A trio of senior high school students from the Dominican School Manila brought honor to the country after emerging as among the winners of the annual AI Innovator Challenge jointly organized by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida from June 28 to July 1, 2026.
Team Earth Warriors—comprising of Grade 12 students 18-year-old Jo Justin Ong and 17-year-old Alexandra Manungay and Viktoria Binuya—impressed the competition’s panel of judges (that included executives from tech giants Google, Microsoft, and Lenovo) when they presented their AI-powered application called ‘ReSiklo,’ which utilizes AI and augmented reality to identify waste materials and applicable solutions to everyday environmental challenges like flooding, climate change, and worsening pollution.
Dominican School Manila student Alex Manungay proudly represents the Philippines as she presents ReSiklo, an ACE-powered innovation, before thousands of educators worldwide during the ISTE-ASCD Annual Conference held in Florida USA from June 28 to july 1, 2026.
Through Project ReSiklo, an app user can scan any object to determine its footprint to nature and get guidance on whether to reduce, reuse, or recycle the item. The code-powered innovation was built based on the educational principles and technology imparted to the students by the Aralinks Coding Education (ACE) developed by Phoenix Publishing House and integrated across the local partner schools’ curriculum.
Phoenix Publishing House asserts that this achievement is an affirmation of the effectiveness of ACE. “It was never intended to be just another coding program,” said Dr. Reuben Velarde, Assistant Vice President for Business Development of Non-Print and Marketing, who also developed the ACE program.
“Our goal has always been to develop learners who use coding and artificial intelligence to create meaningful solutions for their communities and contribute to humanity. Seeing our schools recognized on the global stage is a powerful affirmation of that vision,” he added.
Unlike conventional coding programs that focus primarily on programming skills, ACE integrates coding, artificial intelligence, design thinking, and real-world problem solving to help learners transform ideas into solutions with social impact.
Alexandra Manungay, Viktoria Binuya, and Jo Justin Ong showcase their ACE-powered innovation, ReSiklo.
The Dominican School Manila’s Team Earth Warriors was the lone group from the Philippines to get into the winners’ circle, out of more than 200 teams and entries coming from over 20 countries worldwide this year. Also recognized as runners-up were teams of learners from three other ACE schools: St. Louis College (La Union), Al Majd International School (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), and Makati Hope Christian School (Makati City).
ISTE CEO Richard E. Culatta (leftmost) and Phoenix Publishing House Assistant Vice President for Business Development Dr. Reuben Velarde (2nd from left) join the winners from Dominican School Manila for a photo op at the ISTE+ASCD Conference 2026 in Orlando, Florida.
The ReSiklo team of Dominican School Manila – Alexandra Manungay, Viktoria Binuya, and Jo Justin Ong — join fellow winners of the AI Innovator Challenge from the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Through the ACE Program, Phoenix Publishing House commits to further strengthening and broadening its meaningful collaboration with schools, partner educators, technology firms, and students for the continuous development of future-ready learners across the country.
