OUR SCHOLARS

                                                                                       The Dream to Become a Thomasian Engineer
                                                                                                                 by Jairo Ruiz Paño

Growing up in a humble household, as a child, I had big dreams I wish to achieve. My mother is a teacher and growing up I really valued education, my education. I believe that having great knowledge will lead me to success in achieving my dreams in life. And so that is what I did and why I have always done my best in school. I graduated elementary as the Class Valedictorian in Balaleng Elementary School. I graduated again as Top 1 during my Junior High School at Ilocos Sur National High School. And recently, I graduated With High Honors in my Senior High School at the same school.

As an academic achiever, I aspired going to a prestigious university in college. And so, I did. I applied at the University of Santo Tomas which is a Center of Excellence in various fields and fortunately got qualified in my first choice program – Chemical Engineering. But studying in this university did not only require my great knowledge but also great financial resources. Unfortunately, my family is not fully equipped with that requirement. My mother is a solo parent supporting me and my two other siblings in our household. We cannot fully afford UST, but I also cannot afford to lose and let down my dreams just because of this situation. That is why I eagerly looked for ways to fund my education such as a scholarship. Due to the pandemic, no exams were administered for scholarship applications which I believe was a disadvantage for my assessment because I am quite confident in passing exams. Alas, I was granted none to my scholarship applications which I questioned how. With this, towards a positive outlook, perhaps I am destined for greater things in life. And I hope that opportunity to be now. Given all my academic achievements and performance together with my family’s financial status, I believe that I am deserving of this scholarship grant which could be of great help for me to pursue my dream of becoming a Chemical Engineer, a Thomasian Engineer.

Ever since I was a child, I already had great fascination with Mathematics and amazed with the number of people who get challenged by it. That is when my dream of becoming an Engineer started. Later in high school, I really enjoyed Physics and Calculus but then again grew another fascination but this time with Chemistry. Laboratory experiments amused me. That is why I thought of pursuing a course that is both related to Mathematics and Chemistry, until I stumbled upon Chemical Engineering. And I am glad I did because after just one semester taking up the course, I really felt belong here. I see it as a passion to study engineering concepts and cannot wait for the day that I will start my career as a Chemical Engineer. Hopefully, that is with of course, the help of this scholarship.
Thank you!