The rich scholar: The Jana Marielle Cruz story

Being born with a silver spoon in the mouth but later on witnessing a fall in the standard of living is probably the hardest thing for a young girl to accept. From living in a two-storey town house with a pool and family car, to experiencing a dramatic day by day loss of pieces of furniture as they were being sold, and finally moving to a small apartment unit, one may lose hope and just give up.

Today you may be enjoying a comfortable and easy life, the next day, all the things you have may be lost in a snap. This was exactly what Jana, a college student from Orion, Bataan went through while growing up.

Jana’s parents, together with her elder sister used to live in Japan. Her parents worked there for years and invested much of their earnings to a poultry farm. However, that business and all the other businesses they tried failed, drawing them to a way of life that’s way too far from what they used to have.

Admittedly spoiled as a child, her parents would constantly buy her toys and practically gave her whatever she wanted.  She attended a Montessori school for her pre-school and transferred to another private school where her sister was studying high school. But in fourth grade, she was sent to a public school. What’s even harder was when they had to sell their house and move to her aunt’s apartment unit.

Young Jana was already passionate about her studies. Being a transferee, she was placed in a lower section and she could recall that she and her classmates were made to fill their notebooks with notes that they didn’t learn at all and she was not contented about it. Hence, when opportunity knocked, she grabbed it.

She got a scholarship grant in a Montessori school where she finished grade school. She describes her high school days as colorful. She met new friends and actively joined in school activities. She also excelled in academics that she graduated as class salutatorian.

In college, she took BS Computer Science, a course that she felt suits her in the school where her sister graduated – Tomas del Rosario College.

To support her studies, she applied in several scholarships, one of which is Iskolar ng Bataan. For three consecutive years, she was recognized as Top 1 Iskolar ng Bataan of Orion. This year on her final wave, she was hailed as the Overall Top 1 scholar of the province with a general weighted average (GWA) of 1.07. Come graduation day, she hopes to come up on stage with Latin honors.

Truly, worldly possessions are temporary. Money and everything that money can buy may disappear but the positive values, good personality, and the knowledge that we imbibe through education will not wither, will not disappear, nor could be taken away from you.

With perseverance and dedication to something as precious as education, one can declare himself as indeed rich.