ERDAguyod group receives 2025 ASCEND Excellence Award

This year’s ASCEND Excellence Award for College Coursework Junior Project was given to Team ERDAguyod, composed of Reynelle Herence Ma-ao, Johanna Templo, Christiana Jasmine Medrana, Ma. Kinah Zildjian Montesa, Jeanette Elaine Tolosa, Gabriel Joseph Verona, and Erika Celine Villanueva. Their group included one fourth-year and six third-year AB Development Studies students. They were awarded for their research entitled, “Rise Up for Catch-Up: Building a Self-Sustaining Tutoring Community of the ERDA-SaBaNa Youth in Tondo”.

Their faculty adviser was Dr. Mark Anthony D. Abenir, and their formator was Mr. Jose Emmanuel O. Patrimonio. Their partner community was ERDA Foundation, Inc., particularly SaBaNa Center, Tondo, in Manila City.

Their group was commended for their outstanding dedication to community education. 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 project united seven AB Development Studies students with ERDA Foundation Inc. (SaBaNa Center) in Tondo, Manila. To address learning gaps faced by young children, the partnership aimed to revive ERDA SaBaNa’s dormant tutoring initiative called Catch-Up Sessions, through needs assessments, training workshops, and mock teaching simulations to empower youth volunteers to become Junior Educators. The project’s participatory methods, instructional design models, and continuous monitoring led to steady attendance, high satisfaction, and improved teaching capacities among participants. The project integrated community insights and evaluation strategies–producing a replicable and sustainable framework that advances local educational capabilities, civic engagement, and equitable learning in marginalized communities.

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://tinyurl.com/2025ASLCASCENDBookofAbstracts

Photo courtesy of the 2025 ASCEND Official Photos and the Rise Up for Catch-Up Group