“Project SigLakas” receives 2024 ASCEND Excellence Award for Undergraduate Project

This year’s ASCEND Excellence Award for Undergraduate Project was conferred on an outstanding group of third year AB Development Studies students composed of Paolo Joaquin M. Barro, Nica Meriel B. Gabito, Monica Isabel Jose, Pio Francisco B. Ramirez, Mary Anjannette C. Santos, Erri Mikaela G. Tan, and Neema Gabrielle E. Villarin, for their project entitled “Project SigLakas: Empowering Barangay Bagong Silangan Parents for Health Resilience and Advocacy”.

Guided by their faculty adviser, Dr. Mark Anthony D. Abenir of the Development Studies Program, their group, referred to as Team Sandigan ng Silangan, pursued this concerted effort with the Samahan ng mga Magulang sa Bagong Silangan (SMBS) in Quezon City, supported by the Educational Research and Development Assistance (ERDA) Foundation.

These remarkable students were given due recognition for their exceptional and meaningful work during “PAGHAHANDOG 2024: Pinuno ng Misyon”,  an annual awarding ceremony which was held this year on 10 June 2024 at the Leong Hall Auditorium.

Their project’s title, derived from the Filipino words "Sigla" and "Lakas", captures the very essence of their initiative — to strengthen the local community’s health literacy and capacity for self-advocacy in health-related matters. The intervention's strategy was structured into four progressive workshops, tailored to different socio-ecological levels.

At the individual level, the focus was on enhancing personal and familial health knowledge, guiding community members through the basics of health, disease prevention, and healthcare system navigation. The team-level workshop focused on first aid and basic life support skills, instrumental in immediate emergency response. At the organizational level, training was on effective communication, advocacy, and conflict management to amplify the community's voice in health discourse and decision-making processes. The community-level workshop culminates in creating a Community Health Advocacy Plan designed to translate lessons learned into actionable strategies for addressing local health issues.

Every year, the Ateneo Socio-Civic Engagement for National Development (ASCEND) Awards honors undergraduate, senior, and graduate students for projects and research work that demonstrate mastery of subject matter while engaging communities and institutions outside the Ateneo in contributing to national development. Projects are development interventions that have been implemented with observable impact while research work contributes to knowledge creation with the potential for social impact.

The ASCEND Excellence award is given to a particular project or research work that is the most outstanding at the undergraduate, senior, or graduate level and manifests in an extraordinary manner, all three of the following criteria:

1. Extraordinary mastery of subject matter and application of synthetic thinking.
2. Deep and extensive engagement with partner communities and institutions.
3. Addresses a national development concern in a strongly strategic and 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.

It is through ASCEND that the Ateneo continuously nurtures and motivates its students to be compassionate leaders and effective change-makers, keeping the spirit of "persons for and with others" alive and fostering a culture of service and leadership in the realm of national development.

Photos courtesy of the following:

• Monica Isabel Jose from The Guidon
• The recipients of the 2024 ASCEND Excellence Award for Undergraduate Project