Paying it forward, one wish at a time: 800+ wishes granted via OAA’s Grant-A-Wish Project

Sometimes, wishes do come true, out of the blue.

In its second year since its inception, the Office of Admission and Aid - Undergraduate Education (OAA-UEd) has launched the Grant-A-Wish Project that allows currently enrolled scholars of Ateneo de Manila to send in their wishes for Christmas. A variety of wishes such as bus tickets to go home for the holidays, noche buena packages, earphones, tumblers, pillows, and rice cookers, among other things were submitted by the scholars with a maximum amount of one thousand pesos (Php 1,000.00) in the hopes that their wishes would be granted.

The Grant-A-Wish Project initially started as a casual exchange between scholars and the OAA in the comment section of one of the posts in the scholars’ Facebook group. Scholars jokingly shared their wishes for Christmas, which included a rice cooker, an oven toaster, lechon; and ham for noche buena among others. From the initial five wishes that were randomly granted in 2021, it boomed to about 300 wishes as the OAA officially launched the Grant-A-Wish Project in 2022. 

With its tagline "Paying it forward, one wish at a time", a list of the scholars' wishes were initially sent to alumni scholars and individuals, external organizations, and corporations who have been supporting the Ateneo College Scholarship Program through the years. For this year, the Grant-A-Wish Project was shared to the Ateneo community through its internal mailing list called Blueboard.  

Individual benefactors and alumni groups, who refused to be identified, have donated various items, such as pillows, kitchenware, sports equipment, food packs, and school supplies. Cash gifts were also given to scholars who needed to pay for their bus and plane tickets to go home for the holidays. Others were given a small amount of cash for their check-up consultations and medicines. 

Corporations such as Nike’s Jordan Brand have donated clothing and shoes, while the Firefly Electric and Lighting Corporation (FELCO) has donated electric fans with lamps and portable electric fans to some of our scholars.

Faculty, administrators, and staff from the different units of the University have also contributed to the cause as they shared gifts that the scholars want for Christmas. Likewise, parents of current academic scholars, current scholars, and former scholars who were past recipients of the Grant-A-Wish Project have also shared the gift of generosity as they granted some of the wishes of our current scholars, truly embodying the project’s tagline: “paying it forward, one wish at a time”. All in all, more than 800 wishes were granted by all the generous donors who joined the cause, making the Christmas of all the scholars who shared their wishes a little more special.

"On behalf of the Office of Admission and Aid, I would like to personally thank the Ateneo community, and everybody else  who donated to Grant-A-Wish for making our scholars’ Christmas truly special for the second straight year.  There is no such thing as being too generous, and no such thing as the limits of gratitude."

-Dr. Jo-Ed Tirol, Director of Office of Admission and Aid - Undergraduate Education