Angela Aquino quietly wandered into an Open House at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), mistakenly taking it for a master class. What took her by surprise was the individual and careful attention given her by AIM’s recruitment staff and the offer to take a free examination for admission. With her interest in climate and disaster management, she was edging towards a degree in Disaster Risk and Crisis Management. However, as the Senior Science Research Specialist at a partnership of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the University of the Philippines Institute of Civil Engineering (UP-ICE) that seeks to promote integrated solid waste information and technology management systems, and the establishment of waste utilization technologies in the National Capital Region, Angela saw the value in taking a Master in Development Management (MDM) instead after reviewing its curriculum. AIM’s recruiters skillfully match prospective students with their chosen course of study according to their inclinations, interests, and skills needed for their careers.
“AIM’s Master in Development Management Program breaks us down to our biased core and then builds us up again with the foundation, skills, and mindset necessary to be the kind of leader that the world desperately needs today,” opines Angela. The Integrated Waste Analysis, Survey, and Technological Options Project, also known as IWASTO, aims to appraise current waste management systems in areas covered by the Manila Bay region, and provide solutions for the processing of waste in such areas. The project was borne out of UP’s Institute of Civil Engineering in early 2020 under the Integrated Mapping, Monitoring, Modelling, and Management System for Manila Bay (IM4ManilaBay) and is slated for two years. The partnership allows the DOST to provide the project with around PhP 20 million in funding required to conduct the research and present its findings to the affected local governments and communities.
During the course of her work, she fell into a conversation examining the failure of the effectiveness of Information and Education Campaigns and waste utilization technologies to solve the issues at hand. Reviewing MDM’s course outline, she strongly believes that she could gain the knowledge and skills to find the right solutions.
Impressed by the depth of the program and the caliber of her professors and cohorts, Angela is confident that she is in the right place. MDM is an intensive twelve-month program conducted by the Stephen Zuellig Graduate School of Development Management with the goal of honing future leaders in creating solutions and policies for the management of challenging development environments. After 32 years, the program was redesigned to address the demands of a rapidly changing world by educating its cohorts to scale social impact through social entrepreneurship, transformative policy implementation, and impact-first investing.
Angela could not be more fulfilled. She advises those who are considering application to the program that “the road to sustainable development is unpaved, slippery, and messy; but I promise you that it’s worth it.”
As the premiere postgraduate school in the Philippines, and one of the top educational institutions in Asia, AIM continues to provide exceptional programs with dedicated international faculty to its global student body. The Master in Development Management is one such program.
