ILOILO – Raised by a solo parent, Nicole Ann Tirados of Brgy. Janipaan Olo, Cabatuan, Iloilo worked hard to reach her dream and become like somebody whom she wanted to be.

Nicole Ann was graduated this year as magna cum laude at West Visayas State University in La Paz district, Iloilo City taking up Bachelor of Secondary Education, major in English. She is a proud grantee of Extended Student Grant-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA). Her family has been a beneficiary of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program for more than five years already.

Nicole is the third child among the four siblings. They were raised alone by their mother Flora who turned nights into days just to provide their daily needs.

Nicole said despite of hardship they are experiencing especially without a father, their mother nurtured them with love and raised them to become resilient from all trials in life.

This has taught Nicole that despite they were financially unstable, she never gave up because giving up is not on her vocabulary.

“My family is my sole inspiration to continue fighting and striving to finish my studies,” she said.

Nicole said she may have received words of discouragement and criticisms from other people but it never affected her, instead she considered those negativities as motivation for her to strive more and do much better in her studies.

 A consistent honor student during her elementary years but when she entered high school she’s not an honor student anymore which she already expected because she knew that some of her classmates are smarter than her, but she still maintained to have high grades in all her subjects until she graduated.

 Having been inspired by her teacher in high school, specifically by her teacher in English, she enrolled in Secondary Education when she entered college.

Then, with God’s grace, she received a scholarship and became an ESGPPA scholar which truly helped and supported her finances as well as benefited by her family.

Being an ESGPPA grantee is truly a blessing and a privilege for her. Nicole said she doesn’t need to pay for her tuition. In fact, she even received allowances from the said scholarship to sustain her school needs.

Nicole has been grateful for all the blessings she and her family received as she promised herself to repay it by studying even harder. And in God’s will, she finally graduated with flying colors.

“The struggles and challenges I have faced in life, lack of finances, being criticized and being raised by a single mother have never been an excuse for me to give up with my dreams and to achieve my goals in life, and that is to graduate and make my family proud. But I know that this does not end here because I will still continue to grow as an individual and as a future educator,” she added. MGC (Writer: Ruby Ann Alegarbes- Quilarto, Municipal Link-Cabatuan, Iloilo POO)