SM Foundation, through its SM College Scholarship Program, enables its scholars and their families to have a 180-degree turn in their lives, completely breaking through the intergenerational poverty cycle.
Carrying their wits and aspirations in life, SM scholars develop their skills and talents, and get their college degrees from the partner colleges and universities of SMFI across the country. These are vital as they join the country’s workforce or later when they start their own businesses.
SMFI for its part ensures to provide assistance to the scholars all the way till they finish their tertiary education–including tuition, allowances, enhancement activities, part-time jobs, and exclusive job offer upon graduation.
Not even a pandemic can stop SMFI from helping economically challenged students to realize their dreams. One of SM’s scholar-graduates from last year 2020 shared in a kumustahan session how the program helped her and her family.
Rosemarie Lacsamana, a budding professional in Luzon, finished Bachelor of Science in Accountancy as Magna Cum Laude from the Holy Angel University in Pampanga. With her mother as a housewife and her father as an appliance technician, Rosemarie witnessed the struggles of her parents to make ends meet at an early age. This soon-to-be CPA experienced selling yema to her classmates and crops from their backyard to help her parents with their financial needs.
She added that she did her best to look for a scholarship and that’s when she found about the SM Scholarship Program. “Natatandaan ko pa noong exam, hawak ko yung rosaryo sa bulsa ko, talagang pinagdasal ko po na matanggap ako. Matapos po ang ilang linggong pagdarasal at paghihintay sa resulta, sobrang saya ko po at ng pamilya ko noong tinawagan na ako ng Scholarship Team para sabihing nakapasa ako,” Rosemarie further shared.
Rosemarie mentioned that aside from the free tuition and allowances, she also enjoyed the various enrichment and recreational activities, as well as the part-time job opportunities given by SMFI: “Marami po akong natutunan tuwing general assembly simula first year hanggang sa pag-graduate ko. Pati summer job din, yun ang pinaka-memorable sa akin. Yung libreng “pa-movies” ng SMFI, talagang nilu-look forward ko. Sobrang saya kasi nae-experience namin yung mga bagay na hindi naman namin nararanasan palagi.”)
Rosemarie was set to take the board exam for certified public accountants last year but because of the pandemic, it was put into a halt: “Kaya nag-try po muna akong mag-tutor ng English online habang nagre-review. Isa po yan sa mga natutunan ko sa SMFI, to use my time productively.” Once the situation permits, she will take the board exam and work as a fulltime accountant.
“Siguro kulang pa yung salitang salamat. Dakal pong salamat, SM, Tatang at Sy family! Proud akong sabihin na naging SM scholar ako,” Rosemarie concluded.
Rosemarie is one of the more than 200 SM scholars to be recognized at the upcoming Virtual Presentation of SM College Scholar-Graduates Batches 2020 and 2021 on May 26.
To date, SMFI has produced more than 7,600 college and tech-voc scholar-graduates nationwide.
