Ateneo valedictorian, daughter of a jeepney driver, writes a moving essay about social inequality, generosity, and hope

Reycel Hyacenth Bendaña is the president of the student council of Ateneo de Manila University. She is a cum laude and program awardee of Management Economics, and biggest of her accomplishments: She is the valedictorian of the prestigious Jesuit university on Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City.

On Thursday, Ateneo de Manila’s website posted Bendaña’s pre-interview qualifying essay for valedictorian selection, and what an essay it was.

Bendaña began by sharing what her jeepney driver father taught her: “to work harder than everyone else – not only because hard work is high dignity but also, while it is no guarantee of success, anything less than that for us would mean complete failure.”

“It’s the least I can do to compensate for my lack of privilege,” she wrote straightforwardly.

In her moving essay, Bendaña wrote about generosity, how she wouldn’t be where she was if it wasn’t for generosity; she wrote of gratitude to the generous people behind her education.

But she also pointed out how generosity is not enough, and how things often need to go beyond good intentions. “Ateneo taught me the limits of what individual virtue can do. A generous Ateneo alone cannot make up for a society that does not provide fair access to opportunity for all.”

She certainly spilled a huge serving of tea: “Generosity is the exception, not the norm in this country.”

Bendaña wrote about her personal struggles: how her “grandmother died because three hospitals refused to operate on her without down payment," how land reform failed her family, how her “father is jobless because the government phased out our jeepney in the name of hollow modernization, and even before the very policy for it was passed.”

She spoke of gratitude for what she’s been given, but also demonstrated enormous self-awareness: “my capacity for nation-building as an Atenean carries problematic contradictions.”

“The most famous heroes Ateneo produced in the past—Jose Rizal, Antonio Luna, Gregorio del Pilar, Ninoy Aquino, Evelio Javier—were all well-off men,” Bendana begins winding down her thought-provoking read.

“Only in a generous Ateneo is it possible that the daughter of a jeepney driver from one of the most remote sitios in Bicol can aspire to their same education and heroism, too. If my story can help make Ateneo even more generous and, at the same time, help others go beyond generosity and act for systemic change, I know I am doing things right.”

On Facebook, Bendana revealed the prompt for the essay: "What has the Ateneo done for you?"

She thanked her family, friends, and mentors. 

Read her story in full here. It's a must-read. — LA, GMA News