How a part-time sugarcane worker chased his dream of going to college

While some kids enjoy a weekend’s respite, Albert Cabungcal at an early age works on weekends in a sugarcane plantation to supplement their family’s meagre income. 

Albert’s dad died when he was in second grade and from then on, he and his mother had to make ends meet. Despite the challenge, Albert managed to finish high school. Albert dreams to get a Bachelor’s degree in Science and Information Systems, so with a mere 100 pesos per week, he struggled to finish one year in college. 

When Albert’s mother remarried, he was hoping he will have enough support to get him through three more years. However, his step-father’s unwillingness to finance his studies put Albert’s dreams to a halt.

The turning point for Albert came when he heard of BagoSphere’s two-month call centre training program. This was the chance that he had been waiting for – a way to finally escape from the poverty that plagues his life. Albert applied as soon as he turned 18 and thanks to the Study-Now Pay-Later scheme, Albert became part of Bago’s 5th Batch. 

However, there were much more challenges that Albert had to pass. His weak command of English meant that he would have to up his ante. Aside from that, he lacked confidence making it all the more difficult to speak up or hold conversations in English. Nevertheless, Albert had a winning spirit and never gave up. Through tremendous help from his trainers, his mastery of English improved, and with that came a much needed confidence boost. 

With his newfound confidence and vastly improved grasp of the English language, Albert was offered a place at Panasiatic Solutions as a call centre agent by the end of the training. His hard work and determination had paid off at last. Soon after, Albert moved up to a bigger call center called Teletech.

These days, Albert still lives with his mother, albeit much more comfortably than how things used to be. Most importantly however, thanks to his savings he can finally resume his college education and chase his dream of obtaining a college degree. He also hopes to finance his step-siblings’ education so they don’t have to go through the same challenges that he did. 

Wanting to give back to the organisation that enabled him to chase his dreams, Albert is a keen member of BagoSphere’s Alumni community. 

He feels right at home with the alumni community, saying that the alumni team is like an extension of his family and that there is a genuine closeness among the members. He enjoys helping out, especially in the hope that others can have the opportunity to emulate his success.

Written by: Din Sevilla