LINGAYEN—How would anyone know if a person is, indeed, an achiever? She picks up medals, trophies, achievement ribbons and plaques where she could.

Try counting 200 pieces of these with her name on them.

Such was the case of 16-year-old April Christelle De Leon, a student from this town who collected more than 200 medals for her academic achievements from elementary to high school.

The irony of it all was she wasn’t aware how far she had gone until she was asked to bring out the contents of a box inside her room that contained her precious things before she migrated to the United States of America last week.

April Christelle De Leon with her medals, trophies, plaques she hauled for academic excellence.

In her Facebook page that featured her medals, trophies, ribbons, plaques for the first time on May 28, April Christelle wrote, “These memories will forever be treasured and will always be with me wherever I go. Goodbye, Lingayen, Pangasinan”.

She enplaned to Chicago on May 29 with her father. Her mom and her only sibling went ahead of them a month earlier. She would continue her studies in senior high school in Chicago.

In an interview with The PUNCH Thursday over a Messenger call she recalled how and what she won from different academic competitions, among them as ‘Most Outstanding Campus Journalist in the Nationals Schools Press Conference’, ‘Most Outstanding Student’ given by San Miguel Corporation, Leadership Awards, ‘Miss United Nations’, ‘Lakambini ng Wika,’ Math and Science Quizbees, among others.

“I did not expect the number of my medals has reached 200 because they were just kept inside a box,” she said.

“It was my first time to bring them all out like this,” she said. It was her aunt who counted a total 197 medals, excluding ribbons, plaques and trophies.

“Each one of those medals is very precious to me but I think the most special is the recent one I got which was the highest honors in school when I graduated because I did not expect it,” April said.

A consistent top 1 in her Grade School, April posted an average grade of 98 as Junior High School completer at the Pangasinan National High School (PNHS), the first to attain such average in the school.

She added that her award in Creative Writing (Malikhaing Pagsusulat) in the National Festival of Talents competition was also meaningful because she is not as proficient in Filipino as she is in English.

De Leon, was the editor-in-chief of two multi-awarded school papers in Pangasinan: The Gulf View of the PNHS and The Sea Breeze of her elementary school alma mater.

“But all mean a lot to me because I worked hard for them,” she said.

She had her first medal when she was in Grade 1 when she competed in Mathematics quiz and that was also unexpected, according to her. She studied in Lingayen 1 Elementary School.

She said her father, Engr. Bobby de Leon, a businessman, was her coach in Math and English. Her mom, Maria Luz, is a dentist. Her only brother, Vic Howard’s ‘Good luck’ bid each time served as her lucky charm.

April is the second of two siblings.

But not all was rosy and glory for her as she also lost in some contests. But it was her parents, especially her dad, who kept on pushing her, believing in her capabilities to achieve success and was always there “to cushion the impact every time I fall”.

“I am thankful to the Lord because all my hardships and failures paid off,” April said. “It is even more worth savoring these because of the losses I had,” she added.

April advised young people like her “not to lose hope and not to compare themselves to others because our real competitor is ourselves.”

She said she is thankful to be told that she serves as inspiration to the youth.

Now that she is abroad, April said she feels pressured to excel by maintaining the good record she had here.  “I’ll just do my best,” she said confidently with a girlish laugh. (Eva Visperas)

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