"I was recently asked: 'Why will I give Ateneo money for scholarship when it can support more students in other schools?'

I cannot answer that easily. I cannot say that 1 Atenean is equal to 5 students from other schools. Ang yabang naman nun.

All I can say is we have high hopes for you, scholars.

As Fr Bernas used to say, 'Elite need not be a bad 5 letter word. It can mean rich, exclusive, privileged. But it can also mean select, chosen, chosen few, outlier, leader, Ateneans making a difference in the lives of people.

 

'Let us multiply who we are, what has been given us. We have been given much. Let us lead the change.

 

The boy and girl keep asking.
The man and woman offer.

 

We live in the oblation of others.
Without the offering of others, we die."

 

- Father Jett Villarin, SJ

I am inviting you to be part of ASSES!

ASSES (Ateneans Supporting Scholars for an Empowered Society) is a group formed in 2011 by Ateneans who pooled money together to assist scholars of the Ateneo de Manila University in their college education.

It started with 37 members on its first year and has continually grown with members inviting their own officemates, batchmates, and friends to join the scholarship project.

We are on our 9th year, and to date, we have donated more or less PhP 3.5 million to support 48 college scholars at the Ateneo.

Who do we support?

We work hand in hand with the Ateneo de Manila's Office of Admission and Aid (OAA). We give them our criteria for the scholars we wish to support, namely, students who: are in their senior year; are in significant financial difficulty; are have good academic standing with significant involvement in extra-curricular/socio-civic activities; and ideally, came from public high schools

The OAA gives us a list with the students' profile and from there we select the ones we will support.

How does it work?

Donations of PhP 5000 (or any amount) are collected via The Spark Project platform. Remittance may also be via bank deposit or PayPal. 

Pledges are gathered until the end of December. By the first week of January, a commitment letter is sent to the OAA and by January 31, the money pooled will be remitted.

The target this year is to remit PhP 500,000 to the OAA.

 How about transparency and accountability?

At the end of the donation period, I will release a Financial Report containing the inflows and outflows. Outflows usually consist of website fees, PayPal fees, and other administrative fees.

In addition, ASSES maintains a closed and private FB group where representatives of the OAA are members, for them to see the group's activities and updates.

 SO, G?