Balancing East and West
New Leader at Syosset School Continues Lifelong Tradition
By: Melissa Ostrow
For: Long Island Press
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SYOSSET-Seen from the outside, it is an unremarkable office building on Jericho Turnpike. Inside is an Oriental-themed wonderland of fine furniture and Asian treasures, where a close-knit community of students and teachers congregate to learn the ancient Eastern arts of healing and relaxing and offer acupuncture and other treatments to the public at reduced cost. It's one of Syosset's little-known treasures: The New York College of Health Professions, a school that trains would-be holistic healers in the arts of acupuncture, massage and more.
Started as the Integrative Health Center in 1976 by a small band of dedicated holistic health care practitioners, the center became a school in 1981 and embarked on an aggressive expansion program. The institution has since grown-along with the popularity of alternative healthcare treatments-to become an accredited college with several hundred students and, most recently, a sister school in China. "The college has made significant strides as an acknowledged international leader in both holistic health care and holistic health education," says Don Spector, chairman of the board of trustees
Four weeks ago, the school's board selected Lisa Pamintuan to take the helm, making the 35-year-old former tennis prodigy one of the youngest college presidents in the country. Pamintuan came to the school less than a year ago as vice president of business development, assigned to set up a joint research and study program with a college in Luo Yang, China. Her skills dealing with the project proved her to be a perfect presidential candidate to lead the college's efforts to acquire other facilities and continue integrating eastern and western medical traditions. "Lisa's track record of unprecedented achievement, personal drive and total commitment to both the college and profession [make] her the ideal president to lead us into the next phase of our institutional development," says Spector. She's also a physical embodiment of the school's mission to blend East and West: born of a Filipino father and Irish mother.
The school's grounding in eastern ideology provides students with a unique education in acupuncture, Oriental medicine, massage therapy, advanced Asian bodywork and holistic nursing, all services that the school also provides to the community through its Integrative Health Center. Since it is important for the students to practice and learn to interact with patients, the health clinic offers massages, acupuncture and herbal consultations by the supervised students at a discount. The clinic also offers professional massages, classes in yoga and T'ai Chi Chaun, as well as smoking cessation and baby massage classes.
With the field of alternative medicine growing, the college is following the lead of many Chinese hospitals, which give their patients a choice of western or eastern medicine. According to a 1998 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, out-of-pocket spending on alternative therapies reached an impressive $27 billion in 1997. "People are looking for alternatives to pharmaceuticals or western medicine and we are not saying that it is either or, we are saying that these two worlds can be combined, integrated medicine," Pamintuan says. "They are doing it in China and it is a growing industry here. I want to make sure that this school will be a premier institution." Currently, the college is working with North Shore Hospital and training holistic nurses with Bellevue and Beth Israel.
A classic overachiever, Pamintuan always gives a full effort. At the age of 10 she picked up a tennis racket for the first time, and soon showed such potential that Nick Bollettieri gave her a full ride to his exclusive academy. It was there, training alongside Andre Agassi and Jim Courier, that she was introduced to alternative medicine by fellow housemates from China. "I was very open to it because it was something that was helping my tennis, and it is something that my fellow roommates were doing," says Pamintuan. "Anything we could do to enhance our tennis or program, that is what we were doing."
Eventually, Pamintuan overtrained to the point of injury, one so severe that she knew she would never be able to play tennis professionally. She has since learned the need for balance. "You got to work hard and play hard, but you have to rest hard too. That is something that is part of this school-balance," says Pamintuan.
Though she has only been in office a short time, Pamintuan already has plans to improve the school-for the community and students. Pamintuan is working on building dorms so that the school can receive students from around the globe. While currently the school offers various classes in eastern health practices such as Qi Qong to the public at $15 per session or $200 per semester, Pamintuan plans to increase the offerings and make it even more affordable.
"I think it's important that we are here," she says. "We have services that people are looking for; they can try different things."
