Senior Warden Ruben Katigbak and his wife Rosemarie.
The role of senior warden of colleges has been filled by Ruben Katigbak, a man whose first ‘lifestyle’ choice was the priesthood, which then morphed into other caring vocations.
He will be senior warden for two years following which other wardens will rotate through the role every two years.
Katigbak is not only providing support and advice to all wardens at our University-owned colleges but also launching the new Te Rangihīroa College – including appointing key staff – and commissioning Aquinas College. Both open next year.
After being senior warden, he will return to being Arana College’s warden – a role he is not yet missing “because I’m there for lunch every day”, he says with one of his frequent bursts of laughter.
“And I still live there”.
Approach?
Whatever Katigbak’s job, his style is to “always believe in the good of everyone”.
Whether dealing with students or staff, he likes to remember “this person is a father, brother, mum, a sister, or a friend” – then he tries to understand where they are coming from, to be effective.
He also aims to role model the behaviours he would like to see: “I always say to my own kids, faith is not just going to church and going through the motions, it’s how you work with people that defines you as a person.”
His biggest joy is seeing students succeed as they ‘grow’ after moving into colleges.
“The way they come in nervous – with social anxiety – thinking ‘how can I sit with these 20 other people at the table?’ Then they engage and form these relationships, it’s quite heart-warming.
“It gives me a certain level of fulfilment being able to somehow impact other people’s lives. It’s good hearing news of the progress of students who I know and have watched develop, and they’re doing good things.
“I look at my role as a vocation, a lifestyle, instead of a nine to five job.”
Otago colleges’ focus is firmly on supporting students to grow both academically and socially.
Colleges’ biggest challenges usually involve supporting students through complex mental health and wellbeing issues, he says, but students are also more open to talking about mental health issues, so colleges are more likely to know what students are dealing with.
In his new role, Katigbak plans to use his 20 years’ experience in student accommodation to stand alongside wardens during complex situations and to ensure they get the same pastoral care they provide to students.
How?
Katigbak was so focused on pastoral care when leaving school in the Philippines, he joined the Catholic seminary, aiming to become a priest in rural communities.
It seemed a natural progression, his mother said the rosary every night (a string of prayers) – “even when she was falling asleep doing it,” he says with a chuckle.
And despite growing up in Manila, he spent holidays with family in a rural province.
Katigbak was in his eighth year of training and a year short of taking his final priestly vows. He had a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from the Catholic University of Santo Tomas, and was working towards a postgraduate degree in theology when his father’s death called him home to support his mother.
While there, he ended up thinking “I can’t just do nothing” so began volunteering for the Makati Rotary Club, then accepted an offer to run the organisation, as chief of staff.
“It was a complete overhaul of what I thought I would be.”
His work revolved around education, health and nutrition, economic and community development, youth development, the environment, and emergency relief.
Aotearoa-days
Three years after leaving the seminary, he married Rosemarie. Two years later, her elder sister who had moved to New Zealand asked if they wanted to shift here as well.
The couple arrived in Aotearoa in October 1998, when Rosemarie was six months pregnant with their first child.
“I had no job before we came, it was a big jump – my first job was actually at Wendy’s, I was flipping burgers,” Katigbak says, with obvious amusement.
He then became a night auditor and porter at the University of Auckland’s 600-bed student accommodation building followed by a stint as the assistant manager of its Railway Campus – a former railway station converted into student accommodation.
While subsequently the residential manager at Auckland’s 356-bed O’Rorke Hall for 13 years, he earned a post-graduate diploma in business administration, his children grew up – Paolo now 24, Alana, 22 – and Rosemarie was treated for breast cancer.
When she was six-years free of the disease in 2020, they decided to make a change when he spotted an advertisement for a job as warden at Arana College.
What now?
Now, Johnny Nu’u is leading both Arana and Studholme Colleges until the year’s end, while Katigbak’s new role includes being Campus and Collegiate Life Services’ primary acting director whenever James Lindsay is away and assuming oversight of several committees, working groups and programmes.
He will coordinate wardens’ professional development as well and distribute resources where needed, while supporting the Divisional Office with strategy and budget development.
The role is also a key point of contact with the affiliated colleges (not university-owned), the Scholarships Office, Student Services, and Schools Liaison.
Katigbak is based in Divisional Office, at Black Sale House.