WHAT MAKES ANA URBINA TICK?  by Carol  G. Caaway

        She is the simple, chinky-eyed Systems and Programming Division (SPD) Chief of the National Food Authority. She is also sharp-witted, glib-tongued, and confident that only the best things in life will be coming her way -- just as it has always been.

        "Basically, I believe that I will always be a lucky person," Ana Urbina smiles as she says. "It has been that way ever since. Basta dumadating lang."

        Proof of this is the fact that her career in computers was not something she particularly planned for. Nevertheless her easy climb up the highly competitive corporate ladder has been nothing short of meteoric.

        A 1969  B.S. Mathematics graduate from the University of the Philippines, Ana Urbina found her way into the world of information technology quite by accident.

        "I was then employed at the National Census and Statistics Office as a Census Statistician," Ana narrates. "One day they told me to take the qualifying exams at the National Computer Institute for the Systems Analysis and Design (SAD) course. I passed the test and enrolled in the course. I began to like the new field and I found it more interesting than programming. So when there was an opening for an EDP position at NCSO, I immediately applied for it. After a year, I was promoted to Senior Census EDP Systems Analyst."

        Her stint with NFA began in August 1980, when she was accepted there as EDP Programmer. "The pay was higher," Ana commented when asked why she agreed to take a position lower than her previous one. From there, she began her swift, practically trouble-free ascent to her current position as division chief.

        "I supervise a group of systems analysts and programmers," Ana says about her present job. "But I like to make them all systegrammers . . . yung involved in  both systems analysis and programming. So far, 75% of them ang ganun na.

        As for the work itself, Ana says: "Creative . . . tapos tama lang ang timpla. It allows you to work, at the same time pursue other activities. Computers can be dehumanizing if you concentrate your whole life on them. That's why I went into Masters in Urban and Regional Planning (at UP). At that time, if you could hear me talk, I constantly talked about input, process, output. I was alarmed at the way I was learning to look at things. So I went into the Humanities to balance things a bit."

        For Ana, the basic ingredient for success in EDP is good communication skills.

        "It's wrong to say that you must be good at programming or systems analysis only," she says. "You have to be good at communication--conveying and taking in people's attitudes, people's ways of looking at things. You cannot say 'this is how it should be done', which is the fault of many systems analysts I know. It may be the logical solution for you, but then again the other peson may not see it that way. You must listen to your user since you are going to leave that system with them, anyway."

        Has she ever had problems communicating with her staff?

        "I never really experienced any problems in dealing with my people," she says candidly. "People are generally open to me, and find me approachable. It's probably because I'm into tarot card-reading and they flock to me on Tuesdays and Fridays to have their fortunes told. That makes it easy for me to establish rapport with them."  She laughs, adding that they have their sessions "not during office hours, of course."

        One therefore wonders if she is planning to give up her job at NFA and go into tarot-reading full time. Or change careers, perhaps.

       " I don 't know if you can call it a change," she replies, "but when I grow old, I would like to see myself in a school for children teaching very young kids about computers. I find it easy to impart knowledge. Although I can probably put up my own portrait studio, now that I am into photography . . . (She is the president of the NFA's Camera Club)  na pagka
Tuesday and Friday, puwede ring manghuhula." She laughs again.

        Aside from the fact that she is outspoken, down-to-earth, and definitely one of the friendliest people around, Ana has been described by colleagues in the computer business as EXTREMELY HARDWORKING. Where does she get all the energy?

        "I don't know," she says frankly. "But that's the way I am. When I pursue something, I don't stop until I get it. I always give my best. And I have always believed that the more you give, the more you get. Kasi, if you get into an activity where your expectation is more of getting for yourself, parang you don't get as much as when you go into it with a stronger motivation to give, and then you reap your reward as a result. I have always believed in that."

       There you have it. What makes Ana tick? Simple. A very positive outlook, a giving spirit, and a heart full of goodwill for the people she deals with.

1999 Prep '65Baliktipon sa Tagsibol New York

Memorable 1998

What's up for 1998?

In honor of the Philippine Centennial Year and specifically for my nieces who are out of the country, I am publishing my grandfather's autobiography.  See  Ingkong Logio .

I definitely got the writing genes from him!

Highlights of 1997:

Nothing could equal the thrill of this webpage, born in October.

The most exciting event was graduation at PICC in April with an MBA-TEP degree from PLM .  See The Graduate .