One of the gifts given to each of us is the free will to choose our path, despite and in spite of the existing situation we find ourselves in. When we develop the determination and the will to move beyond a situation —especially when this is one of pain and difficulty, or one of poverty — we exercise our capacity to stretch our Spirit’s capacity, and thus grow.
I think about this especially when I am faced with such polar opposites of examples. I know Susan (name changed) born of a very rich family. All the opportunities continue to be given to her: the best education, choice of a dream job, a future she can mold plus a position in society which she can use to advocate for so many other better things. We chat often as we are trying to build in her the will and determination to just let go her dependency on drugs. She knows she shouldn’t take drugs, but without thinking she just falls back into her decade-old habit she started when she was 13. So, despite the opportunities that flourish around her, she is unable to grasp them, ride the wave and take that decisive turn to a more positive and constructive life.
Then there is Cindy Baltar, a naïve 15-year-old girl wading through poverty amidst the densely populated neighborhood in Quezon City. It was not Cindy’s choice or her fault to be tied down by the shackles of poverty. Like most people in her community, her parents are unemployed with no source of income to get the family through the day, let alone send her to a decent school. But Cindy is a brilliant student who adores Math and Science. Her competence and insatiable appetite to learn is overshadowed by the sheer despondency that consumes the family every single day. Money was always scarce and far between. Her grandmother, who in her age should be happily looking forward to retirement, is instead confronted with the responsibility of making sure that there is always food on the table, albeit her small income as a freelance reflexologist.
In such a dire situation, education is not an option and Cindy soon dropped out of school like any subservient daughter would do to make way for the family’s other pressing “priorities.” But Cindy refuses to let poverty stamp out her academic aspirations, much less rob her of the opportunity to make the most of her potential and perhaps provide her parents and grandmother the kind of life that fate deprived her of. She went out to look for a scholarship and found it.
Today, Cindy, dreaming to be an accountant, ponders the world with optimism as she and other 99 sophomores attend Sienna College’s night class. They are recipients of a Bosch Class 2010 scholarship in Sienna College Taytay, Rizal and Quezon City. In fact, her class includes 13-year-old Robbid Dalano, son of a domestic helper and an articulate speaker who wants to take up Masscom or Speech Language Pathology, and 14-year-old Mary Joyce Christine Fugnit, an English and Science enthusiast who helps run her parents’ small sari-sari store and who dreams of becoming a nurse.
These three students have pushed their will towards future goals that will make them get out of a situation they do not want to be in. “The experience taught me to be stronger, especially in the absence of my parents,” said Cindy. Robb, on the other hand, said, “This is a great opportunity for me to lead a better life than my parents. I don’t want my future family to experience what I went through.”
Choices to use our determination and will confront all of us daily. It may be as simple as trying a little harder to keep our diet and not giving in to that last piece of chocolate cake. It may be having to find that superhuman part in us to forgive one who has hurt us to the core. It may even be the will to get us out of our fear-filled zone where we fence sit our own issues and refuse to grow beyond our comfort zones. The will to go beyond, to succeed, to push forward is something we work on daily, moment to moment. At the end, it is not about the economic situations that matter, but the development of the will in each of us that determines the success we make of our life. It is the extra effort to want to better ourselves that separates the good from the great.
Through its partnership with Springboard Foundation and A Better Chance (ABC) Foundation, the Bosch Class 2010 Adopt-a-School Program aims to provide comprehensive education for incoming freshmen of Sienna College’s night school. Bosch provides the children’s tuition fees, uniforms, text books, school supplies and their daily snacks until they graduate from high school in 2010. The program enabled the children to focus more on their studies as their goals have become clearer to them.
Robert Bosch Inc. is the local flagship company of Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), one of the world’s largest private industrial corporations. Ninety-two percent of the shares of Robert Bosch GmbH are held by Robert Bosch Stiftung, a charitable foundation. This educational program is their way of giving back to the communities.