SM Foundation scholar graduates promise to 'dream big'

Among the many good deeds that the SM Foundation has done (medical missions, farmers training, etc) over the years, helping hundreds of students get their college degrees through their scholarship program is perhaps the most noble of all.

Every year, there's a "presentation of the graduates" to the Sy family, wherein the graduates from all parts of the country converge for their own commencement exercises. I've probably covered the event for the past five years. Every year, the story of struggles--and eventual success--from the graduates never fail to humble me.

This year, there were 225 new scholar graduates. One of them is Michelle Baritua, who said she doubted ever getting the college degree she has dreamed of all her life. With her dad, acting as sole breadwinner, taking home a wage of P250 a day to feed a family of five, her fears were well-founded.

For a while, Baritua thought her fate has been sealed—that high school is as far as she’ll ever go, never mind that she excels academically in school. Today, the 21-year-old Michelle is now a graduate of BS Accountancy, cum laude, at the University of the East.

“There really are no words that can truly grasp the gratitude I feel toward the people behind the SM Foundation. I owe them my college education and I’ll forever be indebted to them,” Baritua, who is reviewing for her licensure exam in October, told the Inquirer.

This year, out of the 225 graduates, some 40 percent graduated with honors, four of which with summa cum laude titles. The SM Foundation maintains 1,200 scholars nationwide in a year, with plans to increase that number to 1,500 in two years’ time.

One of the four summa cum laude graduates is 20-year-old Dan Jeward Rubis, who finished banking and finance at the National University. Today, he works at Chinabank as marketing assistant.

Rubis’ dad is a taxi driver and his mom a housewife, so without the SMF scholarship, he said, it would have been difficult for them to send him and his older brother to college.

“Now that I’ve got my college degree and a good job, I plan to take up a master’s degree sometime in the near future. Later, I’d like to a college professor as well,” he said.

The presentation of scholars at the SMX Convention was full of emotional speeches from proud parents who profusely thanked the Sy family for the generosity. There were laughter, too, from the song and dance numbers that the graduates prepared for the SM Foundation staff.

Another scholar who participated in the celebration is Albert Samson, who graduated with a degree in Computer Science at the FEU East Asia College.

With parents who are both high school teachers, Samson recalled there was a real fear back then that he would not be able to go to college. But aside from the degree he got as an SMF scholar, he also cites his summer job at SM Department Store as a good learning experience.

“Once, I was a salesman of infant wear. It was fun as I learned a lot,” he said. At the moment, he’s eyeing several tech companies to get a job as a programmer.

Henry Sy, who was in attendance for the whole duration of the program with wife Teresita, in a statement said: “I have always believed that challenges in life are temporary. Dream big. As a graduate, you bring great pride not only to your family but to the SM Foundation family, too. But learning does not stop here. Be open to new ideas and continue to enrich your lives as you go along.”

*** This article was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on June 2, 2013. It has been edited for TWIST. ***