Top 1 Iskolar ng Bataan graduates as Magna Cum Laude

BALANGA CITY, Bataan – Consistent Top 1 Iskolar ng Bataan of Orion Town and Academic Year 2017-2018 Overall Top 1 scholar Jana Marielle Cruz marched on Friday as Magna Cum Laude during the 56th Commencement Exercises of Tomas del Rosario College (TRC) held at its covered court, this city.

With a degree of BS in Computer Science, Cruz acquired the highest General Weighted Average in their batch alongside two other awards.

She received the Sen. Manny Villar Award for Academic Excellence, and Leadership Award for her good governance as this year’s president of their department.

In her valedictory speech, she emphasized that whether one has no option in his path, success through perseverance would always still be a choice.

“There is this saying that goes, ‘Life is not a series of chances, it is a series of choices.’ However, sometimes, life doesn’t give us any choices. We are only given one path to move forward to, and we can’t do anything about it. But you know what? I realized that in those cases, we still have a choice. A choice on whether we sulk in failure of not getting the option that we prefer, or a choice to accept and give our best to excel on whatever life throws at us. Life is not about ‘Not failing’, it is about ‘Failing, but being able to stand taller than we have ever been’,” she said.

Jana is the second in her family to finish with Latin Honors in TRC, following her sister who graduated Cum Laude in 2011.