CHAPTER 198: SCHOLARS

October 30, 2029

TG Foundation Temporary Office

TG Tower – 19th Floor

9:20 AM

The temporary office assigned to the TG Foundation was still half-empty. Desks without drawers. Chairs still wrapped in plastic. A single whiteboard leaned against the wall waiting for installation. The air smelled faintly of new carpet and adhesive.

Adrian stood near the window with a folder tucked under his arm. Behind him, two new staff members—Maria, a program analyst, and Jerome, a former NGO coordinator—sat at a long table sorting through stacks of envelopes.

"Digital submissions are manageable," Maria said, tapping a tablet, "but the physical ones keep coming. Overnight couriers, bus cargo, walk-ins from rural towns. Some schools sent them by batches."

Jerome nodded. "One principal from Zamboanga mailed us everything in a cardboard box. He wrote a note saying they do not have scanners."

Adrian glanced at the pile again. Thousands of applications. Thousands of stories. Only five hundred could be chosen for the first batch.

"Keep logging everything," he said. "No applicant gets lost in the system. No exceptions."

They nodded and continued.

Hana entered the room with a folder in hand. She looked around, assessing the progress. "Timothy wants the first shortlist by Friday," she said. "He thinks we can do it."

"We can," Adrian said, though his tone carried the weight of the task. "But we will need to work through lunch."

"That was expected," Hana replied. "Timothy wants this done right. Pressure is normal."

She handed him the folder. "Here’s the updated criteria, final version."

He opened it. The categories were firm but fair.

Academic potential

Demonstrated need

Rural and underserved priority

Science and engineering interest

Teacher endorsement

Community involvement

Character indicators

The criteria were quantitative enough to filter, but flexible enough to consider stories that did not fit neatly into checkboxes.

Hana pulled up a chair beside Maria. "Let’s begin."

10:05 AM — The Stories Begin

They started with digital submissions first. Easier to categorize, easier to evaluate.

The first application Maria projected on the screen was from a student in Northern Samar. Sixteen years old. Grades above ninety. No electricity at home. Studied by kerosene lamp. Father a fisherman. Mother a laundry worker.

Attached was a scanned recommendation letter from a teacher.

He repairs broken chairs after class. He cleans the blackboard even when he is not assigned. He wants to be an engineer so he can fix our barangay bridge that collapses every rainy season.

No dramatic flourish. Just a teacher describing a boy who wanted to fix things.

Adrian wrote a note.

"High need. Strong character. Shortlist."

The second applicant was from Cavite. Good grades. Comfortable family. Strong science background.

"Not priority," Maria said.

Adrian agreed. "Too many students with greater need. Mark as standby."

The third application was from Negros Occidental. A girl who walked four kilometers daily to school. No internet. Borrowed worksheets from the principal’s office. Volunteer tutor for younger students.

Her file included a photo of her beside a wall patched with cardboard.

Jerome exhaled. "Shortlist."

The fourth file came from Basilan. A boy with inconsistent grades but excellent aptitude test results. Lost a cousin to gang violence. Wanted to pursue electrical engineering.

"Potential but unstable environment," Maria said.

"Which means he needs support even more," Adrian replied. "Shortlist."

Hana nodded silently. She was reading every line, clicking through attachments with a focus that never slipped.

Thousands of similar stories filled the queue.

Children who shared one textbook with five classmates.

Students who helped their parents at night before studying.

Teens who worked part-time jobs to afford transportation.

Science-minded students who had never seen a real laboratory.

The hours passed without chatter.

Every file was a life.

Every name, a chance to change a future.

Every application forced them to weigh merit against need, potential against circumstance.

By noon, they had identified one hundred promising candidates. They had four hundred slots left.

And eight thousand applications still to review.

12:50 PM — Lunch at the Conference Table

Hana opened a plastic container of pasta. Adrian had a sandwich. Jerome and Maria had rice meals brought up from TG’s cafeteria.

None of them left the room.

Hana looked at the growing shortlist on the whiteboard.

"We are seeing patterns," she said.

"Poverty concentrated in rural provinces," Jerome added. "Most of the applicants come from schools that still use chalkboards."

Maria tapped the tablet. "A lot of them want engineering because they want to fix things—bridges, irrigation pumps, electric lines. They are thinking in solutions, not careers."

Adrian ate quietly before saying, "That is the point of the Horizon Initiative. We are not funding ambition. We are funding problem solvers."

They nodded and returned to work.

2:20 PM — The Hardest Files

Some applications were difficult.

A boy from South Cotabato with strong grades but a vague essay. No teacher recommendation—his school had no available faculty to sign.

A girl from Quezon whose father forbade her from pursuing science because "women should not waste time." Her principal wrote that she was the best student he had seen in a decade.

A student from Leyte who wanted to be a mechanical engineer but had failed mathematics twice due to lack of instruction.

Jerome hesitated. "Do we shortlist someone who failed math?"

"Failure is not disqualification," Adrian said. "Circumstance matters."

"Then what if he struggles even with a scholarship?" Maria asked.

"Then we give him tutoring," Hana answered. "This program is not a reward. It is an intervention."

The room quieted.

Then they shortlisted him.

3:40 PM — Live Review with Timothy

Timothy entered without ceremony. No entourage. No greetings beyond a simple nod.

"How many so far?" he asked.

"Two hundred thirteen shortlisted," Hana said. "We have more to go."

Timothy pulled up a chair. "Show me."

Maria opened the folder. The first student was from Masbate. High promise, extreme financial hardship.

"Approved," Timothy said.

The next from Samar.

"Approved."

The next from Laguna.

"Well-off household. Remove."

The next from Agusan del Sur.

"Strong candidate. Add."

Then they arrived at a difficult case: A girl from Mindoro who wrote in her essay that she wanted to become a civil engineer, but her grades were average.

Timothy read silently for a moment.

"Inconsistent grades," Maria said. "But good personal statement."

Adrian added, "Her teacher wrote that she spent most afternoons caring for three younger siblings."

Timothy leaned back.

"What is the goal of this scholarship?" he asked.

"To create future engineers and scientists," Maria answered.

"Partly," Timothy said. "But the deeper goal is to identify those who will break cycles. Average grades do not mean low potential. They mean no opportunity."

He pointed to the girl’s file.

"Shortlist."

Hana nodded. Adrian added her name.

By the time Timothy left the room, they had narrowed the shortlist to three hundred forty-nine.

He paused at the doorway.

"Do not select based on what makes TG look good," he said. "Select based on what will change this country twenty years from now."

Then he left.

5:15 PM — The Final Push

The team continued until late afternoon. The light outside the windows shifted from bright to muted gray. The building’s air conditioning cycled into evening mode.

Every application weighed something.

And every rejection felt like a lost opportunity.

Hana rubbed her forehead. "We need to pick the next one hundred fifty soon."

"We will," Adrian said, though exhaustion crept into his voice.

Then Maria opened the next file.

A boy from Antique.

Attached was a photo of him sitting on a bamboo bench, studying beside a kerosene lamp. His handwriting was uneven but determined. He wrote that he wanted to study chemical engineering to "fix the water problem in our town."

No embellishment.

No dramatic language.

Just intent.

Jerome broke the silence. "Shortlist?"

Everyone nodded.

Then another promising candidate. Then another.

Until the board reached four hundred ninety-seven.

Three slots left.

Three.

Out of thousands.

The next application came from a girl in Surigao del Norte. Outstanding grades. Impressive achievements. Robotics competitions, even without proper equipment.

"Shortlist," Adrian said.

Four ninety-eight.

The next was from Cebu. A boy who built a small turbine from scrap metal to power a lightbulb.

"Shortlist."

Four ninety-nine.

They opened the final contender.

This one was different.

A student from Tondo.

High need, but urban.

Grades average.

Essay rough but sincere.

Jerome hesitated. "Does this match our criteria?"

Adrian read the essay again.

"I have lived my whole life in a small room with six people. I want to study mechanical engineering so I can build things that make life less heavy."

After a long pause, Adrian said, "Yes. It matches."

Five hundred.

The first batch was complete.

6:12 PM — The List

Adrian wrote the final number on the whiteboard.

500 SELECTED

First Cohort — Horizon Scholars

No applause.

No celebration.

Just quiet acknowledgment of what the list represented.

Five hundred young people whose lives would change.

Five hundred households touched.

Five hundred communities gaining future engineers, scientists, planners, and builders.

Jerome leaned back in his chair. "This... feels like something real."

Maria nodded. "For once, we choose hope based on merit, not connections."

Hana stood, collected the files, and placed them in a secured envelope.

"Tomorrow," she said, "we begin verification."

Adrian looked at the board again.

"This is only the first batch."

Hana replied, "Yes. And there will be many more."

The room stayed quiet as the evening lights turned on across BGC.

Inside that half-furnished office, a foundation had taken its first meaningful step.

Five hundred futures now had a path forward.

And the country, slowly and quietly, began to change.