A life full of surprises
DESPITE graduating summa cum laude, the salutatorian of her batch, and even dreaming the number 6 hours before the results came out, never in her wildest imagination did she think she would land the 6th spot of
Certified Public Accountants’ (CPA) board exam.
Kneerizza Neca Embrando would describe her life as full of plot twists. When she was younger she first wanted to take BS Biology in another university in Davao City to fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor. But, as though her life decided to have its plot twist, Kneerizza was given a scholarship funded by their local government unit (LGU) in Sultan Kudarat. Since the scholarship was exclusive to Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU), she decided to take BS Accountancy as the university is known to produce good graduates of business-related courses.
“Even though Accountancy was not really my first love, I found that my grades are actually quite high so I thought maybe there was really a purpose why I am here,” Kneerizza said.
She considered it a great blessing when a top accounting firm based in Manila but with a branch office in Davao City offered her a CPA board review scholarship in Manila. Together with about 35 Accountancy graduates from AdDU, they reviewed at the same review center in Manila, sometimes intimidated by Accountancy graduates from top universities such as UP Diliman and UST.
However, Kneerizza didn’t let intimidation bring her down as she focused on studying and reviewing hard until she was able to make it to the top 10 of the pre-board exams during the review period.
“During the review, the environment was really different. It was really very competitive. We are always reminded to always fight for our right to the top 30 percent as most of the times the passing rate for CPA board exams are always at 30 percent. It is on very rare occasions that it would reach 40 percent,” she said.
For Kneerizza, her mindset and ultimate goal was just to pass the exams to give honor to her family and her school. Never did she think she would be able to make it to the top even though her classmates and teachers had been rooting for her. Hours before the final results came out, she even dreamt of the number 6 and was completely confused as to what it meant. Maybe it meant the online results would be released by 6 p,m. or only 6 of them are going to pass? All thoughts came to her except the thought that she would be the top 6.
Again, her life took on an extreme plot twist. Instead of just fulfilling her desire to pass the board exams, she did so with flying colors and a rating of 90.17 percent. Her results revealed she did better than the other graduates of big universities such as UST, UE Manila, and FEU.
Kneerizza said she is going to work with the top accounting firm in Davao City – the same firm that she interned in and the firm that gave her scholarship for her review classes in Manila. She said, she had long wanted to work in that firm believing in its reputation and its wide network that will provide her good experience.
Kneerizza said in the future she would also want to explore the different field of study of Accountancy which may include the academe as well. As a way of giving back to the LGU of Sultan Kudarat, she also would want to work in the government offices there or perhaps as a university teacher there as well.
“People tell me to pursue my first dream of becoming a doctor. Others say I should study Law. We’ll see. We’ll never know. My life is full of plot twists ever since I was a kid,” she said adding as of now her top priority is to financially help her family especially that her two younger siblings are still studying.