Last Saturday, January 23rd, my husband and I went to Ortigas to “verify” our entry for the said “I Can with AICA” scholarship entry. I called up the school to ask a few details prior to going there. I asked for either Mia or Maria as instructed by their email. The receptionist asked what’s the reason for my call so I said that I’m calling about the scholarship. I told her I was told in the email that I only have until 12nn of that day to confirm my entry. She did not feel the need to transfer my call to Maria or Mia and it seems that she is capable of responding to my questions so I didn’t bother. She said they are extending it till Tuesday if I am not capable of dropping by their office that day. I asked if there is a way to confirm the entry by phone, but she said that they really need to see us. I asked if its for a short course or the full diploma course and she said it is for the entire diploma course. I then asked if there are incremental fees and she said that its absolutely free.

I know that it’s a contest and that there’s absolutely no way that they will be giving everyone who signs up a scholarship, that’d be too much money to waste. So I then asked my husband to come with me and check it out, after all we might have a chance of getting a slot. So we roused our little boy from his precious slumber and brought him along with us together with our new maid.

When we got there, we were given a form to fill out, along with other people who trooped to their office that early Saturday morning. We were also asked to accomplish an essay, requiring us to tell them why we deserve the scholarship. We saw a lot of people already filling out their papers while there seems to be a discussion on the other office, where it seems that some of the school staff were explaining something to another group of people. We heard the staff talking and telling each other they were overwhelmed at the number of people who decided to show up that day.

I haven’t even finished the first 2 sentences when we were told to proceed to the other office where the “kitchen/resto” is located. We were told to sit down for a bit while they are trying to fix things up, then later on we were told to go up the mezzanine to finish up our essays. We were given bag tags as well during that time we were accomplishing the essay form. A few minutes after we were given a tour of the school, the facilities and a little info on the programs that they are running. And just so you’d know of the veracity of my claim, a fat short haired girl, mentioned that once you get admitted in the school, you will not be allowed to wear the chef’s uniform outside so they provided locker rooms and dressing rooms to allow students to change into their proper uniform. She told us as well that students are not allowed to smoke while still wearing their uniforms, a demerit is given to erring students who decide to violate the said rule.  During the time we were shown the actual kitchen where a class was being held. That fat girl said those people who were in casual clothes were lucky winners from the previous group who confirmed. She said there’s 15 people who will be included from each batch, meaning each group who comes in to confirm their entry. So at that time, my husband and I were thinking there’d be 15 from us who will be called for next week’s class.

After the tour, we were then asked to go back to the other office which looks like a small classroom. A long haired girl came in shortly, she was introduced to us as the school’s registrar. She then explained the fees and the programs. And then she mentioned how rigorous the training is going to be and finally, she slipped at saying there’s only going to be one person who will be awarded the scholarship. After a few minutes, I was unable to hold it anymore, I raised my hand and clarified what she said and what we were told by that fat short haired girl earlier on. The registrar said that that is partly true. There will be 15 who will be called from each batch, and that the next week’s training is going to be free. But from that 15, the chefs will pick just one person and then the process is repeated, like some sort of elimination until such time they get the best to award the scholarship. After explaining that, she went on and explained the fees.

I was appalled that they did not mention the fact that they are only giving away one scholarship in their ad at all. But what really made me decide to write this entry after all is the email that I got from them yesterday and this is what it said:

Dear Erlyn,

We regret to inform you that we have not received your scholarship entry verification before the communicated deadline of January 23. Due to this, we have assumed that you have lost interest in applying for the I Can with AICA Scholarship Program and have rendered your entry invalidThank you for your interest in joining the I Can with AICA Scholarship Program!

We do appreciate you joining our program and would still like to invite you to study here in AICA should you want to harness and hone your Culinary Skills and Passion. Therefore, we are pleased to inform you that we are giving you a 5% DISCOUNT to enroll in ANY COURSE OF YOUR CHOICE along with a FREE KNIFE SET and UNIFORM.

Perhaps, as the staff were overwhelmed with the number of people who showed up that day, and the chefs are busy, I guess they decided not to read all the essays they asked us to fill out and just call out the first 15 they’ve read or they probably just randomly selected 15 from the batch and throw away the rest of the essay forms that were submitted. We never should have wasted our time.

So please be warned, don’t waste your time and money to go there. They don’t read the essays anyway, if they did they would have sent a different email, at least one that should have said they received the entry in time but we did not qualify. But since they did not read it they made it appear that we did not verify our entry. If they will contest to this post I’d gladly slap them with the “I Cook” bag tag they gave us.

Don’t waste your time with the I Can with AICA Scholarship, it’s not at all worth it since the school staff did not even bothered to read our essays or at least send the correct email, just goes to say that they are not looking for the best candidate after all.