On the path to greatness

MANILA, Philippines – High school graduates know only too well how a college degree can help them secure a better future.For Rowena Daep, a resident of Albay, achieving the dream of a prized university education didn’t come too easily.

She was qualified to enter the local state university in Albay, but knew that it was beyond her parents’ means to finance her school fees and living expenses in the city. Her father’s meager pay as a carpenter was barely enough to meet the basic needs of six children in the household.

Daep hails from Barangay Pawa, a small village in Manito, Albay. Like most of her peers, she had never gone anywhere beyond the province.

Luckily, a few kilometers away from their home is the Bacon-Manito (BacMan) Geothermal Power Project of Energy Development Corp. (EDC), the Philippines’ largest renewable energy company.

It was through EDC that Daep and thousands of other students finished their grade school. Having finished at the top of her batch, she also received a high school scholarship from EDC.

In 2010, as she was in her senior year in high school, EDC representatives met with her and other scholars to tell them about their new College Assessment Review and Readiness (CAREERS) project. It was during that meeting that Daep and her fellow scholars heard about the University of the Philippines for the first time.

“Before EDC told us about their program, I had hoped to take up Accountancy at the local public university, mostly because I was good in Math, and the school was the only one I knew of at the time,” she shared.

The timing was providential.

Just as Daep was graduating from high school, EDC established its CAREERS Project to help underprivileged, high-potential students from its host communities get into the country’s premier state university.

 “There are so many bright and ambitious Filipino youth all over the country who have both the potential and the desire to succeed and achieve great things. What they lack is exposure and basic mentoring,” Richard Tantoco, EDC president and chief operating officer, said.

“EDC’s operations sites are in remote, provincial locations, and we see so many of these kids who, with proper guidance and coaching, can qualify for top universities in the country. They can stand toe to toe with the best graduates of even exclusive private schools – if only they are given the chance,” he added.

To help even the playing field, EDC developed a program that would guide its scholars through the application and admission process of the University of the Philippines, and eventually assist them with finding jobs after graduation.

For the project, EDC’s CSR and Community Partnerships teams identified the top-performing graduating students from 20 partner high schools who would be candidates for the pioneer batch. A total of 161 students from Albay, Sorsogon, Leyte, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, and North Cotabato were mentored by Cara Funk, EDC CSR program officer.

Funk made the rounds of the provinces to give talks to the candidates to help them choose the courses that are best suited to them. EDC enlisted the help of teachers from local science high schools to conduct review classes for the candidates.

Apart from the daily review, the students were also given weekend refresher classes before the UPCAT.

The workshops were geared to create future leaders with the right values.

“It is not enough that they simply graduate and get jobs. We want to produce future scientists, engineers, managers, educators, LGU heads, public servants or even a Philippine president from the youth in our host communities. This is why we take such care to teach them both competence and correct values – these are what future generations should have in order to contribute to nation building,” he said.

In July 2010, members of EDC’s Community Partnerships teams from its five geothermal power operations sites personally fetched and brought the candidates to their respective testing centers to take the UPCAT.

 Daep, along with Ricky dela Cruz and Keith Oto from Bago City, Negros Occidental, and Cyrus May Juizan from Kidapawan, North Cotabato, were among the 11 scholars who passed the UPCAT.

Last July, they officially became the first CAREERS graduates, the first college degree holders in their families, and the first UP graduates in their barangays.

All of them are keenly aware of their achievement and what it means for them and their families.

Dela Cruz, whose mother did not want him to push through with college, now works as a junior research and development engineer with a multinational IT firm in Alabang, Muntinlupa City. It is a far cry from the future that would have awaited him had he stayed in their small, rural barangay, where he would likely be helping his father work their small farmland and his mother in selling native delicacies.

Daep, meanwhile, finished her four years in UP Los Baños where she would eventually earn her BS Biology degree, with a major in genetics.

She plans to do genetics research, which she found was her true passion, and now wants to become a doctor. She knows that it would cost even more to take up medicine and she has to prioritize finding work and helping her family, but she remains hopeful.

She knows, after all, that dreams can come true, and that greatness is within reach.