Announcement
Standing Tall And Standing Strong: A Differently-abled Journey To Graduation
Her message highlighted her incredible journey as a GIST student; she mentioned that GIST is more affable than her environment back then where she was bullied traumatically. She is the eldest daughter of meat vendors who tirelessly carried her and became her feet during her early years when she wasn’t able to walk due to an accident. This occurred when she slipped badly in their bathroom when she was just 4 years old and that incident made her physically uncommon that she hardly dwelt for a long time. During her junior high school years, she began to feel disheartened and uninspired as she experienced discrimination among her classmates because of her disability. Instead of holding grudges, however, she learned to embrace her flaws and continued with her life, minding her own progress.
She finished the Senior High School curriculum at GIST and considered it as a safe haven to study. Her remarkable experience as an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) student at GIST made her decision to take up and pursue a two-year course in ITS (Information Technology System) in the same institution with a full scholarship given by our generous President/School Director Mr. Jose O. Montenegro. She aced the challenges of being a college student because of her supportive classmates and equally competent and encouraging instructors like Mr. Rafael Tutana ,who was also a former student of GIST who now became her instructor. Mr. Tutana turned out to be her mentor during her On-the-job training who kept on encouraging her to continue pursuing her dreams despite her disability. She has performed outstandingly during her internship and was able to apply the skills, knowledge, and attitude learned from GIST.
With encouraging words and the interminable support of people who genuinely care and love her, Ms. Lozada passed the National Assessment in Computer Systems Servicing NC II as a requirement for graduation. She surpassed all the challenges a learner with a disability could ever experience. Before she ended her speech, Ms. Lozada expressed her sincerest gratitude to all those who became her light in this journey including Mr. Montenegro, her instructors, classmates, family, friends, and above all, God Almighty.
She concluded her message with this: “In this ever-changing world, may we always choose to make a stand for our dreams rather than see the hardship of life. Have a dream, act, and make it happen.”
