SKIP YOWELL IN UST

With ITM's collaboration with Jansport Philippines, UST had the privilege of having The Skip Yowell!

Here's a little background about our favorite backpack and Skip Yowell!

JANSPORT

JanSport was founded in 1967 in Seattle, Washington, by three pioneers in the outdoor industry. Though the Company began by manufacturing and marketing world-class outdoor backpacks, today the product offering includes technical outdoor gear, daypacks, travel gear and collegiate decorated apparel, sold in sporting goods stores, college bookstores, department stores, and specialty and boutique retail locations throughout the world. The Brand has the spirit of fun and discovery, represented in the Brand tagline: Discover Freedom.

SKIP YOWELL

From a small-town in Kansas, Skip Yowell took a journey to Seattle. It led him to the top of the outdoor industry and around the world. Skip help build one of the most recognized brand names, JanSport, sponsoring climbing expeditions, outdoor programs and recreating in Bhutan, Kenya, Mt Everest and other far flung places.
In 1967, Skip Yowell, his cousin Murray Pletz, and Murray's wife Jan, founded JanSport with a determination to make the best and most dependable product on the market. Forty years later, Skip Yowell has a book He gives speeches and presentations that tell the story of the adventures, expeditions, and people.Skip's images, words and stories offer a behind-the-scenes look at his motivation and inspiration. 
As noted by Ed Viesturs, the first American to climb all fourteen 8,000 meter peaks, Author of No Shortcuts to the Top, "(Skip) stayed true to himself, maintained friendships, traveled the world and most importantly, preserved his passion for his job.... We can all learn something from Skip.

“WE GOT SKIP!” by Inna Macaspac

A great man has come to visit UST and gave an inspirational talk. He is no other than Skip Yowell, one of the co-founders of JanSport, and a global marketing communications expert.

Mr. Skip Yowell shows a smiling face to the guests.

Last August 29, 2013, 4-6pm, at the Beato Angelico AVR, Skip Yowell gave an inspirational talk at an event entitled “We Got Skip!” – one of the events under Ideas That Matter for the 1^st Semester of the Academic Year 2013-2014. The event was attended not only by CFAD students, but also some members of the UST Mountaineering Club, a mountaineering group from Mapua Institute of Technology and some bloggers. Skip talked about JanSport’s history, and how he was able to expand the brand into one of the most recognized brand names in outdoor equipment. His passion for hiking inspired him to make the brand, and was able to promote it during his hikes.

After the talk, three JanSport bags were raffled to among those who registered to the event.

Then the guests had the chance to ask questions to Skip regarding his experiences in expanding his brand. Some asked for some advice on how to become successful in their respective fields and interests.

Mr. Skip Yowell listens attentively to each of the guests’ questions and gives them satisfying and inspirational answers.

One guest asking Mr. Skip Yowell a question.

Finally, the chance of the guests to interact with this great man! The guests lined up to get to meet Mr. Skip Yowell up close and let him sign on their JanSport bags, posters and other merchandise.

Me with Mr. Skip Yowell!

I got my bag signed by him! YIPEE!  (My bag’s design made the signature hard to be found. It’s on the front pocket.) J

It was indeed an inspirational day for us. Skip Yowell inspired us to EXPLORE in order to achieve our goals.

“Go out and see the beautiful world we live in.” – Skip Yowell

“Skip totally rocks!” by Che Guzman

The JanSport event entitled, “We Got Skip: Skip Yowell’s Secrets to a Superb Weekend” was held last August 29, 2013 at the Beato Angelico AVR. Skip Yowell, the co-founder of JanSport gave an inspirational talk about how they have built JanSport, and it was indeed a rare opportunity for students to learn and interact with a Global Marketing Communications expert. Students from other colleges were there, as well as special guests and visitors.

Skip Yowell was truly one of the most admired hippies in the planet, so I must believe that UST is lucky enough to have him speak. During his talk, he shared some photos about his personal experience in mountaineering as well as the importance of going out and exploring the world.

“Think outside the box and learn to be different.” –Skip Yowell

Skip talks about his secrets to a superb weekend

For the second batch of the given JanSport backpacks, Skip signed them exclusively for the winners. Lucky winners indeed, a lot were aspiring to win of those backpacks! Aside from the JanSport backpacks, other prizes were given away such as Nalgene tumblers and Yurbuds earphones that the students surely loved.

Skip signs a JanSport backpack for one of the winners from the raffle

At the last part of the event, students and other attendees were given the chance to meet and greet Skip! He signed some of the students’ JanSport backpacks, posters, notebooks and anything that could be signed at. He even took photos with them and smiled humbly with every click of each camera. This is only one of the many reasons why Skip rocks!

CFAD students takes a photo with Skip during the Meet and Greet

I can say that the JanSport event really was a success. Everyone had fun, got acquainted with Skip and most importantly, had witnessed another learning experience from a pro. We all just have to remember that life is an adventure and the path is unknown. And with JanSport, we can travel the world anyway we want it.

I learned that each member plays an important role, even the participants contributes to the success and failure of the event. The so-called domino effect is applicable to pretty much any situation or person and our actions will surely affect the flow of a certain event or the people around us. 

- Marge De Jesus of ITM Organizing Team

Working in Ideas that Matter 2013 is like a taste of a real job.
You get to meet and work with new people. I learned the value of cooperation. Without cooperation, we won't be able to pull through with the event. It's not easy but it was definitely worth a try. ITM is a great event and it helped us, CA students, bridge a connection with the students of CFAD. CA students have a different notion of advertising and also with CFAD students. But because of the difference, we were able to put things/duties in what we do best.

Ideas That Matter 2013 is really a great experience for me.

- Abigail Diaz of ITM Organizing Team

     By being part of the organizing team of ITM, I learned how to improve communication with others. It is not just about exchanging informations, it is also about ideas and aspirations, by being flexible, open-minded, have the willingness to change and learn something new about all those things that make us the individuals that we are. Organizing an event is not that easy. We all need to manage our time and of course, hardwork on all the things that we do. 

-Trish Caoc of ITM Organizing Team

“Ignite”

           It was the beginning of the second semester and everyone’s got a whole new chance of making this particular time in their college lives more interesting, fun and exciting.

I have no particular plans yet at that time. I was just tagging along with everyone else during the first week of the new semester. It was until I joined the organizing team for this semester’s “Ideas That Matter”. I’m not really used to meeting a lot of new faces all at once.  it was a mixture of excitement and unease for me whenever I thought of working with people from another section – and another college.

Weeks passed and we were finally able to have our very first organizing team meeting. Obviously, there was still an awkward air amongst us back then. Just look how far apart we were seated from each other before:

More and more meetings were held for the planning and preparation for the event. Each of us slowly warmed to one another. There were also a number of photoshoots of the organizing team which helped on building our team’s work relationship. 

Our team was created to fuse each and everyone’s strengths and ideas, and from there on we were set to ignite the spark of determination and dedicate ourselves into doing our best for this semester’s Ideas That Matter.

We may have had several set-backs concerning our event, but we were able to push through and support one another in the process, making the most out of what we’ve got.

It was a great and memorable learning experience, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone from the Ignite team and our adviser, Prof. Gil Velez, for making it all happen.

Keep the sparks burning.

-Jeri Ann Gabon