September 11, 2026
Accepting Tzu Chi’s teachings with an open mind
By Joy Rojas
Since it was first offered in 1995, a scholarship from Tzu Chi’s Educational Assistance Program has been credited for improving the lives of thousands of financially challenged youths. Through free quality education from Tzu Chi’s partner schools, colleges, and universities, scholars have gone on to earn degrees, land decent jobs with stable incomes, and enjoy the resources they worked so hard for to provide better lives for their families.
And then there are those like Tzu Chi Cebu scholar Gwen Nicole Loyao who are grateful for a different kind of learning that the scholarship affords, valuable lessons gained beyond books and the four corners of a classroom.
A consistent honor student in her grade school years at the Divine Angels Learning School in Cebu City, Loyao was thrown for a loop when her father suddenly lost his office job.
Unable to maintain the private school’s tuition, her mother transferred her to Samantabhadra Educational Institute on a Tzu Chi scholarship. Now defunct, it was one of Cebu’s oldest Chinese schools in its heyday.
She wasn’t exactly left on her own. When her two younger siblings were old enough to attend school, she ate lunches with them and their mother, who was part of the school’s accounting staff. Still, Loyao struggled to adjust to the new environment.
“Change for me was a bit hard,” she admitted. “I didn’t adapt easily.”
Sitting through monthly Humanities classes left her bored and impatient. “I asked a scholar, ‘What do you do? You just sit and listen to the teachings?’ She said, ‘Yes, but it’s much more than that.’”
With an open mind, Loyao gave the classes a chance. Eventually, she found herself applying the aphorisms of Tzu Chi founder Dharma Master Cheng Yen to her life.
Now 25 and having graduated in May with a BS in Medical Laboratory Science from Southwestern University Phinma in Cebu, Loyao tears up when she enumerates the values espoused by Master Cheng Yen that have since become her own.
She developed compassion from participating in Tzu Chi Cebu’s disaster relief efforts and while trekking remote areas to visit scholar applicants in their run-down homes.
“When I entered Tzu Chi, I didn’t see the big picture,” she said, her voice cracking. “There are people who are dying, who cannot read, who cannot even [write] their names.”
She reminds herself to practice filial piety in moments when she and her parents don’t see eye to eye. And when things don’t go her way, she accepts their outcome with humility.
“I think the best people in the world are the humble ones,” she said. “Like Master Cheng Yen.”
Once averse to attending Humanities classes, this scholar now makes time to impart stories about Tzu Chi, its founder, and her timeless, universal lessons to the next batch of scholars.
“Thank you for transforming not just me but all other students,” said an emotional Loyao.
Gwen Nicole Loyao has been a Tzu Chi Cebu scholar since her high school years at Samantabhadra Educational Institute, and college at Southwestern University Phinma, where she finished her BS in Medical Laboratory Science.
The eldest of three (seated, right) in a group photo with her siblings and parents
(Second from left) With schoolmates at Samantabhadra Educational Institute
(Second from right) The consistent honor student celebrates her achievement with her family.
Even when she was still a scholar, Gwen Nicole Loyao (standing, second from right) joined Tzu Chi Cebu volunteers in conducting home visits to beneficiaries.
At a distribution of relief goods, Gwen Nicole Loyao accepts coin donations from beneficiaries.
Whenever they attend Humanities classes, Tzu Chi Cebu scholars bring single-use plastic bottles. These bottles are collected in the recycling station, where they are processed into a material for making Tzu Chi blankets, folding beds, and other items.
Preparing Tzu Chi blankets at a relief distribution event
In a gathering with Tzu Chi volunteers, Gwen Nicole Loyao (seated, second from right) is grateful to the foundation “for transforming not just me but all other students.”