Alumni Update November 28 – December 4, 2022

The New York Fashion Week features Silliman alumnus and Hollywood fashion designer Alexis Monsanto

The recent New York Fashion Week (NYFW) brings to the Global Spotlight Silliman alumnus and Hollywood fashion designer Alexis Monsanto. The NYFW brought together top designers, models, celebrities, and performers for a jam-packed fashion show. Fashion Industry insiders, prominent figures, top brands, influencers, and celebrities took part in a much-awaited fashion season.

“Fashion became the perfect vehicle for translating my creativity into real-world fashion designs,” says Filipino fashion designer Alexis Bong Monsanto, who recently debuted his new collection at the New York event.

Titled “Timeless Confections,” the sophisticated collection is overflowing with soft tones, flirty structures, and more important, elegant style lines—all of which Monsanto has mastered over time.

Throughout the weeklong fashion event, Filipino designers were making their presence felt. Global Fashion Icon Michael Cinco and Hollywood Fashion Star Alexis Monsanto mesmerized the fashion week faithful with back-to-back runway shows which were set in a Gothic church interior in the heart of Manhattan, New York, themed around a galactic universe theme, surrounded by beams of light and state-of-the-art 3rd presentation. Monsanto and Cinco took audiences on an immersive experience as they showcased timeless styles, fashion, and tradition.

Monsanto captured the audience’s attention, evoking different emotions from the crowd at different stages of fascination. Following the final vow, he was showered with flowers by the audience as a sign of appreciation. There was no doubt that his presentation captured the admiration and the hearts of the spectators and the people of New York.

Monsanto has been dressing up Hollywood celebrities for the Oscars, Grammys, and the Golden Globe Awards.

Bong, as he is fondly called by his high school classmates and close friends, graduated from Silliman University High School in 1982 with fellow batchmate, Manila-based fashion designer, Amir Sali.

(News source: Asian Journal Press)

 

---

New York Academy of Medicine inducts Dr. Laura Garcia as New Fellow

Outstanding Sillimanian Awardee (OSA) Dr. Laura Garcia was formally inducted as a new Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) last November 16, 2022, as the NYAM community gathered for a special 175th Anniversary Discourse and Celebration of the Academy’s Fellows & Members.

Dr. Garcia expressed on her Facebook account: “I am honored and humbled to be a New Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.”

The NYAM is a health policy and advocacy organization founded in 1847 by a group of leading New York metropolitan area physicians as a voice for the medical profession in medical practice and public health.

NYAM Fellows are professionals who have completed their graduate training or have completed graduate education and certifications as appropriate to their healthcare-related field including, but not limited to, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, public administration, nursing, social work, and public health for at least 10 years.

Dr. Laura Garcia earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from Silliman University in 1981. A few years later, she pursued a completely different degree at Kean University in New Jersey, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication, summa cum laude. Passionate about the nursing profession, she earned two master’s degrees in 2006: A Master of Arts in Nursing from Southwestern University, Philippines, and a Master of Science in Nursing – Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner from Seton Hall University in New Jersey. She completed her Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2017 at Farleigh Dickinson University.

During Silliman University’s 121st Founders Day celebration last August 28, 2022, Dr. Garcia was recognized by Silliman University as an OSA in the field of Nursing Education & Community Leadership.