ROBERT LAGUYO
ROBERT
LAGUYO
S.Y. 2017-2018
Bachelor of Secondary Education - English
I grew up in a broken family. My parents strived and gave their best for me and my siblings to stay in school. But it was just not enough for the three of us.
During elementary until high school, there were times I went to school without breakfast and I had lunch from my classmates. There were seasons when I enrolled late or I did not have the necessary books because I couldn’t pay on time.
It was a real struggle to even ask for meager allowance from my parents. I found myself ashamed of bringing my friends to our house since we live in a squatters’ area. I often said no to many hangouts because I could not afford to travel from a friend's house to go home, shrinking my group of friends to a handful of closest ones.
Nonetheless, I was able to finish strong as part of the top section, but the uncertainty of getting a college degree came. My mother explicitly told me that I cannot go to college due to financial difficulties, that I have to give way for my brothers.
At this point, I was already a leader in one of our campus outreach at Victory Pioneer. Understanding that God provides even in moments of extreme needs, I stood firm and believed that I can start and finish college by faith.
Along with my church community back then, we prayed and declared that I will get a scholarship. By then, it was already the start of the first semester and I enrolled myself even without knowing where to get the money. At this point, I wrote promissory notes for the delay yet I did not lose heart. A few weeks later, I got accepted as a scholar of the Real LIFE Foundation.
Through Real LIFE, I learned how to value courage and wisdom, be authentic, cultivate my relationship with God, and be the best that God wants me to be.
I am most grateful for Real LIFE in terms of the way we were taught to always have humility and gain wisdom from respectable mentors and leaders. This shaped my way of thinking and brought me the Kingdom mindset even in the smallest and mundane.
Today, I am an Operations Associate and a facilitator for Vanguard Center for Leadership. We are part of CBTL Holdings, Inc. and our focus is on bringing the Kingdom of God in the workplace.
I am now able to help my brothers and my mother with the daily and weekly expenses. We no longer worry too much about the bills. We even celebrate birthdays and breakthroughs with so much food now.
I am bringing the hope I got to my family. More than the financial help, what I received from everyone changed the whole being of my parents and brothers. It changed their lives as well. From darkness to light. From glory to glory. God is faithful to every household, and I am able to witness it in my own home.
Real LIFE partners, I thank you for bringing generational hope, for becoming a vessel of blessings. You did not just support a foundation, you broke loose Heaven for me and for the families I represent.
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