Introducing Blogger Enrique Navarro

He has not stopped. At the age of 65 in 2016, he took up a certificate course in digital arts that equipped him with the competencies he rightly needed in establishing I-LRN Enterprise. The social enterprise was seen to serve the learning needs of marginalized youth and provide digital solutions to learning institutions that operate on a low budget.

Since early school age, he has loved challenges and braved competition. While his gift of arts manifested in many of his school endeavors, he pressured himself into liking science and math subjects having been in the special science class of his high school. It was a struggle for him to be consistently in the honor roll making him terribly disappointed for not being included in the top three highest honors that were awarded during graduation.

In his high school, he took drafting, metal craftsmanship and journalism as elective subjects. He has won declamation and painting competitions in the same school that was then considered the best and the most populated secondary school in the Tondo district of Manila.

The thought of having advanced knowledge in the sciences prompted him to pursue a chemistry course in college while sustaining his love for the arts. He has sung for his college choir and played a few bit roles in theater and television.

Poverty did not hinder him from completing college. Though he was a Manila city government full scholar getting completely free college education from tuition to uniform, he had to help his mother earn for their daily subsistence by vending in Divisoria a variety of goods that included meals, fresh fruits and occasionally seasonal goods like fireworks products.

As the eldest of three children, he felt obliged to help his parents. His father’s salary from being a candy manufacturing company driver was not enough for all their needs including monthly rental for a crowded house space.

He landed a job as a junior laboratory analyst in a large global manufacturing company immediately after graduation. When his contract ended, he decided to teach while waiting for another opportunity in a company where his educational background would be most suited. His teaching background got him episodic teaching jobs. From teaching initially chemistry subjects, he had taught mathematics, physics and management in the later part of his career.

A truly self-made man, he promoted himself from one job to another, thinking that without this initiative, it would take long for him to get a promotion if he just waited for the next level position to be vacated. Thus, he applied for every vacant position in his company and elsewhere banking on his educational background, training and rich work experiences.

At the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) where he spent more than 20 years growing and developing as a professional, he experienced working as a researcher, trainer (concurrently as extension worker), administrator and event organizer. After completing a diploma program in human resources management, he left IRRI for an executive position at an off-shore data processing company that ultimately led him to be its Assistant Vice President for Human Resources and Organization Development later.

From Makati back to Laguna, he settled as the first Institute Director of the CARD-MRI Development Institute, formerly a training center in microfinance, now also a senior high school and a development college. When he reached 60 years old, he retired from the institute that he helped grow to become a leading microfinance capacity builder in Southeast Asia. But he remained concurrently as its senior adviser and board member while designated as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Research when the institute was granted permission to operate as a college.

In 2018, he joined the PBCOM Rural Bank initially as a board member then as its President and CEO. He resigned to focus on the operations of I-LRN Enterprise as an entrepreneur during the peak of the pandemic.