To honor SM Foundation scholar-graduates for the school year 2017-2018, the Sy family behind the mall giant will tender a testimonial dinner at the SMX on Wednesday, June 27.

The 330 graduates nationwide—149 from the NCR, 115 from Luzon, 12 from Mindanao, and 57 from Visayas —from 105 partner universities and colleges throughout the country, together with their parents or guardians, will gather to meet their benefactors, Henry Sy Sr. and his family.

Earlier in the day, the graduates, many of whom are flown in from the provinces, will be offered jobs in the various SM offices in Manila and the provinces. Job offer desks manned by Human Resource executives of these SM offices are laid out at the entrance of the SMX Function Room for job interviews and subsequent offers.

In the past, many of these graduates accept these offers, although some opt to join other companies or hold these offers in abeyance until after they have hurdled the professional board examinations for teachers, engineers, and accountants.

This year’s batch is led by two summae cum laude graduates: Jedda Pascual, a graduate of the Ateneo de Davao College of Accountancy, and Danielle Francis Olsen, who finished her BS Accountancy from the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos.  

Out of the 330 scholars, 87 are graduating with Latin honors.  

This year’s batch will also be a memorable event for scholars from Samar, Leyte and other provinces affected by killer Typhoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan), as many of them are graduating with honors.

The scholars will hear from the guest speaker Loida Ongteco de Vera, a former SM scholar, who will recount her memorable and inspirational journey to becoming the Operations Manager of SM Hypermarket.  

Ongteco-de Vera graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education from the Philippine Normal University in 2000.

Partner schools of SM Foundation, SM executives, friends and clients of the Sy family and business associates are expected at this traditional dinner held in honor of these graduates.  This is the 22nd year of the Presentation of Scholars to their benefactors.

SM Foundation maintains 2,000 college scholars yearly and another 2,000 technical-vocational school scholars.  So far, more than 3,000 scholars have graduated under the SM Foundation Education Program.