Romnick Blanco
Romnick L. Blanco, a farmer’s child/indigent scholar of GreenEarth Heritage Foundation, International School Manila (Class of 2017), and Harvard University (Class of 2023) embodies an extraordinary story of hope, determination, and transformation.
Born into a family of farmers as the seventh of nine sons, Romnick grew up in a small municipality in the northern foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountain range. Despite the challenges of his social milieu, Romnick from an early age recognized the importance of education. His daily journey to school involved agonizing long walks on unpaved roads and a perilous crossing through a bridgeless river, all driven by his dream of a better life through education.
Romnick’s story is nothing short of a modern-day retelling of the classic David and Goliath tale. Coming from a community plagued by hopelessness and despair due to lack of resources and opportunities, he now knows that hope and a better life are possible. His journey from a small rural town to the halls of Harvard University is nothing short of miraculous. “This amazing blessing that I have received will be looked upon by many as an achievement, but if I were to be very honest, I truthfully believe that what happened to me was nothing short of a miracle,” he says.
In 2011, Romnick became a sponsored child of GreenEarth Heritage Foundation. He received a monthly subsidy to assist with school costs and had access to free English and computer literacy classes at the foundation’s Learning Center. His dedication to learning soon made him the top English student among the farmers’ children. Recognizing his potential, GreenEarth helped him compete for a five-year scholarship at the International School Manila (ISM), where he excelled.
Fast forward to 2017, with the help of GreenEarth, Romnick’s achievements culminated in his acceptance to Harvard University, along with other full-ride scholarship offers from three other prestigious universities from around the world. He chose Harvard for its motto, “Veritas: I will go where truth leads me.” After graduating from Harvard in 2023, Romnick is now a Digital Media Post-Baccalaureate Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, where he works in the Director’s Office to develop content for Dumbarton Oaks’ social media feeds and assisting with photography, video, and social media projects that showcase the institution’s diverse and unique art collections as well as historic gardens.
While working as a fellow, Rom was given a full tuition scholarship by Dumbarton Oaks to enroll in Harvard Business School’s online CORe Program, where his objective is to increase his fluency in the language of business, through Financial Accounting, Business Analytics and Economics for Managers. He just passed a very tough semester in aforementioned subjects and is now studying more courses online in Finance and Capital Markets. He just got accepted at a multi-awarded boutique M&A firm, Fortman Cline Capital Markets to serve as their Investment Banking Intern in October of 2024.
Reflecting on his journey, Romnick is humbled by the privilege of earning a degree from one of the finest universities in the world. “But you know what? At the end of the day, it is not about me. It is about the movement that brought me to where I am today,” he says. GreenEarth Heritage Foundation’s mission is revolutionary. It aims to restore the natural order, provide sustainable livelihoods, and ensure that farmers’ children receive quality education.
Romnick’s story should not end with him; he hopes it will inspire a greater movement that benefits many more. He plans to launch a project advocating for better education for the rural poor and hopes to share more details once it is fully developed.
Meanwhile, Rom and GreenEarth have secured intellectual property rights for his advocacy project. It is called “Aklatan sa Kagubatan” it will be a state-of-the-art LEED-certified library in the woodlands to serve rural poor communities, with reading rooms for all ages, computer literacy labs, an audio visual room, outdoor reading areas, a sunken garden for programs in dance, poetry, drama, and other performing arts, indoor and outdoor art galleries, to name a few. All described will be landscape architecturally designed to have a live forest ambience. The trees will all be indigenous trees of the Philippines, most especially the SIerra Madre Mountains, where the location is.