Kimberleene Ordono Bolos, a resident of San Fernando City in the Philippine province of La Union, finished with top honours at the McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Bolos graduated summa cum laude in bachelor of science in nursing last June.
Bolos, 22 years old, lives in San Fernando City’s Carlatan village.
According to her aunt Cristy Ordono Zacarias, Bolos simply get a degree and pass the board exams later.
“Actually, we were kept from learning that she would graduate summa cum laude by her mother for nine hours before graduation time,” Zacarias said in an interview.
For now, Kimberleene awaits the result of her nursing board examination last July 23 and is booked for a flight on August 19 to a grand homecoming and celebration with her grandfather Ronaldo Ordono, Sr., a retired Coca Cola Company employee; grandmother Carmelita; aunt Cristy; and a younger half-brother in their home in Carlatan.
Bolos told Ordono Sr. that she will have a half-month rest in San Fernando before committing to several job offers from big hospitals in Canada when they learned about her on social media.
Bolos went to kindergarten school in Felkris School in Lingsat village in San Fernando , and later at the Saint Louis College High School, from Grade 1 to 3rd year high school, just a walking distance from their residence.
She went on to continue her high school education in Notre Dame Catholic School in Canada, where her mother, Anita Bolos, works at a nursing home for the elders in Ottawa.
“Every now and then, her mother visits her in Burlington where she stays with her aunts and uncles whose residence is near the school,” her 69-year-old grandfather, said.
Ordono Sr. added that Bolos is the product of a broken home as a result of the pressure of a long distance marriage between her father and mother, which eventually strained their relationship.
Her father Paul is also an overseas contract worker turned business man in Saudi Arabia. Despite the distance, he communicates with his daughter regularly and supported her education financially, according to Ordono Sr.
As a high school student, she became a consistent honor student and was granted scholarships.
Ordono Sr. recalled her granddaughter grew up to be an obedient, studious and consistent in her studies during her younger days.
“She’s a very obedient and understanding child, and went with a peer group that also belonged to the Top Ten (students) in class. I would regularly fetch her from school when she went to high school. She never said anything about being mocked by her classmates for having a grandfather awkwardly fetching a big girl at 17,” according to the grandfather.