By Edward Pormilos

Participants of the CPUFOAAI Officers’ Induction with CPU President Rev. Dr. Ernest Howard B. Dagohoy.

On January 11, 2025, the Central Philippine University Federation of Overseas Alumni Association, Inc. (CPUFOAAI), conducted a virtual induction for its new set of officers for 2025-2026.

The event began with a brief business meeting. Kathy Kriewall, outgoing Treasurer, opened with a prayer and presented the financial report, including the $17K Certificate of Deposit that earned $380 interest to date. Toronto Chapter President Meriam Amy shared updates on preparations for the Global Reunion in July, noting that everything is progressing smoothly.

The Induction Program was officially opened by Adviser Emelda “Daday” Valcarcel, who also served as the event’s master of ceremony. Rufino “Pinoy” Gonzales, Board Member, led the Hymn of Consecration, “Here I Am, Lord,” and the closing song, “My Tribute, To God Be the Glory.” CPU President Rev. Dr. Ernest Howard B. Dagohoy administered the oath-taking of the new officers. Pastor Edward Pormilos, incoming Treasurer, led the closing prayer. Adviser Perla Guillergan Waters contributed to the development of the program.

In the acceptance speech of Lee Plagata, the elected President for the second term, he cited incremental gains through better investment of FOAA’s fund to improve returns that can be rolled back to operational spending, the growing involvement of more chapters in funding grants and scholarships and support to the God’s Grace Program for work students. Theses fundraisers supplement FOAA’s existing endowment fund for Grant-in-Aid. He added that FOAA is working closely with the host Toronto Chapter for the Global Reunion.

He pointed out that FOAA has plenty of room to improve and to take advantage of new opportunities. He cited the need to engage with younger alumni, who are more in tune navigating social media and digital communications. This is an opportunity to go past to existing alumni membership mostly comprised of graduates from 1960s to the ‘80s. He envisions a website to draw them in and to expand our chapter memberships not just to location-based chapters but also to online groups that have proliferated on social media platforms. The appeal he wanted FOAA to nurture is plain networking among Centralians and mentorship by career veterans to the newly arrived alumni, wherever they may be overseas.

He closed by asking all stakeholders to work with him, to work with each other, and to work with President Dagohoy, in the stated goal of networking and uniting with fellow alumni, and to find opportunities to help CPU. He hoped that this will be the last time that inductions be held online. One of the decisions FOAA made in 2024 was to return the global reunion intervals to every other year to match with the term of the officers. In effect, the next reunion after Toronto will hopefully be in 2026 in the Philippines, when the next group of officers will be inducted in-person.

After the program, the time was extended by an informal chat with CPU President Dagohoy about his forthcoming tour or caravan to various alumni chapters in the US. This trip is being closely coordinated by Easter Aurora, the duly acknowledged, “Alumni Ambassadress” of the Federation.

The following are the new officers serving the term 2025-2026:

It was indeed a meaningful program and a productive meeting and fellowship, that bound together the officers and stakeholders as they continue to serve the FOAA for the love of Central.