College Sponsorship

Making a Difference

Albert Einstein had once said, " It is essential that the student acquire an understanding of and a lively feeling for values. He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good." Daniel Webster had also said, "Knowledge does not comprise all that is contained in the large term of education. The feelings are to be disciplined, the passions are to be restrained, true and worthy motives are to be inspired, a profound religious feeling is to be instilled, and pure morality inculcated under all circumstances. All this is comprised in education." Then, James Truslow Adams says "there are obviously two educations: One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live. In order to acquire both educations, three things are necessary : We need information, knowledge and wisdom."

We get information from different medium and we gain knowledge from learning. The wisdom comes from within us and from God. The moral values and support that children receive strengthen their wisdom to aim for the future. This is because wisdom is the sensible mechanism by which we indulge in working towards attaining our future goals and objectives. When I graduated from high school many years ago, my wisdom to attain a higher education was in full speed. With very limited resources, I went off to college in quest for a nursing degree. However, broke and alone to conquest the challenges of financing myself through college, I almost lost my battle to earn a college degree. Going through a mid-year college crisis made it almost impossible to concentrate on my studies, so I quit school for one year. Although seemed like the end of my world, my inner self continuously thrived for means to go on. I approached every member of my family tree or relative and requested each of them to support me to college, but to no avail. Feeling so very lonely and desperate, I turned to God and myself and went off to college again without seeing what was ahead in the next weeks, months and years. I struggled, fought, persevered and endured the painful agony to gain my college degree. To make the story short, success was at the end where I stood by the edge to see it came through.

I challenge you!!!

At the giving end, I see that we can make a difference among our aspiring poor students back home. Seeing through the mirror, I see this lonely child wishing and wanting to go to college. Because of poverty, the child succumbs to despair and failure, but wait a minute! We can change that image and that child’s life.

Let’s look at for example how we can contribute to changing this lonely child’s life? An average person in America goes to the movies every weekend. That cost is $6.00 for the movie and another $4.00 for the popcorn and sodas. Moviegoers come in twos, therefore, two people spend an average of $20.00 a week ($80.00 a month) to see a movie. I challenge every one of you, to sit back and look at what you can accomplish in 10 years from that movie shows alone? But here’s the other end of the spectrum – how about you skip a week of movie to spare $20.00 a month and send it to a child in your hometown, a child who wished upon the stars to attain a higher education. In 4 years, that child will earn a college degree and you will restore your lost "movie week" with a satisfying notion that you have made a difference!

How would this scenario benefit our beloved homeland? Well, we are molding a generation who can create a civil society where strength, dignity, realiability, integrity, efficiency, and determination sustain a nation building ability. It is therefore, important to recognize that a college degree is not a mere academic arrogance, but a ticket to a great future.

To this date, my sister and I remain at the lower income bracket. However, every month we send small amounts of money to my brother so his two sons can go to college. Phillip and Winston are scholastically inclined, but due to poverty they have staggered many years of despair. Phillip will graduate in October from the Maritime College (at Misamis University), while Winston (in 3 years) will graduate with a degree in Computer Engineering.

What would happen if we turned our back on these aspiring students? There is no doubt that they will become liabilities to Oroquieta’s society and the nation at large. Now Let’s Make a Difference!! ... Sponsor a child from Oroquieta or your favorite hometown and send him/her to college.

Act Now ...It is enrollment time in the Philippines - decide which child you want to sponsor!!!

By: Ofelia Bayutas Mutia