Two Filipino student-athletes in Abu Dhabi are set to begin the coming school year with their tuition partly covered, the first recipients of a new scholarship arrangement that ties sport training to formal education funding.
Elijah Sunglao, entering Grade 2, and Alyson Doctolero, who is starting a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, will each receive a 40 percent reduction in tuition fees. Both train at TKD Oryx Sports, the Filipino-founded club also known as Oryx Taekwondo, which has positioned the discounts as the launch of a wider effort to link athletic commitment with academic access.
The funding flows from a collaboration between the club and SRK Education Group International, a Filipino-owned provider operating in Abu Dhabi and the Philippines. Under the arrangement, the scholarship reaches from basic education through to higher education. Organisers describe the model as among the first of its type in the emirate to bind taekwondo training to a structured education benefit.
Access to the program runs through a single channel. Candidates can only qualify by way of an official endorsement from Oryx Taekwondo, a condition meant to reserve the opportunity for athletes who show discipline, strong character, and a steady investment in both their training and their studies. The club frames its role as twofold: a place to develop competitors and a conduit steering young people toward schooling they might not otherwise reach.
The agreement arrives after a long stretch of groundwork. The club says it spent three years approaching educational institutions across Abu Dhabi before finding an institution willing to back the concept, and it has tied the breakthrough to its third year operating out of its own training facility.
For founder and head coach Mary Ann Lopez, the program represents the realisation of an idea she carried from the club’s earliest days, built on a conviction that young athletes could be given a route to opportunities reaching well past competition. Her work in the sport drew recognition on June 7, 2026, when the UAE Taekwondo Federation named her Ideal Coach for the 2025–2026 season, the second time she has received the honour.
The club has cast the initiative as a template it hopes others will copy, arguing that organised sport can double as a vehicle for character formation and educational advancement, and calling on other institutions across the UAE to consider similar investments in young people.
