Picture1“Another chapter of my life begins, thanks to SGPPA,” Gay Myrell Abrogena shares with her victorious smile. She said that she can foresee a better life ahead for her family especially that she is now a licensed teacher.

Myrell, 21, of Pinili, Ilocos Norte is one the country’s first batch of graduates who was provided with grant by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office 1 through the Student Grants-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (SGPPA). She took up Bachelor of Elementary Education at the Mariano Marcos State University-College of Teacher Education.

According to her, passing the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) is a dream come true. Upon taking the LET on 17 August 2014, she told herself, “I must prove that I really deserve to be a model SGGPA scholar and did not waste the grant that DSWD provided me.”

She was then filled with mixed emotions upon the release of LET result on 17 October 2014. Her name was included in the successful takers and that made her feel very proud because of this fulfilling achievement.

“It is payback time,” she claims.  She is now busy applying at the Department of Education to practice her profession. She sees herself as a responsible teacher in molding young minds and encouraging them to study hard despite poverty.

Despite being the youngest among the five siblings, she heartily accepts the responsibility to be their family’s bread winner. Her father, Edgar, 54, is a permanent municipal employee (driver) while her mother, Virgie, 53, is a plain housewife. Her four siblings who were able to finish high school and vocational courses are self-employed and earn minimum wage.

With this blessing through SGPPA, she made her own meaning of the acronym: S-Social, G-globally competitive, P-patience, P-perseverance, A-achievement. (by: Jaesem Ryan A. Gaces, Information Officer II/Pantawid Pamilya)