The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Riza Lozada
SM Foundation Inc. (SMFI) will sponsor 275 students from public schools nationwide under its college scholarship program for this year.
SMFI expressed pride for the achievements of its scholars in different national licensure examinations. Among SM scholars who earned distinction were Mark Anthony Teodoro, who placed third in the electrical engineering board exams; Mark Anthony Tiquio, third in civil engineering; John Angelo Cruz, seventh in civil engineering; and Jenes Borais, eighth in Civil Engineering.
Some 263 SM scholars graduated from various degrees ranging from accountancy to engineering in the recently ended schoolyear. SMFI holds the annual graduation ceremony for its scholars at SMX Manila.
SM founder and benefactor Henry Sy Sr. joined this year’s graduation ceremony last May 27.
The graduating SM scholars included 62 with honors: two summa cum laudes, 21 magna cum laudes, 29 cum laudes, and 10 with academic distinctions.
Participating SM companies—SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), The SM Store, SM Food Retail, Shopping Center Management Corp. and SM Prime Holdings Inc.—will offer to hire the graduates of accountancy, computer science, information technology, education, computer engineering, electronics and communications engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering and mechanical engineering.
“As they chart their new careers, we wish all scholar graduates the best and are hopeful that the training they received as scholars will equip them with skills and values to take on any challenge they may later in their chosen careers,” Carmen Linda Atayde, SM Foundation executive director for education said.
The SM College Scholarship Program was established in 1993 with Sy envisioning this as a tool to help enable marginalized families to help themselves out of poverty by sending one child from a poor family to college.
To date, the program has produced over 2,160 scholar-graduates and continues to support 1,500 current scholars.