KERWIN Jorbina just had the best weekend ever.
On Saturday, he got accepted to a grant in Europe for his masters in software engineering.
The next day, his team won this year's Startup Weekend Cebu (SWC) for their web service that helps students find and apply for scholarship grants.
Startup Weekend is a 54-hour competition where developers, designers, marketers, technopreneurs and venture capitalists come together to share ideas, form teams, build products and launch startup businesses.
Because of the booming IT industry in Cebu, Jorbina planned to build a startup company on his own and tested the waters by joining the local competition in 2014. However, his idea failed to make the cut then.
Lacking idea on how businesses work, Jorbina compensated this by teaching himself and meeting other people.
“Because I am an introvert, I went out of my shell to learn,” he said.
Suggestion
Last Friday, he signed up for the fifth edition of SWC held at the University of Philippines-Cebu. Participants were grouped together and pitched ideas.
Going with the familiar and knowing what's best, he suggested the idea of putting up a portal site for students who are in search of scholarships.
Given a limited time, his team slaved away with this project from Saturday and presented it on Sunday. The project, intended to create social impact, bested more than 100 participants.
Jorbina's group won P15,000 worth of startup support services from Globe.
They also got two tickets to Boracay to attend Geeks On A Beach (GOAB), an annual international summit that gathers tech entrepreneurs and top business names in the industry from all over the world.
During his interview with Sun.Star Cebu today, Jorbina hopes to launch the project in 2016 since the new school year is already in full swing.
Though he is already slated to go to Estonia in August for his scholarship, he promised he will continue working on the project.
“I will not make it as an excuse. Hopefully, we will grow and show to people that a startup company can survive in Cebu,” Jorbina said.
Asked for his advice to students on how to deal with hardships, he said, “Find your passion. Grow as a person. Develop your skills.”
Achiever
The accomplishments that Jorbina have achieved at a young age didn't come knocking at his doorstep, though. He worked his way to the top.
The 25-year-old firmware engineer learned this the hard way after his father died when he was seven.
Growing up as the youngest in the brood of three, he knew that their mother would not be able to provide them everything.
To head down the path of academic success, he threw himself into learning everything. He became a scholar from elementary to college.
All his hard work paid off when he graduated magna cum laude in computer engineering at the University of San Carlos (USC).
He worked for a year in Singapore for a software company, but came back to Cebu after getting a position at Lexmark.
Jorbina said he's not actually a 'techie.'
“I just like applying logic. Because in this field, you know how to process and analyze the system,” Jorbina explained.