8 AJHS boys inducted as Minecraft Student Ambassadors and win Earth Day Global Build Challenge

Composed of Ateneo de Manila Junior High School students Amiel Baquir (La Storta/7-Collins), Marvel Castor (La Storta/7-Claver), Gio Panlaqui (Pamplona/9-Southwell), Anton Bugaoan (La Storta/8-Cottam), Lucas Magno (La Storta/7-Corby), Josef Ansay (La Storta/7-Colombiere), Gab Macabuhay (La Storta/7-Claver), Luis Madayag (Cardoner/8-Ashley), and their coach/moderator Mr. Jason Arias, the AJHS-Gamebreakers Minecraft Team- a.k.a. “The Building Eagles”- made waves in the worldwide Minecraft community for two recent achievements!

First, all eight boys were inducted as Minecraft Student Ambassadors (MSA) during Microsoft's MSA Bootcamp, which was hosted virtually from Georgia, USA on April 13, 2022. They were among over 400 students from around the world to be inducted. 

Per the Microsoft website, the MSA program is the flagship Minecraft student leadership and training program endorsed by the Minecraft Education team. Its ambassadors are K-12 student leaders with a passion for Minecraft and a willingness to support, train, and mentor other students and teachers at their school or in their school district using Minecraft: Education Edition. 

Second, the team participated and won in the Minecraft Education Earth Day Global Build Challenge on May 16, 2022. Hosted by the Cobblestone Collective group from Canada, the challenge called on students to brainstorm an invention that would provide a better future for our climate, and construct and explain it using Minecraft: Education Edition.  

All three entries from the Ateneo JHS team were named among the winners, out of more than 100 total entries from around the world. The Ateneo entries featured a self-sustaining smart home (Baquir, Castor, Panlaqui), a sustainable village (Bugaoan, Magno), and an underwater laboratory (Ansay, Macabuhay, Madayag) to provide better care to marine life. The latter was even featured in the showcase livestream, which can be seen from 44:33 to 48:15 in this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD5bncPUhWA&t=2674s

The videos of the three winning builds may be viewed at these respective links:

Self-sustaining smart home by Baquir, Castor, & Panlaqui: https://flipgrid.com/s/Chdakyyw7o2_

Sustainable village by Bugaoan & Magno: https://flipgrid.com/s/RrzRjqjYCqjP

Underwater laboratory by Ansay, Macabuhay & Madayag:  https://flipgrid.com/s/B3KnXxQcCEmx