Former UP student to graduate with honors from US Air Force Academy

From someone who only watched planes fly above his home in the Philippines, the lone Filipino in his batch at the United States Armed Forces Academy (USAFA) will now graduate with honors next week and will soon be flying planes himself.

 

According to an article on Yahoo! Philippines on Thursday, Theodore Karl Quijano from Dipolog City will graduate as part of the USAFA's Superintendent's List, which means he will finish with academic, military, and athletic distinctions.

 

Quijano will be the 16th Filipino to graduate from the USAFA since 1956.

 

His achievements in the USAFA don't stop there, though. Quijano was also Wing Chief of Standardization and Evaluation, which the article noted is the highest position a cadet from the Philippines ever assumed.

 

He has also been selected by the Academy's Commandant as first of 1,300 fourthclass cadets for military excellence.

 

The Yahoo! article also noted that Quijano will also be conferred a Parachutist Badge, Glider Pilot Wings, Powered Flight Wings and Space Wings, the last one to recognize his completion of a program where he was trained to operate US space satellites.

 

Behind the success, though, as all success stories go, are stories of sacrifice and determination that have finally bore fruit.

 

According to the Yahoo! story, Quijano had first spent three years as a chemical engineering student at the University of the Philippines-Diliman (UPD).

 

Quijano, the eldest of seven siblings, left UPD to enroll at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), where he did not have to pay tuition and he had a stipend.

 

During his second year at the PMA, he learned about the exams for the US Service Academies and applied after getting over his apprehension.

 

“Initially, I hesitated to go to the Air Force Academy. But I was told that I would be an ambassador for the Philippines, and would represent the country, " Quijano said in the Yahoo! article.

 

"An opportunity presented itself. So I grabbed it," he also said.

 

Quijano had to stave off loneliness while he was at the USAFA and away from his family.

 

"Being out of your comfort zone is always uncomfortable and, at times, painful. But I knew I was doing it for them," he said.

 

The article noted that Quijano is now set to serve as second lieutenant in the Philippine Air Forces, and that he owes a lot to the Philippine government.

 

He said that he was only "at the right place at the right time" but that other Filipinos can also be successful because of their resourcefulness.

 

He encouraged Filipinos to "live up to something bigger than yourself." - Gian C. Geronimo, VVP, GMA News