4 SM Foundation scholars top eng’g board exams
Mark Anthony Teodoro, 22, kept in mind his father's constant reminder – to study hard. After five years in college, he finally reaped the fruits of studying hard. He placed third in the recent Electrical Engineering board exam.
Teodoro, one of the 264 scholars of the SM Foundation Inc. (SMFI) for the school year 2014-2015, is one of the four engineering board topnotchers. They were presented to their benefactor, Henry Sy Sr. during a commencement program held Wednesday at the SMX Convention, Mall of Asia.
The other scholars were Mark Anthony Tiquio, John Angelo Cruz, and Jenes Borais, who ranked third, seventh, and 8th respectively in the May Civil Engineering board exams, making it a breakthrough year for SMFI's college scholarship program in the field of engineering.
SMFI also produced two summa cum laudes, 21 magna cum laudes, 29 cum laudes, and 10 academic distinction recipients from this year's roster of scholar graduates.
Before the recognition rites and testimonial dinner, SM Group of Companies had a job fair for the scholar-graduates offering positions for accountancy, computer science, information technology, education, computer engineering, electronics and communications engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering.
"As far as SM is concerned, there are no strings attached. All our scholar-graduates are free to pursue any opportunity that comes along, including job offers from SM," said Carmen Linda Atayde, SMFI executive director for Education.
The SM scholarship program includes a full payment of tuition and distribution of monthly stipends. Also, the scholar-graduates are given the chance to earn money during summer or Christmas breaks by working in SM malls near their residences.
The beginning It was in 1993 when the scholarship program was established with over 250 scholars. From then on, the program had sponsored hundreds of students coming from public high schools around the country. SMFI aims to help enable marginalized families to break the bond of poverty through education. The program was inspired by Henry Sy Sr.'s belief on the power of education to provide equal opportunity.
2,160 graduates Today, the program counts 2,160 graduates, and continues to support 1,500 scholars in its 84 partner colleges and universities nationwide. The new batch of scholars for school year 2015-2016 consists of 275 public high school students.
The 19th Presentation of Scholar-Graduates themed, "Investing in the Future" had Jose T. Sio, chief finance officer of SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), deliver the welcome remarks, while Dr. Mariano Martinez, chairman of the board of the 8990 Holdings, Inc. was the guest speaker. The 8990 Holdings, Inc, one of the sponsors of the SM scholars, is a property developer which specializes in low-cost, highquality housing.
"Education empowers the value of learning," said Martinez as he shared his personal experience teaching as a La Sallian brother.
Towards the end of the program, a short audio-visual presentation made by the video team of the Manila Bulletin was presented followed by a song performed by all the scholargraduates expressing their gratitude to their "Tatang," as they fondly call Henry Sy Sr.
A father's hardwork The man behind one of the scholars is Melchor Teodoro, 54, a jeepney driver from Malabon. Mark Anthony, the scholar said: "I worry about my father whenever he is on the road because of his high blood pressure. This is my main motivation to finish school and get a good job," said.
Mark Anthony, according to his father, has been an achiever. He graduated cum laude from the Far Eastern University.
His twin brother, also a scholar of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), took Industrial Engineering at the University of the PhilippinesDiliman. Their youngest sister, an incoming third year college student taking up Business Administration, is a scholar of their town mayor.
Melchor said the key to Mark Anthony's success in education is the way he disciplined them since they were children. “I monitor their studies. I don't allow them to play. I bought educational books and flash cards for them. I also bought a second hand computer to aid them in their studies but I remove the games in it," he said.
"We learned of the SM Scholarship from my wife's sister who was also an SM scholar and since they were still in high school, I already searched for scholarships in the internet," he said in Filipino.
Initially, Mark Anthony and his twin brother passed the SM scholarship, however, it is part of the rules that only one child per family is allowed.
Mark Anthony will work as a college instructor in FEU while he studies in graduate school in MAPUA Institute of Technology. His master's program in MAPUA will be funded by FEU.