Vice President Leni Robredo remembers Farrell Eldrian Wu, the 20-year-old Filipino who graduated with a perfect grade point average (GPA) from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, for once donating the money he earned as a tutor to the Jesse Robredo M. Foundation.
In a Facebook post Wednesday, June 9, Robredo said that Wu was a friend of her youngest daughter, Jillian, who is studying Biomolecular Science at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering.
The vice president shared a story by the Manila Bulletin about Wu, who got straight As and a perfect GPA of 5.0, MIT’s highest grade.
“I know Farrel Wu personally. He was Jillian’s friend since they were in Grade School. They trained for International Math Competitions and competed together. It was Farrel who would always bag the GOLD for the Philippines. He brought a lot of honor for the country from Grade School and High School,” her post said.
Last week, Wu graduated at MIT with two degrees: Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering, and Bachelor of Science in Business Analytics, with a minor in Economics.
READ: Pinoy student graduates with perfect GPA at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Aside from bringing pride to the country, Wu had also personally brought checks once to Robredo’s office in 2015 when she was a congresswoman to donate to the Jesse M. Robredo Foundation after learning that “we were building schools in remote areas.”
The money came from his tutoring stints.
“It was no surprise that he got into the best Ivy League schools in the US when he applied for college. Also no surprise that he chose MIT, which is one of the most difficult to enter into. I knew he would excel even in MIT but to have a perfect GPA is no mean feat,” Robredo said as she congratulated Wu.
The vice president shared a screencap of the post she made on May 12, 2015.
In the post, she and Wu were photographed in front of the House of Representative’s seal. A photo of the nine checks that Wu donated was also part of the post.