Dr. Astrid Tuminez, the first Filipino-American president of Utah Valley University, has welcomed students to the university by fluently speaking in six different languages.
In a video uploaded on the Facebook page of Utah Valley University, she introduced herself as the new president of the institution and told her life story in Spanish, English, Russian, French, Filipino, and Ilonggo.
Before she became UVU’s president, Tuminez said in the video that she has worked in several countries including Singapore, wherein she became the Vice Dean of Research and Assistant Dean of Executive Education at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
She also worked as a senior consultant to the US Institute of Peace, Director of Research at AIG Global Investment, and program officer at the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
According to reports, Tuminez has a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, a master’s degree from Harvard University, and a doctoral degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Tuminez also shared in the video the story of her humble beginnings, like how she was born into poverty and was raised in the slums in the Philippines.
According to her, education was the main factor that helped her change her life.
The Utah Board of Regents unanimously voted to select Astrid S. Tuminez, regional director for corporate, external and legal affairs in Southeast Asia for Microsoft, to be the university’s seventh president. She is also the first female to hold the position in UVU’s history.
Watch her video below.
