Capacity Building

I just got confirmation that I will be headed back to Manila on Monday to begin work with the Disaster Relief project with the NDCC (the Philippine equivalent to FEMA). The timing is not a surprise but since it took a while to get the specific date finalized I wasn't sure if today would really be my last day working at St. La Salle University.

My last day with the client was a good one. I gave my third training session to the faculty and IT support team: two different Project Management sessions and one on IT standards (based on ITIL). Each presentation was a couple hours long, so much of my available time away from the campus over the past couple weeks has been spent preparing materials. The objective of the sessions has been to provide material they can use in their courses next year and share best practices they can implement in their on-campus IT support.



The primary objective of our Corporate Service Corps program is to build the local capacity, so training of the faculty aligns well with our mission. We're also sharing IT trends in the market to help with their future curriculum, performing an IT assessment and sharing some business planning recommendations. It has been a real pleasure working with the leaders of the University: their hospitality has been amazing and they are always very appreciative of the work we're performing. As I left the office they gave me a model Jeepeny and a rain stick--very cool. Finally, this evening Kooks and Shiegfred took Jaydip and I to dinner at a fun restaurant on the coast. I will miss working with these guys.



Tomorrow at 5am our team is heading a few hours south to enjoy the weekend at a beach resort. I'm sure we'll have a blast and since this may be the last time I'm with the team I will be making the most of my time.