Rise from rock bottom
Mazda scholar: ‘Don’t give up!’
Hard work, perseverance, and belief in one’s self are qualities that drove 21-year-old Jonh Leo Morales to achieve academic success despite the financial constraints that he faced.
Morales, the youngest among three siblings, is reaping the fruits of his hard work as he now supports his family, particularly his sister who is a single mother. He now lives with his parents in a rented house in Barangay Santolan, Pasig
City and has plans to buy his own house.
Morales shared that being a Mazda scholar helped him a lot, especially with his college tuition, books and miscellaneous fees.
“When I became a scholar, things started looking up for my family. Before, we still had to borrow money from other people for my tuition fee,” he said.
But Morales’ academic journey came with a rocky start.
A son of a part-time mechanic and a housewife, he recalled that when he was still in high school, he had to walk through long rocky roads just to catch the 7 a.m. bell of Stella Maris High School in the fishing island of Lubang, Occidental Mindoro.
“Every time I go to school, I would walk around two to three kilometers very early in the morning and another three kilometers to go back home,” he said.
Aside from the difficult access to school, he also had to deal with frequent power interruptions in their area, making it hard for him to study while at home.
“Sometimes we lose electricity since we live in the province which is far away. But we managed to get by even if it’s hard,” he added.
But the hardest challenge he faced was when they were forced to leave their house in Mindoro so that his father, who had a heart condition, can undergo treatment in the city.
“During that time, I did not even want to go to class,” Morales said.
But fate had other plans for him. In 2013, just when he was about to quit, his teacher invited their class to take the entrance exam for the scholarship grant of Mazda Philippines to the Meralco Foundation, Inc. in 2013.
Immediately after the exams, they were called to a panel interview with the representatives of the company who asked applicants about their family background.
After about a week of anxious waiting, Morales said that he was attending his class when he found out that he passed the exam. He became a full scholar where his entire school tuition and other fees were covered by the grant.
After two years, he graduated with a degree in Automotive Technology in 2016 at the MFI Polytechnic Institute in Pasig.
One of his proudest moments in college was when he was recognized for academic excellence during their graduation day.
“Only five of us had academic excellence out of 22 classmates,” he said.
Luckily, he never had to look for a job since Mazda Philippines already secured a position for him as parts man in Mazda Alabang. Months later, he moved to Mazda Otis as a service advisor before he became a parts analyst for the local Mazda distributor, Bermaz Auto Philippines.
Morales advised students to grab every opportunity to study.
“Love your passion. Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope, trust yourself on what you can do to reach your dreams,” he said.
Around 100 students have so far been supported by Mazda Philippines since the program began in 2014. Some of them have been hired directly by various Mazda dealerships, while the rest have already found work in the automotive industry.