Bautista, Rina L.
AB Psychology 1981
2008
DLSAA Lasallian Achievement Awardee
Distance Learning
For providing programs nationwide by way of media and technology in order to make available education to children who have no access to schools in their areas, Knowledge Channel (KCh ) Foundation president Elvira “Rina” Lopez Bautista received the Lasallian Achievement Award for Distance Learning. Rina has received numerous awards for her work with KCH. In 2005, she was presented with the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) CEO Excel Award of Excellence, and was honored with the Peace Award for Literacy by the Rotary International District of Quezon City. In 2006, she was honored with the Parangal Lingkod Sambayanan from the Ateneo de Manila University, the Manuel L. Quezon Award for Exemplary Governance in Communication 8t Distance Learning from the Federation of Catholic Schools Alumni/ae Associations (FeCaSAA) and the Chicago Via Times conferred Rina the Peace Builder International Award and induction into the Chicago Filipino American Hall of Fame. Her multi-awarded flagship program, The Knowledge Channel, has received, among others, The Catholic Mass Media Serviam Award, the IABS Gold Quill Award for Excellence, the Anvil Award of Merit and the Asian CSR Award for Education. She has also addressed 2,000 delegates to the 59th Annual UN Department of Public Information and NGO Conference in New York on science and technology for education In December 2008, Lopez Bautista spoke at the first Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Asia meeting held at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong. Clinton cited the Knowledge Channel's commitment to provide access to Internet/computer education to the poor and marginalized but bright children, saying this should be replicated elsewhere in the world. Lopez Bautista shared how she utilized her family's resources, specifically ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. and SkyCable, to provide curriculum-based educational television to public elementary and high schools across the country through KCh. She said that beyond providing infrastructure and teacher training to schools, Knowledge Channel Foundation Inc. (KCFI) engages the whole community in the students' learning experience. The biggest challenge KFCI faces, according to Lopez Bautista, is securing the necessary funding to provide the technology, content, and training to all the public schools in the Philippines. Knowledge Channel is now reaching 2.9 million Students in more than 1,800 public Schools nationwide, including 150 schools in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), as well as families and communities. Lopez Bautista believes that by working together, more can be achieved. When asked her why she dedicated much of her time and effort on promoting educational television programming, she would always reply, “My answer is simple. It is because I can. And it is because I should.” (Condensed from an article by Nicelle Lucero and from: http://www.lopezgroup.org/Igfi/news.asp?SID=30, http://www. philstar.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=425854&publicationSubCa tegoryld-71, http://www.knowledgechannel.org/kch/newsltem. asp?i=090108_80Schools)