Aboitiz Foundation Scholars Day ushers new batch of future leaders

A celebration of college graduates with honors, welcoming of a new batch of scholars to the Aboitiz family and leadership lessons to them marked the 26th year of the Aboitiz Future Leaders scholarship program.

“The value of this program is not just to help you finish school, but to prepare you for what comes after it,” Aboitiz Foundation chairman and Aboitiz Group president and CEO Sabin Aboitiz told some 200 program beneficiaries who joined the organization’s Scholars Day at the AIM Conference Center in Makati City on 3 October.

“I hope that you have the confidence to discover what you are really and truly capable of. To those already in the program, use this scholarship well, please, but also use the people, the experiences, and the learning around you,” he added.

Aboitiz Foundation president Ginggay Hontiveros-Malvar said education is one of four flagship programs of the Aboitiz Group’s corporate social responsibility arm because “we believe it’s the single most powerful thing that can change a person’s life for the better.”

She told the eleven new scholars for the 2026-2027 academic year to take their studies seriously.

“Work hard. Be curious. Ask questions and learn. Absorb as much as you can, because education will help open doors for you,” Hontiveros-Malvar added.

More than financial support

Since its inception in 2000, the Aboitiz Future Leaders Program have supported 1,212 scholars with full tuition coverage, monthly allowance, internship in Aboitiz business units, academic excellence incentive, Latin honor incentive, board topnotcher incentive and learning development sessions to help scholars become future leaders.

“We chose to invest with you because we believe in your potential,” Hontiveros-Malvar said.

On Scholars Day, the foundation awarded gifts to 2026 graduates with honors. They are honorable mention Carl Isaac Mayuga of De La Salle University, cum laude Trisha Denisse Gonzales of University of the Philippines-Diliman, magna cum laude Zol Brilliance Bautista of UP Los Banos, magna cum laude Stephanie Cale of Ateneo de Manila University, magna cum laude Mary Rose Esguerra of UP Los Baños, and summa cum laude John Josel Bautista of DLSU.

Esguerra, a Batch 2022 scholar who graduated with a degree in agribusiness from the University of the Philippines-Los Baños on 1 July, shared that the scholarship was an important part of her academic journey for changing her life.

“Being an Aboitiz scholar was so much more than the financial support. It was the people I met, the friendships I built, and the mentors who guided me. It was also the learning opportunities that helped me become the kind of leader I hoped to be,” Esguerra said.

After her internship at AboitizPower, she now works for the renewable energy company as a corporate communications specialist, doing press releases, stories and media relations.

“The things I was passionate about in college — pitching, marketing, and communicating narratives — could now be used to tell stories of how AboitizPower helps light up and empower communities across the Philippines,” she said.

Where leadership begins

The foundation president also awarded certificates of scholarship to 11 new scholars and declared them as now part of the Aboitiz family. They are Ian Joseph Reinard Alejar, Maria Angela Bulanadi, Kollin Kate Cayco, Charise Marae Isidro, Anaiah Justo, William Yohan Pinlac, Askia Khryss Roxas, Nicole Daine Salvador, Emanuel Tan Du, Adi Joaquim Tolentino and Miguel Alexander Villarica.

Pinlac said he looks forward to becoming a future leader through the scholarship.

“Sometimes, the only way to discover what we are capable of is to do something we were once afraid to do. And I think that is where leadership begins. Not in knowing exactly what to do, but in having the courage to take the first step despite not knowing what comes next. That is what being an Aboitiz Future Leader means to me,” the mechanical engineering sophomore from University of the Philippines-Diliman said.

He thanked the Aboitiz Group and the Aboitiz Foundation “for believing in us before we have had the chance to prove what we are capable of.”

“Your support means more than helping us continue our education. It gives us the freedom to focus on learning, growing, and becoming what we hope to be,” Pinlac added.

Pinlac also told his batchmates of the optimism the scholarship brings.

“And to my fellow scholars, our dreams and journeys may be different, but today, we share the same opportunity. So let today be our Day One. Day One of pursuing the dreams that scare us.

Day One of stepping into the leaders we are meant to be. And eventually, Day One of giving someone else the courage to start their own journey.”

Conversation with a leader

Aboitiz took time to give more than an inspirational message to the future leaders. He said occasions like the Scholars Day is so important and really matters so much to him because education is a very big part in the country’s journey to become better.

Hontiveros-Malvar added that it’s very rare that the Aboitiz Group chairman of the board gets to meet employees and interns so the scholars should take advantage of the opportunity to talk with him and ask him questions.

One of the questions thrown to Aboitiz is what one quality or mindset that he believes will matter most for people entering the workforce in the next 5 to 10 years.

“You need to learn. You need the open mind to move you to other places that will make you adapt to learn what’s needed for what comes,” Aboitiz advised.

He cited as example drones which evolved from a hobby to jobs.

“Remember to keep learning and keep staying open-minded,” he said.

Asked if what failure or setback early in his career that significantly changed the way he leads, Aboitiz replied, “When they come and you don’t expect a setback to come, you don’t learn, you get disappointed, takes a while for you to bounce back. So if your mindset is setback is good, I learn from it, I move forward, I’m honest to myself — what did I do, what did I learn — then you come out of there even stronger and stronger and stronger.”

Aboitiz Foundation capped Scholars Day with a learning session for the new batch of Aboitiz Future Leaders in the afternoon.

Hontiveros reminded the scholars that when they are in a position to help someone else in the future, they will do so “because success is never only about how far we go on our own personal journey, but it’s also about how many people we can take with us.”

“Study hard, stay curious, take care of yourselves and each other, experience life, make mistakes as we all do, learn from them, and be brave enough to try things even when they’re difficult. We hope that the experience that you will have will help you all to become better,” she added.