Out of more than 500 applicants, a total of 70 incoming college freshmen were awarded with contracts as recipients of Batch 16 Dr. Pio Valenzuela Scholarship Program. 

“In sixteen years of implementation, this year’s lucky recipients comprise the biggest batch of grantees in history of the program,” Dr. Pio Valenzuela Scholarship Program Committee member and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela (PLV) President Dr. Nedeña C. Torralba said.

The scholarship was established to ensure a brighter future for the Valenzuelano youth by the virtue of Municipal Council Ordinance No. 12 Series of 1995, otherwise known as “Dr. Pio Valenzuela Scholarship Program,” as amended by City Ordinance No. 37 Series of 2009, under which, the grantee is entitled to a financial assistance for tuition and other school fees.

Under City Ordinance No. 37 Series of 2009, grantees will now receive a financial assistance of PhP 30,000 annually or PhP 15,000 per semester.  Contrary to the common belief, the scholarship is available not only to enrolling Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela (PLV) PLV students.  Grantees can enroll at any university or college and enroll at any course of their choice. 

Marginalized but intellectually gifted students of good moral character who belong to a family whose socio-economic status does not exceed the ceiling which the Scholarship Program Committee set are eligible for the program.  “We open the program to incoming college students each year through a qualifying examination,” Dr. Torralba added.  “But the examination is open only to students whose family’s total annual gross income does not exceed PhP 120,000 as attested by the Income Tax Return (ITR).”

They must also be residents of the City for the past four years as verified by the barangay and school records, and a graduate of a Valenzuela City public or private high school with a general weighted average grade of 85% and above.”

The financial status of the applicants are being checked and assessed by the staff of City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO).  Since the scholarship is in a form of a financial grant which may not be enough to cover all school expenses, depending on where the student is enrolled at, the grantee must at least have the capacity to shoulder the residual amount.  They also must not be a grantee of another scholarship program.  After the assessment of the requirements submitted and the verification by the Scholarship Committee, the applicants were trimmed down to 70 beneficiaries.

Grantees face a tough but exciting college life in exchange of the prestige of becoming one of the Dr. Pio Valenzuela Scholars.  They are required to maintain a grade of not lower than 2.25 and a general average of 2.00 per semester until they graduate, or they will lose the scholarship.  For this reason, majority of them become Dean’s Lister and even graduate with honors.

Two of them spoke before the batch 16 grantees duringthe orientation and signing of contracts held recently at the Valenzuela Convention Center.

Batch 12’s Sunshine D. Manahan, a graduate of Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication at Adamson University, related how the scholarship transformed her from a non-honor student in high school to a university academic scholar and a proud Magna Cum Laude.

Batch 12’s Carla Shane C. Andaya, a Magna Cum laude from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, expressed her deepest gratitude to the scholarship committee because, she believes that without the scholarship, she would not have been able to continue her studies together with she and her other two siblings. all in college. 

Batch 16, as represented by Kenneth Ian Robles, on the other hand, pledged to properly and carefully spend the financial grant on tuition fee and other school expenses, and that they will strive harder to study and finish their chosen course.

- Lauro Zyan Caiña