25/07/2026
📖 Retro Reads #3
This July, as we celebrate Nutrition Month, we look back on the inspiring journey of one of ADF's scholars whose dream to create a better future began with a simple hope—to overcome hunger, hardship, and hopelessness.
In A Life Transformed, Now Transforming the World, Apple Espino shares how ADF became more than a scholarship. It became a place where she learned to dream beyond her circumstances, make wise choices, and believe that change was possible.
From carefully budgeting her allowance so she could prioritize food, to earning a degree in Nutrition from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, serving as a Nutritionist-Dietitian at the Philippine General Hospital, pursuing research in public health, and now undertaking a PhD in the United Kingdom focused on food systems, Apple's journey reflects how education can transform not only one life, but the health and well-being of countless others.
As we observe Nutrition Month, her story reminds us that nutrition is more than the food on our plates. It is about opportunity, education, equity, and empowering communities to lead healthier lives.
ADF planted the seed. Apple continues to help nourish a better future.
💙 Read her story, reflect on her journey, and celebrate the many ways education and nutrition can change lives.
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As I write this piece, I am in Drill Hall Library, one of the biggest and oldest libraries in the world, if not in Europe. I am using a free-access flatscreen Core i5 computer, on my left is the university-issued core i7 HP laptop, and on my right is a Lenovo Core i5 laptop I purchased using my own money after finishing a consultancy job in the Philippines. I am surrounded by countless books, and I have my headphones on while my android phone is playing looped music of my liking. In my head are various scenarios of how I could start learning all things possible— everything within my reach.
I am being supported and paid to become the best version of myself. I’ve started to learn how to code and use various software to build something, an application maybe, or proof-of-concept models that could predict what best crops to produce 10 years from now amid climate-related stressors. What if I could design my climate resilient farm in Sapang Palay that could deliver more, using fewer resources? The ideas are endless, and I’ve just begun to embrace the possibility of making change within my power.
About 20 years ago, this was not what or where I perceived it to be. At a very young age, I could define accurately what it meant to be hungry, displaced, or hopeless. I grew up in a community in which getting married is a better escape from poverty and finishing high school is a privilege. To say that I fought my way to be here is selfish because throughout my journey, I was never alone. I was 10 when I first encountered the word “omnipotent,” and you could only associate this term with God. I remember making a case with God: If you are true and all-powerful, could you take me out of this world and bring me somewhere else? I did not ask Him to make it easy; I prayed that it would be bearable.
Assumption Development Foundation was that escape.
Getting into ADF was difficult for someone who, in all her young life, had believed that she’s not special, and that she was meant to hide her abilities from everyone. But the program is designed for anyone with a dream—and I am anyone.
In ADF, we were given various opportunities to become prepared for the world. I remember having a print-out of a computer keyboard; the tasks were to be familiar with the keys and learn how to type fast—this saves time when we finally get the opportunity to use a real keyboard or computer. We had monthly seminars, where you could spot me at the back of the row, always. I was that shy and silent girl who had created her own world. I perceived things differently, but I could say with honesty and sincerity, I absorbed all the learnings and kept them dear in my heart.
The best time in ADF would be after 5 p.m. when almost all students would start heading home. I would sneak my way to the corner of the library, look intently at the statement painted on the wall that goes like, “This is the day you make your choices, early for tomorrow.”
Then, I would close my eyes and let the meaning sink in, listen to my heartbeat and engage in silence, and let time waste away. There’s always an end to it, when I would hear footsteps, I knew exactly who owned them—the great man Father Kelly as he made rounds to check if students had left the area, and he must start closing the windows. Sometimes, I would leave the place silently using the exit door that I had left open, even before he reached my area. More frequently, I would never go unnoticed, as he would remind me to leave before it got dark, or he would engage me in a conversation like what a real parent would do.
In ADF, we were trained to be wise in spending our allowance, more to be empowered to monitor our expenses. I want to make a case that subsistence comes first. No matter how honest I could be in spending my allowance for school requirements, the basic need for food always came first. This made me more resourceful and creative in recycling and upcycling to minimize costs to save money for food or my small savings, and at the same time come up with the best project possible. Early on, ADF taught me, “When you can be trusted with a small amount or small opportunity, you can be trusted with bigger ones.” Truly, God has entrusted me with bigger opportunities, one after the other. Indeed, the choices I made early that ADF has helped me create, have paid off.
After high school, I started under the Applied Physics degree program, then eventually finished a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. While waiting for the Nutrition and Dietetics Licensure Examination, I started working as a research assistant in the same university, in the Institute of Human Nutrition and Food, and where I continued to be engaged for the next two years after successfully passing the licensure examination.
I got the opportunity to shift from public health practice to hospital dietetics, which expanded my experience and understanding of how our healthcare system works. As a Nutritionist-Dietitian at the Philippine General Hospital, our tasks involved ensuring the delivery of precise, safe, and nutritious meals possible to over a thousand paying and charity patients, and employees, and at the same time ensuring accurate nutrition management. Beyond patient care, I also managed staff, mentored student affiliates, and handled food service operations and administrative functions.
After more than three years, I wandered around—taking research jobs, doing part-time teaching opportunities, and starting a postgraduate degree. From 2017 to 2019, I spent my life in Wageningen University, the Netherlands to do a fully sponsored postgraduate degree in Nutrition and Health, with a specialization in Epidemiology and Public Health. My two years were among the life-changing moments in my life when I met wonderful individuals who helped shape my future. ADF was there as well through the help of Thom and Berthilde, a Dutch couple who are a family with ADF.
I went back to the Philippines in 2019, with all the optimism and hopes for change. However, change didn’t come as I would expect. The desire had remained, and the vision had become bigger. I got the opportunity to work as a consultant with two international organizations, and a public institute, as well as hold a position with one of the country’s Nutrition organizations.
ADF was more than an escape— through the years, it has served to be a source of hope, and one of my reasons to rethink ways on how to address societal problems recognizing that my people—our co-scholars—are at the forefront and often the “recipients” of the intergenerational cycle of poverty, inequalities, and unrealized potentials.
As I finish this piece, I am reminded of the endless possibilities within the four wonderful years ahead of me in the UK. I am part of the first cohort of PhD candidates being supported by the UK Food Systems Center for Doctoral Training. I consider myself fortunate. Imagine having been provided access to countless resources, world-class facilities, and remarkable and internationally renowned individuals in the field of science!
ADF was more than an escape, it’s every dreamer’s home. I would always remember my magical moments in ADF—the amusement in every turn through books and maps in the library, the silence and courage of imagining what could be, and the freedom to dream for myself and my family. More so, ADF believes and continues to show confidence in me that I could turn my dreams and ideas into great things that could respond to the world’s greatest needs
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