10 Filipinos Who Have Made World Headlines This Year

Clyde Wesley Ang, (Chiang Kai Shek College); Kyle Patrick Dulay (Philippine Science High School); Albert John Patupat (De La Salle University Integrated School); Shaquille Wyan Que (Grace Christian College); Sean Anderson Ty; and Farrel Eldrian Wu (MGC New Life Christian Academy)

The country’s representatives to the 58^th International Mathematical Olympiad held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, didn’t let us down, finishing the prestigious competition with six medals. This effort led to a commendable 17^th place overall (out of 111 countries), matching the nation’s highest ever ranking, which was set last year. It also marked the first time that all of our competitors each won individual medals.

Karen Mae Calam

A post shared by Karen Mae Calam (@karenmaecalam) on Aug 29, 2017 at 12:10am PDT

In the 2016 Bar exam, which surprised many as not even one school from Manila made the top ten, Calam, the topnotcher with a score of 89.05 percent, was perhaps the most shocked. A CPA before making the switch to law, Calam wasn’t even considered the best student from her school, Cebu’s University of San Carlos. Her legal plans are on hold for the moment as she’s first enjoying newlywed status after getting hitched last month.

Geoselle Dela Cruz

A post shared by Geoselle Dela Cruz (@geoselledc) on Feb 5, 2017 at 7:16am PST

If there’s a word millennials are most often equated with, it’s entitled; De la Cruz battles the stereotype for working for everything she’s achieved in life. A recent cum laude graduate from the University of the Philippines, where she majored in Tourism, de la Cruz lightheartedly captured her struggle to pay for tuition and dorm fees by listing down the odd jobs she took just to get by: tutor, dance choreographer, rappel instructor, thesis transcriber, research assistant, student assistant, backup dancer, host, dance competition judge, and vendor of snacks and second-hand clothes.

Isabel Sieh

IMAGE COURTESY OF JAMES ABUAN

Sieh, who recently turned 14, is one of the country’s youngest programmers and is helping spread the gospel of coding with the organization she founded when she was 10, Girls Will Code. Billed as “a community that encourages girls to participate in activities related to coding, programming, robotics and engineering,” it is breaking down gender roles and stereotypes. Sieh’s work caught the attention of Google, which asked her to speak at a coding conference here in Manila, and later gave her the invitation to visit their headquarters in California.

Maureen Wroblewitz

IMAGE COURTESY OF ICANSERVE FOUNDATION

At just 5 feet, six inches—taller than the average Filipina but pretty short for a model, Wroblewitz was the smallest among the final 14 contestants of Asia’s Next Top Model. Still, the German-Filipina proved her doubters wrong (“pretty face with no skills” is how they summed her up) by eventually taking the crown, the first winner from the Philippines during the show’s five-season run. Wroblewitz dedicated the win to her mother, who died of breast cancer in 2009. What’s next for the 18-year-old? She’s off to New York, starting her career with Storm Model Management.

This story was originally published in the September 2017 issue of Town&Country.