Nursing exam topnotcher from Leyte looks back on roller-coaster life

Glicyl Alvero: No plans of leaving country PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK.COM

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—The topnotcher in last December’s nursing board exams has no plans of leaving the country and working abroad.

Glicyl Alvero wants to stay and later teach the country’s future nurses instead of joining the throng of nurses who leave to seek greener pasture abroad.

“I want to stay here in the country and teach in a nursing school. I want to teach our future nurses and share to them what I have learned,” said Alvero.

Alvero topped the Nurse Licensure Examination given by the Board of Nursing in various cities of the country last December, which was held in 16 areas around the country.

She garnered a rating of 85.80 percent, besting 49,066 other examinees from various nursing schools in the country.

Alvero brought honors to her alma mater, Colegio de Sta. Lourdes of Leyte Foundation in Tabon-tabon town, Leyte, where she graduated cum laude.

She said she didn’t expect to top the board exams.

Alvero said she was watching television noontime show on Wednesday when she noticed the several missed calls on her mobile phone.

“The missed calls came from my teachers and friends. (And when I answered) their calls, they were all congratulating me for topping the board. I kept on shouting,” she said.

“I’m in total shock! I could not believe it at first when I learned that I topped the board examinations,” said Alvero, 20, in a phone interview on Wednesday night.

She attributed her success to her strong faith in God and her strong determination to succeed.

“In everything I do, I always ask God’s guidance. I have faith in God and, of course, I want to succeed in life. Mine is a roller-coaster one,” she said.

She was in Grade 4 and the youngest of nine siblings when her father, Glecerio, a jeepney driver, died.

Her mother, Adelaida, was a housewife but her eldest brother, Ashley, an engineer, shouldered her education from elementary to high school.

Alvero took the entrance examination at the Colegio de Sta. Lourdes of Leyte Foundation but she flunked. “But I persevered. I was able to enter my first year through the help of my elder sister,” she said.

Alvero said her sister Vivian Lorena also told her to study hard and get good grades because she could not promise continued support for her education until graduation.

And Alvero didn’t disappoint her family.

Although Vivian paid her tuition in first year college, she took and passed a test that enabled her to get a scholarship that partly paid her tuition. She was also given another scholarship offered by Mayor Rolando Celebre of Jaro town, her place of birth.

Her hard work paid off. She later graduated cum laude and then topped the board exams.