SM Foundation honors its 18th batch of 220 Scholar-Graduates

In an annual presentation of scholar-graduates, SM Foundation celebrated the success of its 18th batch of graduating scholars at the SMX Convention Center last May 28.

“I am proud to say that 220 scholars graduated this year, with 69 or 32% of them receiving honors,” Debbie Sy, Executive Director for SM Foundation stated. “Six of them are summa cum laude, 19 are magna cum laude, 29 are cum laude and 15 are with academic distinctions.”

Connie Angeles, SM Foundation Executive Director for Health, welcomed the graduates, parents and guests. Testimonials from parents and honor graduates conveying their stories of gratitude followed after.

The keynote speaker Richard Joshua Sanz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Philippine FoodAsia Corporation, shared the success story of his brand Bibingkinitan! which has expanded to over 200 stores in key cities and towns nationwide in just seven years. Graduate-scholars also presented a special number expressing their gratitude to the Foundation and the Sy family as well as the partners in My Scholar Program.

With 82 partner universities and colleges, SM Foundation has been producing academically outstanding men and women since 1993. To date, over 1,900 students have graduated from the program with many of them gainfully employed in the SM Group of Companies and other companies here and abroad.

SM Foundation Executive Director for Education Linda Atayde said that 222 (as of May 20, 2014) new scholars were accepted into the program for school year 2014-2015. Through the SM Yolanda Calamity Fund, 100 additional scholarship grants were allotted to Yolanda survivors.

Aside from the College Scholarship Program for Yolanda survivors, SM Foundation has started constructing school buildings in Yolanda-stricken areas – two 2-storey, 10-classroom school buildings in Hernani, Eastern Samar and eight other school buildings scheduled to be built in Cebu, Leyte, Iloilo, Aklan, Capiz and Cadiz for a total of 56 classroom. Five other school buildings are also slated to be turned over to public schools under its regular School Building Program.

The Foundation is also currently rebuilding the Tacloban City Hospital. It will also be renovating six rural health centers in cooperation with BDO Foundation this year. SM Cares, a division of the SM Foundation, has also commenced its plans of building 1,000 houses for those whose homes were totally damaged by Typhoon Yolanda.