Awarding of Naming Rights for the School of Social Sciences (Memo U2425-064)

I am pleased to inform the University community that the Board of Trustees of Ateneo de Manila, during its meeting on 16 November 2024, approved the awarding of the Naming Rights for the School of Social Sciences to Dr Rosita G Leong in recognition of a major donation she has committed recently to the University.

The donation shall be used to establish the Dr Rosita G Leong Social Sciences Endowment Fund which will support the renovation of the Social Sciences Building and an endowment fund for faculty development.  

In consideration of this substantial endowment, the Ateneo shall adopt as the official name for the School of Social Sciences:

ATENEO DE MANILA UNIVERSITY
DR ROSITA G LEONG SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

This latest donation is far from being a simple benefaction, but a milestone in the partnership that has been forged between Ateneo de Manila and Dr Rosita Leong and her husband, Mr Ricardo Leong for almost two decades now. Indeed, the University has been privileged to receive a series of donations from the Leongs which began in 2005 with the establishment of the Ricardo Leong Center for Chinese Studies, followed shortly by the gift of a new home to the School of Social Sciences with the inauguration of the Ricardo and Dr Rosita Leong Hall in 2007. Thereafter, the couple established additional endowment funds within the University: the Leong Initiative for Internationalization (2013), the Dr Rosita Leong Hub for Primary Physician Formation (2017), the Ricardo Leong Institute for Global and Area Studies (2022), not counting other Ateneo projects that they continually support like the annual Chinese Spring Film Festival.  

Dr Rosita G Leong is a pathologist by training and earned her degree in medicine from the University of Santo Tomas in 1963. After serving as Chief of Pathology at the Metropolitan Hospital in Manila until 1982, she focused her efforts on a wide range of investment activities in real estate, equities, and venture capital funds, along with her many philanthropic initiatives. Believing in the importance of education in transforming society, Dr Leong holds several positions in other educational institutions: as trustee at the University of Hawaii Foundation, as member of the Dr Rosita Leong Mini-Medical School at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine, and as trustee at the Variety School of Hawaii, a nonprofit multidisciplinary school specifically designed for students with disabilities or special needs.

Mr Ricardo C Leong graduated from Ateneo de Manila High School in 1953 and obtained his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at Fordham University, the Jesuit university of New York. He currently serves as Chairman at Tigerpack Ltd and as Director at AbaCore Capital Holdings, Inc, and Flexo Manufacturing Corp. Mr Leong previously worked as a Director at SGS International LLC and was a member of the advisory board of the former Equitable PCI Bank. An advocate of Jesuit education, he once said: “In a very real sense, I have always carried my Ateneo education with me. Ateneo reminds me of the imprint it has made on me and my family. The Ateneo changes its students more than it suspects.”

We are deeply grateful to Dr Rosita and Mr Ricardo Leong for their valuable partnership with Ateneo de Manila University and for their steadfast commitment to our educational mission. We offer our profound thanks to God for this generous gift and pray that He may abundantly bless the Leong family in return for their kindness and support.