Part of a series of posts from Bachelor of Commerce student blogger, Danny Hertz, written during a Loran Scholarship outreach project in the Philippines.

While the Philippines does not have anything close to a Canadian winter, I would have to disagree with the experts who say that it does not have a “harsh climate”. The remarkable heat and humidity has given way to the rainy season, and with the rainy season comes typhoons. After joking with my co-workers for the past month that I wanted to experience one while I was in the country, my wish was granted. Typhoon Conson struck the city in a big way last Tuesday night, and it was indeed quite an experience. Winds as strong as 120 km/h came through the area and the rain seemed to be quite relentless. The combination of the two knocked out the power for 3/4 of the nation and claimed the lives of 72 people. Apparently the 3rd floor hostel that I’m living in was just the right size, and was too high to be flooded while too short to be damaged by the wind. Additionally, the bugs in the building must have realized that this was the safest floor to be on as I found a cockroach in my shower the next morning! The locals seemed much less concerned about the weather than I was, and said typhoons hit the country on average once every two weeks. While it certainly was interesting to hear and see the winds and the rains last week, I’ve now crossed it off my bucket list and am hoping to be out of the country before the next one comes along…

It’s that time of the year again and I hope that many of you had the opportunity to make it down to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for OUF 2010.

If you haven’t been, there’s still one last chance  to attend tomorrow before the end of the university fair.

I’ve just finished half of a very long weekend where the Queen’s Case Competition (QCC) just ended and OUF is just about to begin (for me)! I’m looking forward to meeting everyone and answering any questions you may have tomorrow. Be sure to come prepared with many questions so you can really get a sense of the programs you’re interested in before you make your four-year commitment. With that in mind, definitely approach all the universities you’re interested in – all the representatives are there to help you so don’t be shy, they’ll love to talk to you!

See you all very soon.

Part of a series of posts from Bachelor of Commerce student blogger, Danny Hertz, written during a Loran Scholarship outreach project in the Philippines.

A few weekends ago I made a trip to the northern part of the country to see the world heritage site of the Ifugao Rice Terraces. Dubbed by the locals as the “Eighth Wonder of the World”, these man-made structures were built thousands of years ago as a way to grow rice on the slopes of the mountains. Each terrace is about 6 feet high and 8 feet wide, and I can only imagine that it would have taken an enormous amount of work to construct and maintain.

The journey to Ifugao was perhaps one of the longest land travel trips of my life. We rode an overnight bus from Manila for 11 hours, and then hired a local “tricycle” to take us past the highway along the dirt trail, for what we thought would be the rest of the way. However, after being squished in the tricycle for an hour, we were told by our driver that he could not transport us any further because the recent rains had washed out the road and that we would need to take a hike to reach the terraces. Initially, I was quite happy about this, having spent the previous 12 hours in a vehicle. We politely asked for directions on how to get there, and our driver pointed us in the direction of what seemed to be the highest mountain in sight. He recommended that we hire a guide so that we didn’t get lost. Quite conveniently, an old man, who appeared to be about 65, walked by and offered us his services. I was initially somewhat cautious about this, and felt that due to his age he would probably slow us down more than anything, but given the lack of competing options I agreed.

After an 8 km uphill walk at a mind-boggling pace set by a local Filipino who was at least 3 times my age, we arrived at the rice terraces. Perhaps it was because of the arduous journey to get there, but the view was perhaps the most unique sight I have seen this summer, and I was thoroughly impressed.

I’d just like to welcome everyone back to the new school year. It must be an extremely exciting time for all of the new students to be here and Goodes Hall is back to being busy and bustling. It is a very exciting year for me personally, because I am in my fourth and final year! I’m also doing a few things this year that are kind of outside of my usual comfort zone, which I will elaborate on later. To all of the students who were away on exchange last winter, welcome back as well and hopefully everyone is settling in okay after a few months of being “off.” And lastly to the students who are away on exchange this year to enjoy it to the max because you’ll probably never get another experience like this!

So to elaborate on what I spoke about earlier, I am doing a few things that are outside my comfort zone this year. This includes taking part in a course called TEAM. TEAM is APSC 400, Technology, Engineering and Management, which is a fourth year course hosted by the Faculty of Applied Sciences but open to students in Commerce and Law. You may or may not know, Queen’s does not have Co-op, so TEAM in a way is somewhat like a co-op position where you will be working in industry consulting on a variety of real-life issues and applying what you learn in school to help companies solve their problems. The School of Business also has a course like this called COMM 504, but it is open to Commerce students only. So when you are in your fourth year and you feel like you want to apply your classroom knowledge to the real world, both APSC 400 and COMM 504 are great options for you to explore. The only difference between the two classes (that I can think of) is in APSC 400 you will be working in a cross-functional team with students from various faculties and backgrounds. For me personally, I feel that I really needed to get outside of the Commerce “bubble,” (I lived in the Commerce floor in first year so I wasn’t able to meet that many students outside of Commerce) which is why I chose APSC 400, so I can explore friendships and networks outside of Commerce.

Another thing that I am doing this year is I am the Teaching Assistant for COMM 376 Doing Business in the Asia Pacific Rim. I may or may not have talked about this course last fall when I was taking it, but it is definitely one of my favourite courses (not just because I am the teaching assistant, of course!). Coming from Asia, this course really helped me to link business with the culture that I am so familiar with. If you’re not from Asia or if you’re not familiar with Asian culture, this course is also a great eye-opener to learn what life is like on the other side of the globe.

If you do end up seeing me around in Goodes, please do come say hi to me. I never really know who is actually reading this blog, so by saying hi to me I know people are actually reading this and I’m not just writing to nothingness =)

Part of a series of posts from Bachelor of Commerce student blogger, Danny Hertz, written during a Loran Scholarship outreach project in the Philippines.

A significant new development in the provision of financial services to the lower income segment is broadly referred to as mobile banking. Here in the Philippines, this consists of two major initiatives that I’ve been researching: money transfers via cell phones, and bringing ATMs to the rural areas. Filipinos are some of the most active users of remittance services in the world due to the vast number of people working abroad and also the distribution of the local population across the many islands of the Philippines. To transfer money to family members who live in the rural areas or to students studying in the cities using conventional methods is quite expensive here, since businesses such as Western Union charge a commission fee of 7%-15%. Through a partnership that Seed Finance has with the main telecommunications operator in the country, members of the Seed Finance network can now send remittances electronically via text messaging for as little as 2 cents plus a commission of about 1%. The “mobile money” can then be exchanged for cash by the recipient family member at a “money in-money out” center. The result has been substantial savings and increased convenience for the microfinance users of this technology.

Secondly, a partnership between Seed Finance and an independent ATM deployer in the Philippines has been working to bring ATM machines to more remote communities. The primary market consists of pensioners and government employees, such as teachers and policemen, all of whom are paid via direct deposits to their bank accounts. Prior to the placement of an ATM in their community, these rural residents would have to travel from 45 minutes to 5 hours via bus or jeepney to the nearest bank branch to retrieve their salary or pension. When an ATM is placed in their community, they can save up to $5 (which goes a surprisingly long way here!) and a significant amount of time by using their local ATM. Innovations such as these are proving that they have the potential to be profitable, as well as allowing the companies involved to practice positive CSR techniques for the fellow countrymen and women in hard to reach areas.