From homeless to honors: Former street child graduates from college with flying colors

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Eugene Dela Cruz is going viral for his most inspiring story. He just graduated with honors from Ateneo de Manila University. But the real kurot sa puso is this: Eugene once lived on the streets of Metro Manila.

On Facebook, the former homeless teen shared an inspiring essay on how he made it through college, a milestone that he once thought was already impossible.

“I wasn’t supposed to make it here. Not to Ateneo. Not to any graduation. Not even to this very day,” Dela Cruz began.

At the tender age of 12, Dela Cruz was forced into homelessness after the separation of his parents. Begging for coins, rationing stale bread, and sleeping in alleyways or under tricycles when it rained, he barely survived.

“Public restrooms became my sanctuary, where I washed my body, my clothes, and tried, vainly, to scrub away the shame.”” Eugene recalled of those four harrowing years. 

“No one noticed when I vanished. No one asked where I had gone,” he said.

But everything changed when a scholarship allowed him to return to the classroom.

Ateneo’s Office of Admission and Aid, along with the Ateneo Alumni Scholars Association, gave him an opportunity he least expected.

“They didn’t see empty forms, just a child desperate for a second chance,” he said. “They offered me something far more precious: belief.”

Despite financial struggles and emotional burdens, Dela Cruz persisted by tutoring strangers to afford rent and choreographing festival dances to earn money for sustenance while pursuing his studies.

“I worried my poverty would echo too loudly in those hallowed halls, but I stayed because, at the very least, the people that I have encountered throughout my Ateneo journey made me feel that I belong and said, ‘You matter,’” he said.

Dela Cruz earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics (Honors Program) with a specialization in Financial Economics and a minor in Decision Science.

He was also an Honorable Mention and was awarded the Third Best Undergraduate Thesis in Economics.

“I may not have a relative cheering from the stands. I may not have a home waiting at journey’s end. But I discovered a new family,” he said.  

Toward the end of his essay, he thanked the Ateneo Alumni Scholars Association, the university's Office of Admission and Aid, Scholars United, his mentors, friends, classmates, kind strangers, and “people who didn’t care but did.”

“I wasn’t meant to make it here, but by some grace, I did,” he concluded.

This isn’t the first time Eugene opened up about his inspiring yet gut-wrenching story.

Previously, he also shared essays about his life experiences when he graduated from elementary and high school, which both echoed a message of hope and inspiration.

Congratulations, Eugene! And thank you for this much-needed inspiration.

— Hermes Joy Tunac/LA, GMA Integrated News