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ALUMNI WATCH: Alyana Abellar, Esq.

JAN 19

Alyana Abellar

Alyana Abellar, Esq.

Salutatorian, Batch 2010

OBMC–Greenhills

What do you do when you receive the best gift two days before Christmas? You post a shoutout to family and friends via Facebook and/or Instagram! This was what Alyana Abellar did to share her joy in starting 2022 with a new position as Assistant State’s Attorney for Kane County, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.

“I got the call from the elected state attorney who offered me the job two days before Christmas and it was the best Christmas gift I’ve ever had. I did have another offer from a different private firm but I’ve always wanted to work in the public interest sector and this is the first opportunity I’ve received since I finished law school, so I accepted the offer. It’s been a dream ever since. I definitely think that I’m in a better position now to enforce justice.”

Alyana finished her bachelor of arts degree in English Studies at UP Diliman before moving permanently to the US in 2015. While working as a paralegal in a family-owned law firm, she proceeded with her graduate studies at Michigan State University. She graduated from Michigan Law with a juris doctor degree as magna cum laude in 2019.

“Rest if you must, but don’t you quit,” was the line that kept Alyana going during tough times. “I memorized the poem Don’t Quit [by American poet John Greeleaf Whittier] while I was in OBMC as part of our training to be CAT officers. Throughout the years, I would always end up repeating the poem to myself when things got hard. OBMC taught me that hard work pays off, that sometimes you don’t get what you want right away, but as long as you don’t quit, you’ll achieve even more than you could ever imagine.”

Congratulations on your success, Alyana! Your life is proving that the values you learned at OBMC have equipped you to achieve your goal of making the world a little more just.