Hazel Karen Castro graduated with a degree in Psychology from the Ateneo de Manila University. During her years in the university, she has immersed herself in socially-oriented organizations which inspired her to pursue a career in the development sector.
Hazel held vital positions for Musmos, an accredited sector-based organization in the Ateneo. For two consecutive years, she was the Katipunan Area Head, mainly tasked to organize the weekly apostolate areas and coordinate with the community. During her term, she has successfully conceptualized and executed projects both for the urban poor kids Musmos caters to and their parents. She served as the President of the organization tasked to coordinate and manage all projects and provide training and organizational development through improving systems for work efficiency. Her experience in Musmos encouraged her to work for the development industry, hoping to contribute significantly in society.
Hazel is also an entrepreneur. She is an independent distributor and supplier of anti-ageing, health, and wellness technologies and machines to end-consumers and businesses such as salons and spas. Her experience in business exposed her not only to different marketing and business strategies, but also to many personality development and financial literacy trainings including one from Rich Dad Asia, Brian Biro, Raymond Aaron, and Ty Bennett to name a few. Her experience in business further honed her skills in leadership, interpersonal relations, retailing, training and mentoring, and public speaking.
Hazel’s background both in business and organizational work inspired her to finally pursue a career in the development sector and gain more experience to someday be able to fulfill her personal advocacy of changing the young Filipinos’ money blueprint.
Romeo or Meong graduated with a degree in Economics from the Ateneo de Manila University. During college, he was involved in Kaingin, an organization advocating social justice through education by providing formation seminars and member development trainings. He served as their Vice President for Formations.
He initially joined SEDPI as a program officer delivering technical and mentoring assistance to various clients all over the Philippines. He was also one of the training associates of the Ateneo Microfinance Capacity Building Program. Along with his teammates, he also conducted several researches including a research on typhoon microinsurance.
He took a short break from development work and entered the real estate industry. He worked as a project development associate in one of the largest real estate companies in the Philippines. He was responsible for the overall management of two economic housing projects in Metro Manila. During this time, he honed his skills in project management and financial analysis. He ventured into real estate research when he joined an international company as a research analyst. He was responsible for providing quarterly updates on the Philippine real estate market. As such, he was invited by various real estate companies and investment firms to provide grounded and market-based opinions on the real estate market. In his stint with Colliers, he improved his skills in research, analysis, and market forecasting.
Realizing his passion for development work, he re-joined SEDPI and was immediately involved in research activities, particularly in organizational appraisals and assessment of cooperatives. His goal is to be able to contribute to nation-building through providing capacity building in the fields of microfinance, financial literacy, and social entrepreneurship.
• Hone professional skills and strengthen interpersonal relationships of incoming junior and senior students in professional settings as applied in the context of development work
• Contribute to the achievement of social and commercial goals of social enterprises in the Philippines
Internship Design:
• Training on Leadership and Development Management will be provided
• Sessions on proper project management to attain project outputs set for the internship
• Weekly mentoring from the President and CEO
• Monthly team building sessions
• Field exposure to gain thorough understanding of development work
• Incentive scheme for attainment of internship program outputs
• Competitive allowance for the entire duration of the internship
Eligibility:
• Incoming junior or senior college student of any university
• Good academic performance on the area of internship being applied for
• Related experience such as class output or part time work to show competency in the internship program applied for
Internship Duration: May 8 to July 8, 2015
Internship Programs
There would be three teams composed of three to four team members in the internship program. The teams will be assigned specific areas of work that will be supervised throughout the internship program. The interns will participate in the design, planning, implementation and evaluation stages of project management. Relevant exposure trips will be extended to the interns to gain first hand understanding and contextualize their work in the greater scheme of development work. The three teams are the Information System Team, Graphic Design Team and Marketing and Communications Team.
THE TEAMS
Information System Team
The Information System Team will develop programs and applications, design databases, animations and websites that will enable SEDPI to improve efficiency when servicing microfinance institutions, social enterprises and social investors.
Possible Project Areas:
• Development of a website that will serve as information portal for social enterprises in the Philippines
• Development of a database management in monitoring social investments of SEDPI Development Finance
• Create simple phone apps that can be used in financial literacy
• Make SEDPI existing information system web-based
• Animations for SEDPI’s online courses
Graphic Design Design Team
The Graphic Design Team will create paraphernalia that will be used to enhance the visual aid tools of SEDPI. It will involve the design and development of comic book characters; creation of visuals to create more attractive presentations; and crafting infographics based on SEDPI research results. The team will work on the SEDPI’s branding manual to ensure consistency. Thee team will also closely coordinate with the Information System team for the development of animations and with the Marketing and Communications team to provide support in producing marketing paraphernalia.
Possible Project Areas:
• Character development for comic books on financial literacy
• Design and layout of comic books on financial literacy
• Creation of infographics based on SEDPI researches in social entrepreneurship, microfinance and financial education
Marketing and Communications Team
The marketing and communications team will be in charge of developing, planning and initial implementation of a marketing and communications plan for SEDPI.
Project Areas:
• Social media engagement
• Marketing plan for the following SEDPI products: training events; publications and consulting services
• Mount one training event on financial literacy
• Create marketing and communications plan to launch a book on financial literacy
APPLICATION PROCESS
DATE DESCRIPTION
April 12, 2015 Deadline for the submission of letter of intent and resume
April 15, 2015 Announcement of short-listed applicants
April 25, 2015 Deadline of submission of pre-internship questionnaire and sample work
April 30, 2015 Announcement of accepted interns
May 8, 2015 Start of Internship Program
Kindly use the file naming convention described below when sending letter of intent and resume. Applicants who don’t follow will not be shortlisted.
• For the Letter of intent: lastname firstname loi team (ex. garcia randolf loi information system OR garcia randlof loi graphic design OR garcia randolf loi marketing)
• For the resume: lastname firstname resume team (ex. garcia randolf resume information system OR garcia randlof resume graphic design OR garcia randolf resume marketing)
SEDPI is the premiere capacity building institution providing training, research and consulting services in the areas of microfinance, social entrepreneurship and financial literacy in the Philippines. It is composed of young and dynamic social entrepreneurs from prestigious universities.
SEDPI runs the Microfinance Capacity Building Program in partnership with the Ateneo de Manila University. It also runs the longest running Social Enterprise Business Plan competition in the Philippines with the British Council, the ‘I am a Changemaker’ program. SEDPI has trained more than 10,000 individuals on financial literacy.
Established in 2004, SEDPI worked in 23 countries worldwide reaching approximately 3,000 development organizations.
The organization is currently expanding and is looking for aproject-based program officer..
The Project-based Program Officer (PPO) post is open for six months to one year contract. Fresh graduates and those with one-year experience are encouraged to apply. The PPO will conduct various research projects and training courses of SEDPI all over the Philippines on field. The PPO’s main responsibilities include gathering data through field work, writing research reports, and assisting in the conduct of training courses.
SEDPI offers the opportunity to hold a position with development impact; be exposed to key players in the Philippine development sector; and join a successful team of young social entrepreneurs. It is looking for young and flexible individuals who are willing to be trained and are fast learners. Passion for development work and effectiveness in working in a team are given more weight than academic qualification or professional experience.
For interested individuals, kindly send your resume and application letter to info@sedpi.com.
SEDPI Development Finance, Inc. (SDFI), the financing arm of SEDPI Group of Social Enterprises, received special recognition from the First Development Social Enterprise Awards (DSEA) held on March 4, 2015 at the Kalayaan Hall, Club Filipino in the City of San Juan. DSEA aims to recognize organizations that are committed to a social objective and are multipliers of social progress through their enterprises.
PricewaterhousCoopers (PwC) Philippines or Isla Lipana & Co. (ILC) and Benita and Catalino Yap Foundation, Inc. (BCYF) team up to support social enterprises through the DSEA. PwC/ILC and BYCF seek to recognize organizations with a culture centered on human value, and that exists to create societal impact alongside an ethical and viable business model. These social enterprises include organizations that have not only demonstrated consistent success, but have shown a commitment to scale up.
There were 27 nominated organizations for the awards. Two SEDPI partners were also nominated for the awards – Solar Solutions, Inc. (SSI) and Good Food Community, Inc. (GFC). GFC was hailed as one of the five finalists for the award. SEDPI actively participated in the incubation of SSI and GFC.
Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV led the panel of judges for the selection of the awardees. He also delivered the keynote address during the awards night.
PwC is a multinational professional services network. It is the world’s second largest professional services network, as measured by 2014 revenues, and is one of the big four auditors, along with Deloitte, Ernst and Young and KPMG. ILC is the local partner of PwC in the Philippines.
The LSE Program has helped transform the lives of Overseas Filipinos. Many of our graduates have overcome the burden of debt, saved enough emergency savings and availed of adequate insurance coverage. Aside from these, the participants were also taught how to practice leadership and come up with a social enterprise plan.
The program is implemented under the Ateneo School of Government in partnership with Philippine consulates and embassies abroad, civil society organizations and SEDPI.
The LSE Program has helped transform the lives of Overseas Filipinos. Many of our graduates have overcome the burden of debt, saved enough emergency savings and availed of adequate insurance coverage. Aside from these, the participants were also taught how to practice leadership and come up with a social enterprise plan.
The program is implemented under the Ateneo School of Government in partnership with Philippine consulates and embassies abroad, civil society organizations and SEDPI.
The LSE Program has helped transform the lives of Overseas Filipinos. Many of our graduates have overcome the burden of debt, saved enough emergency savings and availed of adequate insurance coverage. Aside from these, the participants were also taught how to practice leadership and come up with a social enterprise plan.
The program is implemented under the Ateneo School of Government in partnership with Philippine consulates and embassies abroad, civil society organizations and SEDPI.
The LSE Program has helped transform the lives of Overseas Filipinos. Many of our graduates have overcome the burden of debt, saved enough emergency savings and availed of adequate insurance coverage. Aside from these, the participants were also taught how to practice leadership and come up with a social enterprise plan.
The program is implemented under the Ateneo School of Government in partnership with Philippine consulates and embassies abroad, civil society organizations and SEDPI.
