Antique island woman earns diploma through Internet.org
Riza Mae Tachado in a video posted by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg narrates how she finished her thesis by keeping in touch with schoolmates through a mobile phone from Culasi, Antique.
Facebook CEO praises her grit; video gains 2 million Facebook views
ILOILO CITY — The young woman from Culasi town in Antique province, whose perseverance in finishing her computer science course through the Internet became the subject of a video posted by Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is elated over becoming an online sensation.
“I’m having goosebumps. I still cannot believe it,” said Riza Mae Tachado in a telephone interview from Mararison Island in Culasi.
Tachado, 24, said she did not expect the posting of the video by Zuckerberg on his Facebook page.
“I’m just an islander. It feels like graduating again,” she said.
The video that runs for a minute and eleven seconds shows how the Facebook application Internet.org helped Tachado earn a diploma. Internet.org allows free browsing of popular websites.
The video had 2,324,456 views, 106,140 likes, 3,900 comments and 17,548 shares as of11:30 a.m.on Oct. 13 (Philippine time), seven hours after Zuckerberg posted it on his Facebook page.
“This is an amazing story about Riza — a young woman on a small island where the only job for women was collecting seashells, yet she used Internet.org to earn a degree in computer science,” Zuckerberg said in his post
“Being connected means having opportunity. We’re going to connect the whole world so one day everyone can achieve their full human potential — just like Riza,” he said.
A mother of a 3-year-old daughter, Tachado earned a computer science degree from the University of Antique in Tibiao town on the mainland last April.
In the video, Tachado narrated that she has been living on an island where the main means of livelihood for women has always been shell-gathering.
“But I wanted more for myself,” she said in Filipino with English subtitles.Unable to leave the island for several weeks due to a storm in 2014, she communicated with her four thesis group-mates through Internet.org, which they also used to work on their thesis “Automated Water Billing System of Culasi Water District.”
“I’m proud to be the first in my family to earn a computer science degree,” she said in the video.
Tachado told the INQUIRER that she was teased by friends and residents of Mararison.
“They tell me that I’m already a celebrity and they want to ask for my autograph,” she said, laughing.
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