Did You Know? This Scholarship Foundation Connects Three of the Philippines' Top Businesswomen

On a Saturday morning in July, the pews at Immaculate Conception Academy (ICA) Greenhills held an unusual concentration of boardroom experience.

Robina Gokongwei-Pe of the Gokongwei Group, Teresita Sy-Coson of SM and BDO, and Josephine Gotianun-Yap of Filinvest gathered for the 20th anniversary Mass of the ICA Greenhills Scholarship Foundation. The three business leaders belong to different generations of alumnae from the all-girls Catholic school in San Juan, whose graduates have gone on to lead some of the country’s largest companies. They had returned to celebrate the nonprofit established in 2006 to support students whose families encounter unexpected financial hardship while enrolled at ICA.

Speaking exclusively to Preview, Robina revisited her years at ICA, the origins of the scholarship foundation, and the stories that have stayed with her over two decades as one of its trustees. 

For Robina, the commitment stretches back to the foundation’s earliest meetings, and much further than that. She spent her entire education at ICA, from kindergarten through fourth year high school. Time has edited those years into a handful of vivid scenes: earning the only A in math she’d receive in high school, training every afternoon with the varsity swimming team despite always finishing last, and laughing at exactly the wrong moment during a flag ceremony. 

A classmate standing behind her had cracked a joke just as “Lupang Hinirang” began, which prompted Robina to burst into laughter. “It was very disrespectful, of course, but it was also really bad timing,” she recalls to Preview.

The punishment required her and her classmate to stand onstage and sing the national anthem before the entire high school. “I almost died!” she jokes.

The Robinsons tycoon speaks about ICA as a place she still inhabits in small stories, which helps explain why Sister Teresita Canivel’s proposal in 2006 landed so easily.

As school directress and later finance administrator, Sister Tere–as people fondly call her–had watched families encounter sudden financial setbacks—an illness, a death, a failed business—that threatened a student's education midway through it. The scholarship foundation grew from a practical question: how do you keep a student in school when life changes faster than tuition schedules?

“When Sr. Tere asked me to be a trustee, I could not refuse,” Robina says. “On the condition that she serve a bottle of wine at every meeting.”

Sister Tere obliged. According to Robina, the tradition survived her. “Even today, 20 years later, School President Sr. Irene Ferrer and the nuns still make sure there is a bottle for this overstaying trustee.”

The joke has become part of the foundation's institutional lore, sitting alongside the less visible work of fundraising and stewarding scholarships over many years. Since its establishment, the foundation has supported 156 scholars.

“People may not realize how much consistency the work requires. It is one thing to award a scholarship; it is another to make sure the support remains available year after year until a student completes her education.”

Her favorite story from the foundation belongs to Arielle Go, a scholar from Batch 2012 who returned during the anniversary celebration carrying a donation of P200,000—money she had saved from her own salary.

“To see a former scholar return not only to say thank you but also to help another ICAn receive the same opportunity made my heart melt.”

Education, Robina says, is only part of what scholars receive. “Perhaps more than anything, they need to know that they belong.”

“A scholar may find herself among classmates whose circumstances are very different from hers, and social media makes those differences much harder to ignore than they were in our time,” she adds.

She has watched students navigate classrooms where economic differences can feel especially visible. Financial assistance keeps a student enrolled. Confidence, mentors, and community help them stay. The same school also continues to gather alumnae whose careers have taken remarkably different paths. Conversations among Robina, Tessie, and Josie eventually circle back to the same subject.

“Our conversations always come back to gratitude,” Robina says. “ICA helped mold us into who we are, and we want more young women to have the same opportunity.”

“But perhaps there is one thing we have in common: none of us was fit to become an ICA nun,” she jokes.

The foundation’s scholarship program supports students who are already enrolled at ICA but whose families later experience financial difficulties. Families seeking information about eligibility and the application process may contact the ICA Greenhills Scholarship Foundation through icaghsfi@icagh.edu.ph.