Bench in education

For five out of its 25 years of existence, the fashion-plus brand Bench has been our partner in education.

In 2008, we asked empire-builder Ben Chan to invest in the future of young Filipinos through the Inquirer in Education (IIE) literacy program. Since then, Bench has been donating copies of our newspaper to the students of teachers who sign up to teach our serial story every September.

Before an audience of newspaper editors and publishers from Europe, South America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific at the recent World Young Readers Summit, I talked about Bench. Aralynn McMane, executive director for young readership development at the World Association of Newspapers and Newspaper Publishers (WAN-Ifra), asked me to share with other newspapers how we have managed to keep Bench as a partner. She was curious about why a company that thrives on the fleeting frills and thrills of fashion would choose to sustain a literacy program.

I really didn’t have an answer, and the only reason I could think of was one that Simon Sinek, author of “Start with Why,” put succinctly at a TED Talk.

“People buy why you do things, not what you do,” said Sinek. He also said, “If you talk about what you believe, you will attract those who believe what you believe.”

For economic reasons, IIE is different from the traditional newspapers in education (NIE) program. In other countries, NIE charges teachers a nominal fee for every workshop the newspaper puts together. It also sells to students the educational packs that the paper produces.

I knew we couldn’t do the same here. Our public school teachers cannot afford it. It was also out of the question to ask parents to shell out any more money than they were already spending for their children’s education.

I wanted to make our IIE activities available to public school teachers and students and I knew I could not pull this off without sponsorship.

Our only hope was to get companies with CSR funds on our side. But how do you do that?

Whenever our marketing and advertising sections talked to companies about sponsoring our IIE projects, they would always leave the table empty-handed.

“Grade school kids are not our market,” said Ben, when the idea of sponsoring a serial reading program for third and fourth graders was first broached to him.

Good image

A high profile fashion brand, thanks to TV and billboard advertising using top local movie and TV stars as image models, Bench, back in 2008, sold jeans, shirts, bags, shoes, face, hair and body products, among other things, to teens and adults.

In addition to its billboards, Bench’s biggest PR coup has been a biannual grand fashion show featuring top movie/TV stars and fashion models in nothing but Bench undies or, sometimes, Bench jeans.

The Bench underwear spectacle has been the hottest ticket in town and to get one, you’d have to buy so much worth of items from Bench stores. The same may be expected when, to celebrate its 25th anniversary, Bench puts up Bench Universe on Sept. 13 and 14 at Mall of Asia.

Despite the movie stars in underwear, Bench has an overall good image. But it was true what Ben said. Five years ago Bench had nothing in its stores for preteens. Why would it want to spend its CSR budget on a reading program for fourth graders?

At the time, Bench had just launched its advocacy for the environment. Their shop windows and products had a save-the-planet theme. But so did every other store because, thanks to Al Gore and his inconvenient truth, the environment was the cause du jour.

I asked Ben if they thought they were really making a difference in that area, and how fast were they making a difference, if at all.

We talked about the state of education in the country. It was in shambles, we agreed. We discussed studies with findings that education was a ticket out of poverty. I showed him slides about the newspapers in education program in other countries.

I told him I knew they didn’t make and sell clothes for third and fourth graders, but these kids would be in their teens soon. If you sponsor their classroom copies, I said, I am sure the Bench brand would remain topmost on their minds as they grow older.

“Consider it an investment,” I remember saying to Ben.

He agreed to give it a try, and supported our first series by donating copies of the Inquirer to our four partner schools every Monday for eight weeks.

Feel good

CSR is supposed to be a feel-good proposition, that’s all. But I like to think Bench got more bang for its CSR buck that first year.

Every Monday that the series came out, we placed the Bench logo at the top of the story. We stamped “Courtesy of Bench” on page 1 of all Inquirer copies that went out to the schools. We videotaped the kids reading the story in the classroom, doing group work, making art and saying, “Thank you for the newspapers, Bench!” After the series, we published an ad thanking Bench, as well as a wrap-up story.

We invited Bench executives to our office for afternoon tea. We showed them a video of the kids. We gave them a compilation of the series. Our company president, Sandy Prieto-Romualdez awarded Ben a plaque of appreciation.

And then we presented the Bench team with the most heartfelt and artful thank you letters from the students. Boxes of them. After reading some of the letters, Ben looked up and said, “Count us in for the next series.” It was obvious he was  moved by the sincerity of the letters and the creativity of their young writers.

And that, above all, was what Ben Chan got in return for his support—something that felt so good it has kept Bench on centerstage of our IIE program for five years in a row now.

A year after it first came onboard as an IIE sponsor, Bench came out with its betweener (4-14 years old) line of clothing. In their shop windows, they have used the artworks of the students that we have been turning over to them after every series. They have put up bulletin boards in their shops and posted the thank-you letters from students of the schools in the area.

So far, Bench has supported one serial story for high school students and four serial stories for the elementary grades.

On Sept. 3, we begin our fifth Bench-supported series for Grades 4 to 6 students. “Earth Healers” is written in six chapters by Palanca award-winner Cyan Abad Jugo and illustrated by Inquirer artist Steph Bravo, the same team behind last year’s series “Yaya Maya and the White King.”

Jugo uses magic-realism to tell the story of a young boy who saves his gold-mining town from a tragic earthquake with the help of a cast of characters that includes a white cow and a black rat.

Our partner schools this year are: Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University (formerly DLS-Canlubang), J. Zamora Elementary School, Hen. Pio del Pilar Elementary School, Old Balara Elementary School, Cembo Elementary School, Good Shepherd Montessori Academy of Tarlac, Erda Foundation, Highway Hills Integrated School, Salapan Elementary School, Nellie E. Brown Elementary School, Eulogio Rodriguez Integrated School, Kabayanan Elementary School, Cataning Elementary School, Gabaldon Elementary School, Tuloy sa Don Bosco, New Cabalan Elementary School, Pinaglabanan Elementary School, Isaac Lopez Integrated School and Don Galo Elementary School.

English teachers who signed up to teach the story to their Grade 4, 5 and 6 students attended a briefing on Aug. 18.

In the past I never let our partner teachers read the whole story before the series came out in the Inquirer. I wanted the teachers to anticipate the next chapter and for the story to be as fresh as it would be for their students. But this year, I thought of asking the teachers to put in the “work” in workshop, so I let them read the entire story. Our partner teachers then formed six groups and each group wrote a lesson plan for a specific chapter of the story. We’ll gladly share the lesson plan with any teacher out there who wishes to teach “Earth Healers.”

For the first time, since this is a special year for Bench, we are welcoming into the program some homeschoolers who will get free copies of the Inquirer (first-come, first-served basis; sign up by e-mail to learning@

inquirer.com.ph or by text to 09183824061).

With the help of Bench, we’ve made the Inquirer available as a learning tool to around 4,000 kids every year. But there are 22 million students enrolled in our public schools so, as you can see, we’ve only just begun.

If your company/organization wants to make classroom learning more exciting,

e-mail us at [email protected] or text us at 09183824061. We would love to do a series on conserving water, healthy eating, promoting self-confidence among young girls—the possibilities are limitless.