MANILA, Philippines – When the results of the September 2025 Licensure Examination for Professional Teachers (LET) were released, one name stood out—not just for landing Top 2 nationwide, but for defying convention. Jan Kenrey D. Licayan, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Communication graduate from the University of the Philippines Cebu, was not an Education graduate. He was a unit-earner.
And yet, he made it!
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| Photo courtesy: Jan Kenrey D. Licayan/Facebook |
A unit earner may take the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) if they are a graduate of a related bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree in education or a related field and have completed at least 18 professional education units from a CHED-recognized college or university.
According to Licayan’s Facebook post, the journey to the top was anything but straightforward. The idea of taking the board exam without an Education degree initially felt like “a huge boulder to conquer.”
Still, he pressed on, guided by what he calls two sustaining forces: guidance and discernment.
Halfway through his review, life demanded more of him. He resigned from a corporate sales job, transitioned to teaching in an ESL academy, and soon after, his father suffered a stroke—an event that reshaped their family’s daily realities.
Even then, Licayan refused to quit. His days became a relentless cycle of work, caregiving, and review: rushing from the office to the review center, fighting exhaustion until late evening, then waking before dawn for self-study.
What carried him through the weeks of physical and emotional strain, was faith. He prayed not only for strength, but for direction—on what to study, how to manage time, and when to rest. Discernment, he said, reminded him of his deeper purpose: a love for learning and a desire to leave a lasting impact.
“Along with guidance, I earnestly sought ceaseless discernment, that in times of confusion and exhaustion, I may still continue to find the very purpose for which I started this undertaking in the first place,” he said.
“It was the discernment of my unquenchable thirst for learning and the desire to leave a lasting impact that made me want to pursue greater heights — altitudes I never knew I was fated to reach,” he added.
Licayan credits his success to a community that believed in him; friends who shared review materials, fellow co-reviewees who offered companionship and care, mentors at his review center who saw his potential beyond labels, and a family that stood by his ambition.
Now a Licensed Professional Teacher (LPT), Licayan sees this milestone not as an end, but a beginning. His message resonates far beyond exam halls: with prayer, preparation, and perseverance, even the steepest climb can lead to unexpected heights.
“This is only the beginning of a lifelong journey brimming with purpose and passion. And if I could make it, there’s no reason why you can’t. You only need two things: prayers and preparation, and you’re good to go,” he said.
Congratulations, Teacher Kenrey!
— Noel Ed Richards, The Summit Express