Fire stove project of DS majors receives 2025 ASCEND Excellence Award

This year’s ASCEND Excellence Award for College Coursework Research was awarded to Team Kaibanan sa Kalambuan, composed of Christine Noelle Choo, Glenn Derwin Dela Torre, Emirozz Czarlene Labaria, Chae Eun Lee, Pio Francisco Ramirez, Maria Fiona Marguerite Salazar, Loraine Gabriel A Sumaylo, and Erika Celine Villanueva. Their group included five third-year and three fourth-year AB Development Studies students. They were recognized for their research titled, “Salo-SaLutuanan: A Participatory Action Research on Mobilizing GK Pangarap Village Towards Community-Driven Innovation.”

Their faculty advisers were Dr Mark Anthony D Abenir, Ms Maria Victoria F Punay, and Ms Nota F Magno. Their partner community was Gawad Kalinga Pangarap Village, in Barangay Lobogon, Del Carmen, Siargao.

Their group exemplified how co-created solutions can foster community-led innovation. The award was presented during the Ateneo Service Learning Conference (ASLC) and Ateneo Socio-Civic Engagement For National Development (ASCEND) “Beyond the Common Good, Strive for the Common Good” held on 13 June 2025 at Escaler Hall.

The initiative engaged eight AB Development Studies students in a participatory action research with Gawad Kalinga Pangarap Village residents in Barangay Lobogon, Siargao Island to co-design and test a less-smoke fire stove. Through household surveys and workshops, the team mapped cooking practices, identified health risks from smoke inhalation, and iteratively refined stove prototypes using local materials. A live demonstration and performance testing was conducted and community members devised sustainable production and cost-sharing schemes. The final innovation reduced indoor air pollution, empowered residents with production and maintenance knowledge, and offered a scalable model for community-driven health innovation.

Congratulations to the Awardees!

Watch a short video about their research:

The University recognizes students whose work makes a significant impact through the Ateneo Socio-Civic Engagement for National Development (ASCEND). This year, ASCEND honored senior high school, undergraduate, and graduate students based at the Loyola campus and the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health whose projects and research outputs demonstrated subject mastery and the capacity for synthetic thinking while meaningfully engaging communities beyond Ateneo in contributing to national development.

The ASCEND Excellence Award is given to outstanding individuals and groups of students whose project or research work demonstrates, in an extraordinary manner, all three of the following:

1. Extraordinary mastery of subject matter and application of synthetic thinking.
2. Deep and extensive engagement with partner communities and/or institutions.
3. Addresses a national development concern in a strongly strategic and/or creative manner with very significant short-term impact on target beneficiaries and/or the potential for significant longer-term impact in promoting the well-being of the greatest number.

You may access the Book of Abstracts here: https://go.ateneo.edu/2025ASLCASCENDBookofAbstracts

Photo courtesy of 2025 ASCEND Official Photos and Salo-SaLutuanan Group