At 22, Tobi Leung is Ateneo’s 2025 valedictorian – a summa cum laude in Applied Math, champion debater, and soon, an LSE grad student. But he’s something rarer: honest, reflective, self-aware. And he’s from Baguio.
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His journey is one shaped by humility, empathy, and the wisdom of a Cordilleran upbringing – a narrative offering insight for youth, parents, educators, and policymakers asking: What kind of graduates does the country truly need?“My friends joke that growing up in Baguio was an unfair advantage because it gave me strong calves,” he laughs.
What drove Tobi wasn’t pressure, but presence – the quiet assurance that someone back home was rooting for him no matter what. “The campus has improved massively since I graduated, and I’m glad future generations won’t have to struggle the way we did…. A student from the provinces shouldn’t have to work 10 times harder just to earn their place in the classroom,” Tobi says.
Outside the classroom, Tobi made waves in debating, becoming second best speaker at the World Universities Debating Championship in 2023. But debating taught him more than argumentation – it taught him to listen.
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