SHE ALMOST DIDN’T JOIN: Eaui Aguilar takes ISUFST to its first TOSP nationals

Eaui Gonzales Aguilar needed convincing before she would enter the Search for the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines.

She had graduated summa cum laude, earned her university’s highest student distinction, and taken part in research and community work. Still, she wondered whether she had done enough. Telling her story to a panel of judges was another matter.

Her eventual coach, professor Jeena Amoto-Torred, urged her to try. Family, professors, and friends added their encouragement. Aguilar entered with doubts she had yet to settle.

On Oct. 11, the information technology graduate of the Iloilo State University of Fisheries Science and Technology’s San Enrique Campus became one of six regional awardees in the 59th TOSP Western Visayas search, selected from 16 finalists from universities across the region.

The recognition makes her ISUFST’s first TOSP regional awardee and its first representative to advance to the national search.

When her name was called, Aguilar looked for her family. Her father, Harold Lames Homena, and her sister, Hanny Lyn, were in the audience.

“I honestly did not expect to be chosen,” she recalled. “I felt overwhelmed with happiness, gratitude, and disbelief all at once.”

The people behind the honors

A few months earlier, Aguilar had stood at Tamasak Arena during ISUFST’s commencement exercises as its 2026 Presidential Awardee.

Chosen from five outstanding students representing the university’s campuses and sites, she received the highest distinction ISUFST gives a graduating student. She also graduated summa cum laude and was recognized as an outstanding student intern in the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology program.

“This honor is not mine alone,” she said.

She credited her family, friends, teachers, mentors, and fellow nominees. Some had helped her through college; others had been there long before she enrolled.

Growing up, Aguilar lived in Tambunac in San Enrique, Palanguia in Pototan, and later, Dueñas. As her family’s circumstances changed, so did the place she called home.

Her grandmother, Clarita Girao Gonzales, remained a steady presence.

Lola Clarita gave her encouragement and stability through those changes. Aguilar eventually lost her grandmother after years of illness, but carried that support into her life as a student.

Her father’s experience also stayed with her. He had been unable to finish school and worked hard to support the family. Aguilar grew up watching the effort that required.

At college, she found a way to contribute. A Department of Science and Technology scholar, she used part of her stipend to help with needs at home while keeping up with her studies.

Finding a purpose for her skills

Aguilar’s college life included student activities, campus publication work, research, and extension projects that brought her into contact with communities outside the classroom.

Those experiences shaped how she understood information technology. A system could function as designed and still need to be explained to the people expected to use it. Technical knowledge mattered, but so did listening.

Through technology education and projects such as IoT4STE, she began connecting what she learned in class with the needs of others.

That became part of her preparation for TOSP. She revisited the work she had done, what it had taught her, and why she wanted to continue it.

She said she wanted to understand her own experiences well enough to speak honestly, rather than memorize a “perfect” answer.

Her view of service grew from the same work. It could mean explaining something unfamiliar, sharing a skill, or making time for someone who needed help. These were things she could do with the knowledge and resources already available to her.

Finding her place among the finalists

The honors on her record had not ended her doubts about belonging in the search.

At the formation camp, however, meeting the other finalists helped her see the experience differently.

Her fellow “VICTORS” brought their own accomplishments, difficulties, and reasons for serving their communities. As they exchanged stories and formed friendships, Aguilar began to see them as people she could learn from.

She also began to give her own experiences more credit.

For her, being outstanding came to include work that drew little attention: meeting responsibilities, continuing to serve, and acknowledging what she still needed to learn. She did not have to measure every part of her life against someone else’s achievements.

The Oct. 11 announcement gave Amoto-Torred a chance to see what her student’s decision to enter had made possible.

“Today, we made history. For the first time, ISUFST has a TOSP Regional Awardee,” she said. “More than making history, Eaui has given other ISUFST students a reason to believe that they, too, belong in spaces they once only dreamed of entering.”

Preparing for the national search

Aguilar knows the hesitation that can come with representing a school whose name is less familiar on a national stage.

“I hope you do not allow the size or name of your university to determine how far you believe you can go,” she said.

Her advice to other students is to begin with what they have, learn from the people around them, and put their skills to use.

She reached this point while dealing with moves, financial pressures, family responsibilities, disappointments, and loss. School requirements still had to be completed through those difficulties.

Now, as she prepares to represent Western Visayas in the national search, Aguilar feels the pressure of meeting another group of accomplished young Filipinos.

She wants to explain her advocacy more clearly, prepare well, and remain willing to listen and learn. She also wants to represent the people and places that helped her reach this point: her family, San Enrique Campus, ISUFST, Western Visayas, and the communities she has worked with.

The national result is still ahead. For now, she has taken a step she once doubted she could take, with her coach’s encouragement and her family’s support.

Her words at graduation still describe how she sees that achievement.

“This honor is not mine alone.” (PAMMCO)