ACPACI’s Scholar on Spotlight
By Nanette N. Tabuac
Sunday Once Over
It was a rainy Sunday afternoon. Fritz and Averose arrived at JCo UP Town Center where I was waiting for them to interview Averose, nicknamed Avhie, for the ACPACI’s SOS (Scholar on Spotlight) column. Clad in a printed black and white sheath dress with black blazer, Avhie greeted me and immediately settled into a divan to my front and Fritz sat on a high-backed wooden chair right beside me. I introduced myself to Avhie and invited her to go to the counter and order our coffees and donuts prior to the interview proper, while Fritz stayed at our designated table. While we were at the queue, I gave Ahvie a “once over.” The phrase “once over” was something I read about in the chic lit novels of my favorite author Marian Keyes. This means giving someone a quick and almost unnoticed look from head to toe. Unceremoniously I told her, “You know Ahvie, I like you.” She smiled shyly. “You look so fresh and sweet,” I added. Ahvie’s petite and dainty physical appearance expresses an unforgettable kind of innocence, the kind of innocence that draws one in and the kind that is almost mesmeric. After we ordered, we went to our places and started the interview.
Ina, Ama, Kuya
Ahvie hails from Tagaytay City and she has an elder brother, her kuya. She calls her mother, “Ina” and her father, “Ama.” Her “Ama” is a security guard at the Tagaytay City Hall and her “Ina” is a home maker. Her parents were separated when she was seven years old. Her father left their home to live with his brother, though Ahvie and her kuya are still in constant communication with him. Just recently, they celebrated Father’s Day with their father by treating him to lunch. Likewise, on Mother’s Day, they went out with their Mother for some bonding moments. Their family may not be whole, but their love for each other is still intact.
Ahvie is scholastically gifted. She graduated Valedictorian both in Grade School and High School and Magna Cum Laude in College at PUP Sta. Mesa. She is currently connected with the Tax Department of Isla Lipana, Price-Waterhouse Coopers, specifically the Consulting – Transfer Pricing Group. She actually won a scholarship from De La Salle Dasmarinas. Her scholarship at La Salle Dasma would have allowed her to get 100% free tuition fee, and she only had to pay the basic and miscellaneous fees. However, with her prescience and good judgment, she opted to study at PUP Sta. Mesa because she felt that she had a better fighting chance to finish College at PUP than at La Salle Dasma. She intimated that despite the tuition fee scholarship, they would still have to pay around P30-P40K for basic and miscellaneous fees. With the status of her family finances, they couldn’t have afforded to pay the remaining fees and her daily living allowance and other school related expenses. At PUP, the tuition fee was at P500 per semester plus additional miscellaneous expenses.
Her mother sold a portion of their farm in Tagaytay to help finance her school expenses such as her monthly rent, books, school supplies and the like. They own a horse which they rent out for horseback riding in Tagaytay to augment the family income. She revealed that her father, as a security guard, was (and still is) earning P8,000 a month. He’s a minimum wage-earner. To be able to send her to College, he’d avail of loans in his office. Even now that she has already graduated, a CPA and earning her own money, Ahvie said that her father is still paying off her College educational loans. She tried to offer her help to him but the latter refused. Her father staunchly believes that it is the parents’ obligation to send their kids to school and give them education. So, instead of money, Ahvie would sometimes treat her father out by dining at different restaurants and bringing pantry/grocery supplies to him. It’s her way of saying “Thank You.” Right now, both Avhie and her brother, who is also gainfully employed, share a portion of their earnings to contribute to their family’s daily expenditures.
Double XL
Back in third Year College, Ahvie was given the ACPACI scholarship bestowed to financially challenged but deserving students. With this scholarship, she was receiving P6,000 semestral stipend on top of the P3,000 stipend that she was getting from another sponsor. I asked her this metaphorical question: If you were to assign a blouse size to the impact that the ACPACI scholarship has made in your life, which blouse size would that be-- Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large or Double XL?
She answered, “Double XL.”
Ahvie said that she felt privileged and honored to be an ACPACI Scholar and becoming one inspired her to work harder and to finish College. She was thankful. She said that such scholarship had been so helpful to her and her family because, with that, some of their finances were freed up and were allotted for their own family expenses. She need not always ask for money for her monthly rental and school expenses from her Ina and Ama until she graduated in College because the ACPACI allowance took care of that. The ACPACI scholarship was a life changer.
Her future plans include taking up Law at the University of the Philippines and she intends to stay longer at PWC to further hone her taxation skills; she’s only 21 year old and despite her simple beginnings, she has achieved a lot in her less than a quarter of a lifetime. And yet, she remains down-to-earth, good natured, un-jaded and as fresh as a rose. Indeed, if I were to assign a blouse size to her list of accomplishments, I’d also say, “Double XL.”