BAGUIO CITY – James Martin Ambat, an alumnus of the AB International Studies program of Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan, ranked 3rd in the recently concluded Outstanding Student Leader of the Philippines (OSLP) 2023 last 1 October 2023 held at Baguio Teacher’s Camp in Baguio City, Philippines. Organized by the Transforming Advocates and Champions Inc. (TRAC), the national search recognizes the holistic achievement of graduating/recently graduated student leaders who have shown exemplary performance in extracurricular activities, co-curricular activities, and community involvement.
Out of 135 student leaders across the country, Ambat secured the spot as one of the Top 20 finalists. The process included series of interviews and character formation session where the panel of judges is composed of Student Affairs and Services (SAS) practitioners and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) experts as external judges. Competing with the national finalists, he was recognized and awarded as part of the Top 10, ranking 3rd, at the closing ceremony of the International Convention on Student Affairs and Services.
Ambat poses with the Top 10 awardees (3rd from left)
In his advocacy video, Ambat highlighted education as his advocacy being a recipient of the Cagayan de Oro City Scholarship Program. “I am a proud city scholar, this education has changed my life, and so this led me into being an advocate for education,” he said. He championed education by having been able to legislate four bills relevant to the academic affairs at various youth parliaments.
In his time in the university, Ambat has been actively engaged in student leadership. He was a former volunteer of the Social Development (SD) Cluster and was also the previous Advocacy Division director of the Central Student Government – Office of the Vice President where their flagship program was the relaunching of the FOURward Agenda, a campaign that focused on four priority advocacies of the said office which were Economic Empowerment, Environmental Protection, Socio-cultural Welfare, and Politics and Civic Engagement. Apart from these, he was actively involved in the projects of American Corner CDO being a US Government (USG) program alumnus as one of the Philippine delegates in the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Regional Workshop: Marine Warriors last December 2022 at Nha Trang, Vietnam.
Ambat was also a recipient of the St. Francis Exemplar Award and was an AMDG Outstanding Student Leader Finalist at the 17th Magis Awards. He graduated Summa Cum Laude last July 2023 and is now a full-time faculty of the General Education and Interdisciplinary Studies Department of Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan.