Dr. Angelo Unite
AY 2007-2008
Professional Profile:
Dr. Angelo A. Unite is a University Fellow and Full Professor of the Economics Department, School of Economics, De La Salle University. He obtained his Ph.D in Finance from the University of Alberta, Canada. He is the author of various articles on corporate finance, corporate governance, investment and public policy, and time series and financial econometrics that have been published in a umber of local and international journals. He received university recognition for having the most cited works in the field of Social Sciences that are published in an ISI-listed journal for the years 2014 and 2011. He was the recipient of the National Academy of Science and Technology Outstanding Scientific Paper Award in 2005, and was First Runner-up in the 2004 CHED National Republica Award for Outstanding Research and Publication. In 2008, he was awarded the Outstanding Finance Educator for the National Capital Region by the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines and Citi Philippines, and the Outstanding Educator in Banking and Finance, by the Philippine Council of Deans and Educators in Business/Petron Foundation/Commission on Higher Education in 2003. He was a visiting researcher at the Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan, in 2002.
Being appointed as University Fellow is the pinnacle of my career. But like any other accolade that has to be painstakingly earned, my journey of becoming a University Fellow had been arduous, albeit meaningful and interesting.
From a very young age, I had a strong inkling that teaching was my calling. To convince myself, I tried working in the corporate sector, but sadly, I did not feel passionate about my job. My stint outside the confines of school was short-lived, to say the least. I then applied for a teaching position at the DLSU Economics Department, and I was quite fortunate to be offered a full-time position as Instructor. Suffice to say that my opportunity cost was very high. However, this was the least of my concerns at that time.
I distinctly remember attending the various University Commencement Exercises as a junior faculty member and feeling in awe of these professors who wore elegant green togas with glimmering gold medals ‘round their necks and who were queued in a different line than us. While I was aware that they were called University Fellows, I neither knew how to become one nor what it entails to be one. On an occasion, I had the audacity to ask one of these professors about the criteria to become a University Fellow. His answer? “You have to be prominent.” And regardless of whatever being “prominent” might require of me, I was resolved to, someday, become one of them.
It was beyond gratifying to finally be conferred the title of University Fellow after 18 years of service to DLSU. Not a few students have marveled at my decision to come back and serve the University, even after having been exposed to a challenging yet more stimulating learning environment abroad and having been offered more lucrative job opportunities elsewhere. My response to them is always the same: that I have never regretted my decision and, instead, feel only fulfillment and passion at having devoted my life to the University.
DLSU is and will remain as my home, my work, and my life’s project. I was educated by the Christian Brothers from elementary to the master’s levels, and thus, I am immensely steeped in the Lasallian values of religio, mores, et cultura. I have always been, in all respects, a true-blooded Lasallian and I identify strongly with the University. Moreover, the Brothers have provided me with an education that my family could not have afforded. They gave me so many opportunities to better myself, and I find it only appropriate to pay back the University with the same generosity it has shown me before. Being a University Fellow, I realize, has further enabled me to fulfill this goal and to live out my life’s purpose – that of doing my best to contribute to the University’s welfare.
A University Fellow is a vanguard of this institution’s policies, reputation, vision, and mission. To be an instrument in shaping the University’s vision and future direction is the paramount task that could be asked of me. Work is, after all, most fulfilling when it is meaningful and engaging, and so far, no other alternative has appealed to me so much as the idea of giving back to the institution to which I owe all my success.