Worried but proud mama: Leni shares emotional post as daughter leaves for college abroad

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo cannot hide her dread and admiration for her youngest daughter who will pursue her college degree thousands of miles away from home.

“It’s never easy when one leaves the nest, especially when she’s the baby in the family,” Robredo said on a Facebook post Thursday, the day Jillian, her youngest daughter, set off abroad to take up biomolecular science degree at the New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering.

Jillian, a graduate of the Philippine Science High School, will pursue her chosen degree under a full scholarship.

READ: Robredo's daughter to study in New York University with full scholarship

The vice president, who is a single mother, shared that Jillian was only 12 years old when her father, former Interior secretary Jesse Robredo, died in a plane crash in August 2012.

“That same year, I joined politics, we transferred to Manila, she entered Pisay, left her childhood friends and swimming in Naga and had to undergo so many other life changing journeys. But she managed to pull through,” Robredo said.

She described her daughter as “very independent,” “responsible” and “disciplined.”

“When her Ate Aika left for her postgrad studies and her Ate Trish started hospital duties, she assumed the roles they left behind—paying the household bills, doing the groceries, going to the bank, etc. She took her SATs and applied for universities all her own with almost no help from me,” Robredo said.

The vice president also said that Jillian, when she was initially offered partial scholarship, applied for other sources and even for part time work since she is aware that her family would not be able to afford sending her to NYU.

Robredo, despite being worried, expressed her admiration for her youngest child.

“As a mother and a single parent at that, I worry that she will be by herself in that concrete jungle. But knowing that she worked so hard for this and deserved everything that she’s achieved, I am comforted in the knowledge that she will always be in God’s loving and protective embrace,” she said.

The vice president’s eldest daughter, Aika, finished her studies in public administration at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government last May 24, which her father also completed back in 1999.

Tricia, on the other hand, is pursuing medicine at the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health.