When Maria Luisa Aperto crossed the stage at the University of the South Pacific to receive her Bachelor of Commerce, the moment was shaped less by the ceremony than by one person in the crowd: her 78-year-old grandmother, Lusiana Vanua, who travelled from Lautoka to watch her graduate.
Aperto’s degree, in accounting and information systems, represents more than a professional qualification. She described it as a “thank-you letter” to Vanua, whom she calls her “pillar of strength”, and as a tribute to the wider family that steadied her through years of study. “She’s been with me ever since then,” Aperto said of her grandmother. “She has been like the backbone and the pillar of our family, keeping us together.”
The path to the graduation involved long nights and perseverance, Aperto said, and it was the steady encouragement from family that helped her push through exams and the pressures of university life. While the milestone was dedicated chiefly to Vanua, Aperto made clear the achievement belonged to her parents and to a late aunt whose support she remembered fondly. “She would be like the first person to congratulate me in any achievement that I had ever gotten,” Aperto said. “So, this one is to my family.”
Aperto, originally from Rotuma and brought up in Lautoka, used the occasion to urge other young women to keep faith in themselves. “Never underestimate yourself,” she told peers and younger girls. “People will throw things at you. Life will give you a lot of challenges… but you need to keep going. Keep looking at the goal.” She also stressed staying grounded and keeping family close as measures of success, saying some young women view setbacks as the end of the world when they should instead “take on the challenge.”
For Vanua, attending in person was an expression of gratitude and faith. “Firstly, I would like to thank God for his guidance and protection over my granddaughter during her university journey,” she said. Vanua singled out Maria Luisa’s respect and kindness toward her parents as a quality she hoped others would emulate, offering straightforward advice: “Learn to listen and respect your parents. It will bring you to places and make your life better.”
The scene underscores the role of intergenerational support in Pacific communities, where family presence at milestones often carries as much weight as the qualification itself. Aperto’s graduation reflects that dynamic: a personal achievement that also affirms the contributions of older family members and the sustaining power of encouragement through hardship.
This announcement brings the latest development in Aperto’s story to public attention — not only her academic success at USP but the symbolic importance of her grandmother’s presence and the family dedication behind the degree.
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