CEBU CITY - Apple Mae Opit is still on cloud nine.

The St. Theresa’s College-Cebu graduate placed second in the Social Workers Licensure Examination, with a score just 0.4 percentage points lower than topnotcher Paramisuli Sevilla Aming of the Mindanao State University in Marawi City.

• READ: MSU-Marawi City grad tops social worker licensure exam

"Gikan ko sa pobre nga pamilya. Akong mama ug papa pulos maguuma. Ako sab manguma pud ko aron makakwarta,” she said.

(I came from a very poor family. My parents are both farmers. I also work in the farm, too, for me to finance my needs in schooling.)

Opit came from a poor family living in the mountains of Barangay Guba. To help her parents finance her studies, she also worked as a farmer and experienced planting crops under the heat of the sun.

Since she was a child, Opit said she has been exposed to social work as she served as a volunteer in their barangay, assisting the needy.

Opit took up BS Social Work at the school run by the Immaculati Cordis Mariae sisters here under a scholarship program of a non-government organization.

Now a licensed social worker, Opit said she would continue to help those in need. She now works at the Bidlisiw Foundation, which looks after the welfare and protection of children.