Khyle Sta. Iglesia: The 1st #ProudViscan FoodTech topnotcher

For months, Khyle Otero Sta. Iglesia was not where he wanted to be.

While other examinees were steadily moving through their review materials for the Professional Food Technologists Licensure Examination, the Viscan was juggling research work, thesis supervision, laboratory responsibilities, personal commitments, and the growing realization that he was falling behind.

Three months. Perhaps four.

That was how far behind he estimated himself to be.

By the time the August 2026 Professional Food Technologists Computer-Based Licensure Examination drew near, Sta. Iglesia was carrying more than a stack of review materials. He was carrying the weight of unfinished preparation, failing mock examinations, exhaustion, and the nagging question of whether he should even take the examination.

Yet, on August 17, when the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) released the results of the August 12-13 examination, his name appeared among the country’s top performers.

Khyle Otero Sta. Iglesia of Visayas State University Main Campus ranked 8th nationwide with an 88.0% rating.

The achievement came as part of an even bigger VSU milestone: the university recorded an 80.00% institutional passing rate, with 24 of its 30 examinees passing the licensure exam, including 17 first-time takers. VSU also ranked sixth nationwide among schools with 25 or more examinees and at least an 80% passing percentage.

The milestone takes on even greater significance in the relatively young history of the Food Technologist Licensure Examination (FTLE), which was first administered only in recent years, beginning around 2023. 

Since then, VSU's Department of Food Science and Technology (DFST) has steadily produced growing numbers of successful examinees, with 15 VSU passers in 2024 and 29 in 2025. In 2026, however, the department reached a distinction it had never achieved before: Sta. Iglesia became the first DFST graduate from VSU to secure a place among the examination's national Top 10.

Nationwide, 705 of 1,063 examinees passed the examination, equivalent to a 66.32% passing rate. The results were released just two working days after the examination, with Mary Julienne Acompañado of the University of the Philippines-Diliman topping the national rankings with an 89.75% rating.

But numbers alone cannot tell Khyle’s story.

His eighth-place finish is, in many ways, a story about what happens when success does not begin with perfect preparation.

It begins with persistence.

The months he thought he was not ready

Sta. Iglesia was working as a Research Assistant at the VSU Department of Food Science and Technology under project leader Dr. Ivy C. Emnace and component leaders, Dr. James A. Patindol, Dr. Eileen B. Cayetano, and Dr. Roberta D. Lauzon.

The work demanded quality outputs. At the same time, he helped students with their thesis experiments, facilitating laboratory use and supervising activities that sometimes stretched into the night.

It was meaningful work, but it came at a cost.

During  the months when he was supposed to be reviewing, exhaustion often won. 

“On most days during the months of our review, I would choose rest over studying,” he confided.

The consequence  was a review backing that seemed increasingly difficult to overcome.

His personal life added another layer to the challenge. His girlfriend, who was pursuing her master’s degree while also preparing for the same licensure examination, was experiencing the same sense of being overwhelmed.

At one point, the two even considered skipping the year’s examination altogether. 

They felt unprepared, overwhelmed, and they were running out of time.

“But with God’s grace, we decided to push through with whatever time we had left,” Sta. Iglesia recounted.

What followed was not the idealized version of board-exam preparation often associated with topnotchers. There were no months of uninterrupted studying or flawless mock-examination scores.

In fact, Sta. Iglesia said he did not pass a single mock examination from his review center, and even his practice-test scores were failing.

Instead of allowing those results to define him, he changed the way he studied.

He stopped trying to master everything in the same way and began identifying the questions he could not answer correctly. He built his remaining study time around those weaknesses and focused on learning strategies that worked for him.

And while he intensified his preparation, he refused to abandon his health.

“I knew I had to be in peak mental condition to pass the exam,” he said.

It was a rushed and imperfect preparation. 

But it was preparation nonetheless.

And sometimes, Khyle’s story reminds us, courage does not look like feeling ready.

Sometimes, it looks like showing up despite knowing you are not.

The result he never expected 

The results came late at night.

Sta. Iglesia was playing video games on his laptop, tired after work, when the notification arrived. 

It told him he had ranked 8th.

His first reaction was disbelief.

“Huh? Nagbinuang na sad ni sila.”

He checked the results himself.

There was his name.

8th place. 88.00%.

But instead of immediately celebrating, another thought came rushing in.

He felt that he did not deserve the rank.

“Other people studied harder and for far longer than I did. Why did I get this rank?” he wondered.

The question stayed with him.

Then came another realization: the achievement was never his alone.

He had prayed for it countless times, and he understood the result as an answered prayer. 

The person he wanted to celebrate with first was his girlfriend, who was already asleep. She had passed the examination, too.

So, despite receiving congratulations from many people that night, Sta. Iglesia mostly replied to his parents. He wanted to wait for his partner so they could celebrate their success together.

The following morning, they went to Dr. Emnace and the Department of Food Science and Technology to share the good news.

Then came another important part of the victory: gratitude.

Khyle made time to respond to the people who congratulated him–not because he had to, but because he wanted to acknowledge those who had taken the time to celebrate with him.

That instinct says something about the kind of professional he hopes to become.

For Sta. Iglesia, recognition is not an invitation to stand above others.

It is a reminder of the people who helped him stand.

The failure that became a lesson

If there was one setback that shaped his journey most deeply, Khyle said it was his struggle with time management. 

He allowed time to slip away.

He fell behind.

And when the deadline finally became unavoidable, he had to confront the consequences.

Yet, that same disadvantage forced him to understand himself better–not only as a person, but as a learner.

With limited time remaining, he had to discover what worked for him and optimize every hour he had.

He describes the resulting learning strategy as “optimum” although he is quick to qualify it: it was rushed and unpolished.

Still, it worked.

More importantly, it taught him something that a perfect review schedule might never have taught him: knowing how to learn is as just as important as knowing what to learn. 

That lesson will stay with him long after the examination. 

The VSU factor: Principles, people, and positivity

For Khyle, the achievement is inseparable from the education and culture that he experienced at VSU.

He credits the Department of Food Science and Technology for emphasizing the need to understand the principles behind every concept.

That foundation mattered during the licensure examination.

Rather than simply memorizing information, students were trained to understand why concepts worked–allowing them to arrive at answers even when questions were presented in unfamiliar ways.

But academic preparation was only part of it.

There were also the people.

His family, friends, partner, colleagues, and professors. Also, the Viscans who were with him at the VSU Cebu Office before the examination.

Those final days were filled with the kind of lightheartedness that helped ease the pressure.

Looking back, he remembers the Viscans as perhaps the “happiest” and “loudest group” in the testing center.

For someone carrying months of anxiety into a high-stakes examination, that positivity mattered.

“To be surrounded by such kind, positive, and supportive people truly fills my heart with gratitude,” he said.

It is also why he refuses to tell the story as though the eighth-place finish belongs to him alone.

Another achievement that makes him all the more grateful is VSU’s 80% institutional passing rate. Twenty-four #ProudViscans passed with seventeen of the lot being first-time takers. 

And together, they helped place the university sixth nationwide among schools with at least 25 examinees and an 80% passing percentage.

The national results, meanwhile, placed VSU's performance well above the 66.32% national passing rate. 

These numbers speak of institutional strength.

Khyle’s gratitude tells the story behind it. 

More than a license

Becoming a professional food technologist, for Sta. Iglesia, means more than earning the letters attached to his name.

It is proof of something he has learned repeatedly through difficulty: “Hard work doesn’t betray.”

His journey to becoming a Professional Food Technologist was anything but linear.

He did not graduate on time. He was delayed for two years after shifting to BS Food Technology and encountering challenges with his undergraduate thesis.

He struggled through college.

He fell behind in his board-exam review.

He failed mock examinations.

He doubted whether he was ready.

And yet, he persevered.

That makes his Top 8 finish more than a ranking.

It is a quiet rebuttal to the belief that success belongs only to those who get everything right from the beginning.

Khyle attests that the right environment and the right mindset can transform potential into achievement.

“Our potential is limitless; we only need the right ‘raw materials’ to become who we want to be,” he said.

The metaphor is particularly fitting for a food technologist.

Raw materials are not yet the finished product.

They require knowledge, process, care, patience, and the right condition before they can become something greater.

In much the same way, Khyle’s journey was shaped by the people and experiences that helped him become the professional that he is now.

And he intends to pay that preparation forward.

Building a food future that is Filipino

As he looks beyond the licensure examination, Khyle hopes to contribute to the scientific community through innovative and sustainable research and technology.

He also hoped to promote and study foods that make Filipinos who they are–not simply by looking at their production and processing, but by understanding their cultural significance and the science behind them.

It is a vision that places food technology at the intersection of science, sustainability, culture, and national identity.

And perhaps that is where his story ultimately leads.

The young man who once thought he was too far behind now wants to help move the field forward.

The examinee who questioned whether he deserved a ranking now hopes future Viscans will surpass it.

His message to fellow BS Food Technology students is not to measure their journeys against his.

Instead, he hopes they thrive in the degree program they have chosen, find success and support, and use their own potential to go further.

He even hopes that one day, VSU’s future Professional Food Technologists will fill the national top ranks–and that the university’s passing rate will reach 100%.

“I am looking forward to witnessing the success of my fellow Viscans,” he said.

That may be the most fitting way to understand Khyle’s eighth-place finish. 

It is not an endpoint. It is a benchmark. 

A reminder to the students still reviewing, still struggling, still questioning whether they are good enough, and still waiting for their own defining moment that being behind does not mean being defeated.

Sometimes, the path to the top is not a straight line. 

Sometimes, it passes through failure, exhaustion, doubt, delayed dreams, and a decision made at the last possible moment to keep going.  

And sometimes, when you finally look up from all the struggle, you discover that you did not merely make it. 

You made it among the best in the country.

For Khyle, the story of becoming a Professional Food Technologist was never really about being ready.

It was about choosing to continue.

And in that choice, a #ProudViscan found not only a license, but a direction: to turn the lessons of his own imperfect journey into scientific work, meaningful innovation, and a future where more Viscans can go even further.

Because if hard work does not betray, then neither should a setback be allowed to have the final word.

This article aligns with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Quality Education; SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth; SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

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