AN ADDED year to one’s life could mean aging for some, but some choose to see it as an opportunity to better not only their lives, but others’ as well. Jesus Pineda Jr. (BS BM ’59) and his family donated a scholarship fund to contribute to the 500@150 Scholarship Campaign which was launched during Ateneo’s sesquicentennial celebration. Named “Jesus M. Pineda, Jr. Sesquicentennial Scholarship”, it was presented on May 17, Pineda’s birthday.
This year also saw the revival of a decade-old project headed by Ateneo Scholarship Foundation (ASF) President Hector Tagaysay (AB ’61) called “60/60: A Perfect Vision.”
Entire clan’s generosity
Considering their family’s Atenean lineage—with his granddaughters Micaela Paola and Samantha Patricia both in their junior year—Pineda decided to make the celebration of his birthday this year more meaningful by sharing his blessings with the community, especially since it coincided with the University’s sesquicentennial.
Office of University Development and Alumni Relations (Oudar) Director for Development Hector Guballa said, “The Pineda clan has concluded it [by starting a scholarship fund] now but they have been working on it since a few years [back].”
According to Oudar Donor and Fund Documentation Group Head Victoria Sison, since 2008, the family has been contacting their office to ask if they could help Ateneo by helping out in a project.
Pineda’s generous donation was only a startup; it would be next year when the endowment would be fully funded.
Sison said that Pineda has not yet decided on who will be the beneficiaries for the scholarship. He is choosing between funding the scholarship of a Loyola Schools’ student or that of a student from the Ateneo School of Government.
“We will give them time to decide where they want to place their donation and they will inform us next year,” she said. “A new scholarship was born, thanks to…Mr. and Mrs. Pineda and the whole family,” she added.
Giving back at 60
Meanwhile, ten years have passed since Batch 61’s celebration of their 60th birthdays, the time, as then Vice President for Planning and Development Fr. Carmelo Caluag II, said “when one comes full circle and gives back out of gratitude.”
Hence, the 60/60 program was launched in 2001.
This was a program wherein alumni who have reached the age of 60 are asked to give any amount among 60 centavos, 60 pesos, 60 thousand or 60 million. Tagaysay said that “If life begins at 40, at 60 it is time to give back.”
In Caluag’s letter to the alumni, he said that, “What we celebrate is not the success in terms of fame, power, and wealth. Rather, it is the success of a man who comes back to the hill to revisit the dreams of his youth, to the hill to renew his relationship with his God.”
However, it was revised to encompass anyone in any generation who wanted to share what they have.
“We are…to include others who are not yet 60. I just want to raise the level of awareness that there is something such as 60/60 scholarship fund,” Tagaysay added.
He said that they only revised the program and opened it even to those who weren’t 60 just now because they were preoccupied by the Naming Rights project of the new University Dormitory, another fund-raiser. Now, they are set on focusing again on the project for long term continuity.
Beneficiaries
Junior Michael Kevin Fajardo said that people like Pineda and Tagaysay, who choose to give back to Ateneo by helping, provide hope for scholars like him.
“They do not only give opportunities, they also make you remember that there is a point in time when you have to share because you have been shared and you have experienced the goodness of others,” he said
Sison agreed and said, “[Those who help the school] serve as an inspiration for others to do the same thing.”
