Scholarship grantees Maria Donna Agan, Marielle Danise Veedor, Marsha Ann Jolo, Mary Vianey Pepito and Edjin Relatos were formally welcomed by Phinma Education president and CEO Chito Salazar into the program. According to Salazar, the primary motivating factor for coming up with this initiative is to “make (medical) education accessible to everybody who deserved it and wanted it”.
Aside from free tuition fees, the Chairman’s Scholarship program also guarantees the provision of required books as well as allowances. Every year, 5 qualified applicants would be granted with these perks and benefits under this program.
With their goal of offering quality yet affordable healthcare services in the SWU Phinma owned Sacred Heart Hospital, this scholarship program is a step towards that direction since recipients of this grant would have to serve the hospital for a number of years as a return service once they graduate.
All five scholars felt blessed and privileged to be a part of the Chairman’s Scholarship program since they have all acknowledged that they wouldn’t have been able to pursue a degree in medicine if it wasn’t for the scholarship grant. They were grateful for the opportunity given to them to pursue their dreams and serve the people in the future.
“This scholarship is very important because being financially unstable, my family really finds it hard to support us, so this scholarship is a really big help for us to be a medical doctor someday,” said Edjin Relatos, one of the scholars who graduated Magna Cum Laude in BS Biology.