Nene was born in Tagbilaran City on September 2, 1929. She started her education at the Myrna Graham Kindergarten (1935-36), at a time when pre-schools were still quite rare. She finished her elementary studies as Valedictorian. The artist’s blood has always been in Nene Borja’s veins, a bloodline that defined her future even when she was still a gangling girl. Even in music she showed special talent, for which reason she was oftentimes given the task of school pianist in many programs. She went to UP Dilliman in 1949 and enrolled in Fine Arts, at a time when the course was viewed as a man’s world. And true enough, she was the only lady in the class which included fellow Boholano Billy Abueva, who rose to become a National Artist.

She was Chairman of the UPSCA Fine Arts Chapter and was member of Phi Alpha Fine Arts Sorority-Fraternity and Sigma Beta Sorority. She graduated on top of her class (Cum Laude) in 1953 and was awarded “Art Student of the Year” by the Arts Association of the Philippines. Back in Bohol she fall in love and married Nicolas Rocha Lungay, a banker at the Development Bank of the Philippines, who became a founding member of the First Consolidated Rural Bank of Bohol (now FCB), and manager of the Catigbian Rural Bank.

For Nene, art is life; life is art. Art is the beauty of life. It is God’s gift for the mind, heart and hands. So a work of art has a quality of strength that defies explanation: it is felt rather than defined, then it endures. She managed to find time for different art groups and had also various involvements in civic and religious organizations. Mrs. Lungay founded the Udlot Youth Art Group in 1985 and has organized Udlot Summer Workshop up to the present. This is her legacy to the young artists, for she believes that any talent God given to an individual must be shared. She has produced many budding artists in the group who are now artists in their own rights.