easy" it is to do things that once seemed difficult once they are at peace with the reasons of why they have to do it in the first place. A little soul-searching may also make the decision to let go of impossible or unrealistic dreams and goals much easier.

Are the young Filipino students now any different from those in your time?

I think the means through which they express themselves or live their lives are different: Text messaging was not available to us in our time, nor was the Internet widely accessible so many folks my age cannot imagine meeting new friends through friendster.com. By the way, probably because I have illusions that I am still young, I think friendster.com is very interesting: It may well be the online embodiment of the "set up (kai-shao in Fukienese) kita sa kakilala/kaibigan/kapatid ko." The "six-degrees" referral system provides a hurdle rate through which potential mates are pre-qualified by friends and family who self-select into the same community. Some sociologists would even say that school or professional pedigree serves the same "matching" purpose.

I think we all still desire and fear the same fundamental things. Maybe we just express these dreams and fears in different ways.

Is there anything you think should be changed about the current Filipino educational system/curriculum?

Too many to mention and discuss in this brief interview, but the issues are often structural. Perhaps it will sound too basic or mundane, but I believe positive changes may be brought about if the education sector had more funding. Money won’t solve everything, but it sure helps solve a whole lot of things.

You recently got married to Christine Yeh. Was it difficult to make it work, considering your different ethnicities and both of your hectic schedules?

We were the best of friends before we got involved romantically. I think that our long friendship "pre-qualified" us for one another, and romantic feelings may not have developed had we not both implicitly thought that our personal principles and goals were in line and that any differences we had complemented our strengths as individuals. Many of our common friends were of Chinese-Filipino descent and I’ve picked up a dialect or two along the way, so any differences that had its roots in barriers to understanding may have been lessened.

Open communication also helps when it comes to managing busy schedules. Because we talk about everything that’s going on in our lives, we each more or less are familiar with the kind of pressures and expectations that the other is going through. And we both fiercely manage our time as best we can, to spend as much time as we can with the other.

Finally, we are always thankful for the blessings that have come our way: Two loving, supportive families who accept our quirks and strong personalities and care about us, and a small but close-knit group of friends on whom we could always rely. Lucky breaks at school and work that we know might not have been made available to us, no matter how hard we worked. Sure, we work hard at our marriage – but we acknowledge that fundamentally we are fortunate to have found one another at that point in time when it was just right, when we were both ready to have a meaningful relationship.

Frankly, I still wake up every morning and thank God that Christine came into my life. And I wonder at my dumb luck that she chose to marry a dork like me.

You were once involved in a debate against a Philosophy Ph.D. about the existence of God. What arguments did you give then, as "God’s defender?"

God doesn’t need a defender, least of all someone like me. If you think long and hard (and in the right manner) about the issue of God’s existence, you will come to a point when you have to make a decision of whether you will take that leap of faith or not. If you take the question seriously, your response to whether "God exists or not" (or perhaps more importantly, "Does God care about me or not?") often reflects the way you live (or want to live) your life.

Does God need us to defend His (pardon the masculine term) existence, or do we need a God to give meaning to ours? If we do reach that point when the question of God’s existence no longer matters for us to live a meaningful life, does that imply that atheism is the way to go? Or does that mean that we are in fact closer to the destination that God intended for us to walk?

Or am I asking the wrong questions?

I understand that you’re into bodybuilding. What is it about the sport that fascinates you?

It’s an interesting sport because it requires you to "fail" in order to "succeed." You have to reach that point of muscular failure in order to develop strength, power and size. I’ve always liked a good challenge: I like pushing my limits. Also, the sport provides me a good break from the pressures of day to day life and work: You can’t worry too much about any other problem if you’re lifting close to four hundred pounds of steel and it’s threatening to crush you! After a good workout I feel refreshed and energized and ready to plunge back to work, so it’s good downtime for even greater productivity.

Do you still plan to go back to Manila and teach?

Yes, of course. But not until I’ve become the best teacher and scholar I can be. There’s a lot I still have to learn.

Final comments?

One last question: Are you sure I am still qualified to be featured in the "young" section of Philippine Star?

(Laughing) Thanks!

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For comments or suggestions, e-mail the author at steniecoyiuto@yahoo.com