She gave up Wall Street for Bacolod—and empowered her community

Wilhelmina Gonzales was living any Filipino’s American dream: a master’s degree from an Ivy League school, a hefty paycheck from one of Wall Street’s reputed accounting firms, an apartment in New York, and good prospects for an American citizenship.

Then she heard news from home, of the fall of the sugar industry that defined her home province of Negros Occidental, of civil unrest, of hunger, of the worsening state of life in the communities. Gonzales, safe and secure in the heart of the Big Apple, decided to go home.

“I asked myself: Why am I offering my brains and my capabilities to a foreign country when I should be using my talents to serve my country?” she narrates. Even though grateful for the scholarship she received, Gonzales felt she was needed in her country, more so, by her community.

In Bacolod, she established her own accounting firm, joined two non-government organizations, and handed out scholarships to budding accountants. All this happened more than three decades ago. She is now in her 70s.

Eager to succeed

“I grew up seeing poverty,” Gonzales says. Both her parents are public school teachers who each earned P180 a month. The amount was used to feed their nine children.

Being the third child, she was often called muchacho (helper). “When you are the third child you are the one who is given the least attention,” she shares. “My parents and my elder siblings always asked me to run errands for them.”

Receiving little attention and continuously being teased did not demoralize Gonzales. Instead, it gave her a reason to be successful in order to help her family and her community. The Gonzaleses hail from Brgy. Antipolo in Pontevedra, a small municipality which would later be known for the good quality of education.

“I was in grade two then when I told myself I will be successful so my parents will be very proud of me.” Indeed, Gonzales studied hard, believing education would be her key to success.

Struggling for education

The family was poor but valued education. For the children to study in college, each would have to wait for two years after the prior child graduates from college. The older sister before Willie took up nursing and the course then required three years to complete.

“I had to wait for three years before I could go to college, I couldn’t wait that long,” says Gonzales. She was a good public speaker so she talked to a mayoral candidate and made a bargain: she will campaign for him, and if he wins, he will give her a job.

When the mayor won, Gonzales was given a clerical job at the capitol where she earned P4 per day of work. She worked in the morning and studied accountancy at night at the nearby University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos. After her first year, Gonzales gained full scholarship for being a dean’s lister and received financial support from the mayor.

“I took up accountancy but I really wanted to become a lawyer,” says Gonzales. “But it takes time to earn if you’re a lawyer. With accountancy, I will be employed right away and be financially independent.”

After college, Gonzales was hired in the accounting firm of one of her professors. Here, she underwent training on commerce and industry and other related fields. Gonzales wanted to take up the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) licensure exam but the family has no money to pay the fees and finance her review. There were still six younger siblings who were studying.

One of her professors then started a scholarship grant that supported the expenses for the review and the exam. Gonzales received the scholarship and successfully passed her exams in 1961. By 1968, Gonzales was successfully selected as one of the beneficiaries of the Fulbright-Hays scholarship.

Studying in Philadelphia

By 1970, after a year of applying for various schools in America, Gonzales got admitted to the Wharton School of Finance of the University of Pennsylvania. Soon after, she packed her bags and left to pursue a master’s degree in finance.

“The experience was beautiful but difficult,” muses Gonzales. “They have a different method of education and I needed to get used to it. It was also exhilarating because our professors were the authors of the books we read in class.”

To augment her daily needs, she took Saturday jobs in an accounting office, working for two hours and getting $5 per hour.

The experience was challenging and frustrating especially when she took up Calculus, a course she never took in the Philippines. Instead of fretting, Gonzales befriended a Japanese classmate who tutored her on the subject in exchange for her tutoring the girl in English.

“I taught her English and she taught me calculus, that way, we both were able to pass our classes,” Gonzales beams.

Another memorable experience for Willie was her computer classes, a hurdle as computers were not famous then in the Philippines. “In Wharton, it was all over the place! Our professor was understanding and gave us extra time to study how to use it.”

A fighter

Although treated equally by her colleagues, Gonzales says that she saw how other Asians were discriminated by the Americans.

“Maybe because I am a fighter. I don’t believe I am inferior. I might be small and dark but I have the brains they don’t have,” Gonzales states confidently. “And they respected my qualifications.”

Strong-willed, Gonzales always believed in being a Filipino despite being in a foreign land. During her stay in America, she would get into arguments, not with Americans, but with fellow Filipinos who were badmouthing the country.

“I always tell them, you have no right because you came from that country and you don’t know the situation in the Philippines.”

Exchanging a dream for another dream

Immediately after earning her masters in finance in 1971, Gonzales got hired in Pryce Waterhouse & Co, one of the biggest auditing firms in the US--and her dream company. She was given a salary of $2,000 per month.

When she learned of what happened in Negros, she immediately gave up her job and went home. “Negros was calling me to share my expertise, I was the only Wharton graduate at that time.”

UNOC-R offered her a teaching post, and she eventually became the dean of the school’s College of Commerce. When she got back, she also started her own auditing company, the Gonzales Accounting and Auditing Office, and had a house built for her parents.

“I wanted to help my community and I wanted to uplift the lives of the poor. That became my dream after Wharton,” she muses.

A heart for the poor

Gonzales always had a soft spot for the poor, she shares, as she came from a poor family. Aside from managing her accounting firm and teaching, she also joined two NGOs: the Negros Economic Foundation Inc (NEDF) and the Negros Women of Tomorrow Foundation Inc (NWTFI).

NEDF is the oldest and considered as the most successful NGO in Negros Occidental. The main aim of the group was to provide technical and financial assistance through sustainable agriculture, environmental protection, capability-building, and socialized housing.

NEDF trains farmers in improving the productivity of their fields and the marketability of their harvests. It also helps low-income families by providing cheap housing units with the help of various government units and cooperatives.

On the other hand, NWTFI provides microfinance services. For NWTFI, Gonzalez and 24 other women went to Bangladesh to study how women improve their lives through the Grameen Bank and Prof. Muhammad Yunus. Grameen received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

Twenty-five years after its inception, NWTFI has helped improve the lives of its beneficiaries. Gonzalez now chairs the foundation.

But the initial path to helping the poor in her province was not a breeze. There was resistance from the locals as they have been used and abused before. “There was a suspicion that we came there to create more problems for them,” narrates Gonzalez. To solve this, the group organized a one-week orientation about the organization and the projects that they plan to do.

No regrets

Looking back, Gonzales never regretted going home. “The fastest way to improve our lives is through education. To see a student become as successful as I was successful is already a fulfillment in itself.”

In hindsight, Gonzales believes that after more than three decades, she did help her community. “I wanted to restore the dignity of the poor because they are trampled in life.”

To give back the kindness shown by her professors, Gonzales also opened a scholarship grant for accountant graduates who do not have enough financial resources to pursue CPA licensure reviews and exams in Manila.

She also has a scholarship for men who intend to enter priesthood. She proudly talks about going to Brazil last year when one of her scholars got ordained.

“Maybe that’s why I have always been so lucky—numerous people have been praying for me,” Gonzales says jokingly.

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Wilhelmina “Willie” Gonzales was one of the five finalists of the Ramon Aboitiz Award for Exemplary Individual in the Visayas and Mindanao for the 4th Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc Triennial Awards held in Cebu City last March 6, 2009. This piece wasn't published, so I thought I'd give it the light of day even if only in my blog.