Farmer's daughter is nursing board topper

BAKUN, Benguet -- The topnotcher in the latest nursing board exams is the daughter of a farmer in this remote town, and with her feat, life looks rosy to the family.

Jovie Ann Decoyna, 24, may soon find a job abroad but for now, that is not yet in her mind, she wants her mom, a domestic worker in Taiwan to come home.

Decoyna’s father tenders their farm producing native rice and highland vegetables, while her mother had been a domestic helper for 15 years now.

“Life in the farm is really hard, and this has been one of my motivations to strive harder in my field of education,” she said. “I still do not know what opportunities are install for me in the near future, but if given the chance I want to spend time with my family than going abroad to work.”

Decoyna, a student of the Baguio Central University and Mind Movers Review Center garnered an average of 89% earning her the top spot in the licensure examinations.

She has been a consistent honor student during her elementary and high school years, graduating from the Bakun Elementary School and the Bakun National High School respectively.

Before entering the nursing course, she graduated in 2005 with the degree of Bachelors in Science in Biology at the Saint Louis University.

Mia Jacalne, Vice President for Marketing of the Mind Movers Review Center described Decoyna as a diligent and persistent student.

“She always had been one of our bets to top the board examinations,” Jacalne said,

According to Jacalne, they really were surprised at the same time happy that she landed as number one. “We never expected that she would get the top spot.”

Decoyna is part of the first batch of nursing review graduates from the review center which started to operate June 2008. – Larry Madarang