Huawei brings top Filipino IT students to China

MANILA, Philippines – When three IT students from the University of Cebu (main campus) won the 2015 Philippine Startup Challenge Competition organized by the Information and Communications Technology Office  of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-ICTO), they brought home an award, certificates, various prizes from sponsors, and an exposure trip to China courtesy of Huawei Philippines.

The winning entry was a mobile app that guides users at the village level how to recycle or dispose of their old phones, earphones, tablets, laptops and other gadgets. The project, called e-Basura, resonated with Huawei, which has a strong sustainability program in the Philippines focusing on electronics waste recycling.

The students – Hernie Alexis Origenes, Joesenh Nino Codera, and Dominique Kevin Macasero (now college graduates and working IT professionals) – arrived in Beijing early this month as part of this year’s delegates to Huawei’s Seeds for the Future Program, an annual undertaking that taps IT students from the country’s top schools for training at Huawei University.

A fellow winner from the same startup competition, Beau Variel Baslao of the University of Southeastern Philippines, was also a delegate. Beau’s team developed a mobile app called Gasify, which directs motorists to the nearest gas station that offers discounts.

Seven other IT students from Mapua Institute of Technology (Kurt Danielle Gonzales, Joy Mariz Abug, Princess Desiree Donato), De La Salle University (Hillary Ross Fong, Kristen Rachele Ung) and Ateneo de Manila University (Maria Rodalyn Sanchez, Verannie Alcantara) complete the team.

Wellington Liu, head of Huawei Philippines’ public affairs and communications division, says that this is the second year the Philippines has sent Filipino students to the program.

Seeds of the Future started in 2008 in Thailand as a small activity where the company selected top students for training at its training facility in Shenzhen. Today, students from more than 70 countries all over the world participate in the program annually, which has become’s Huawei’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) project.

“From the Huawei perspective, we think that education is good for the countries and an investment in the young generation of these countries is an investment for the future,” he says. “ICT Is  not only for the current generation. We believe we should focus more on the future and not just present consumers.”

Because of the success of the first Seeds of the Future Program last year, Liu says they were encouraged to broaden the search for delegates this year to include students from other parts of the country.

“The partnership with DOST-ICTO (now the Department of Information and Communications Technology) actually helped a lot in identifying suitable candidates for the program,” he says. “We hope we could further expand the program in the coming years.”

Language And Culture Immersion

When the students arrived in Beijing with Karenina Escueta-Buenafe, corporate communications manager of Huawei Philippines, the first activities were not about IT or computing but on language and culture immersion.

The first three days were spent touring Beijing’s cultural landmarks – the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Then they spent a week at Beijing Languages and Culture University in the Haidian District  to take Chinese language, calligraphy and painting classes before heading to Shenzhen.

“It reminds us of our grade school Mandarin lessons. It’s like a refresher,” said Hillary and Kirsten, who both attended Chinese schools in Manila before going to college. The other students were only too happy to try the lessons, which is a big departure from technology classes.

The rest of their free time were spent experiencing life in Beijing – its malls, its streets, its subway, its food and great bargains.

Liu says there are no strings attached to the grant. The students can choose the company and their own career paths once they graduate.

“They are not required to work for us. Of course, we will welcome them if they choose us, but what we really want to do is to give them an opportunity to learn more about technology and more of the world,” he said.

Kurt, who is done with his academic subjects in school, says he will take his internship at Huawei Philippines when he returns from the trip. He says he wants to specialize in data science after graduation. The others are still taking classes but also have very definite career plans after graduation.

Hernie, Joesenh and Dominique, meanwhile, reveal that they still have plans to develop their e-Basura app, which is on hold right now as all of them are busy with their first jobs.

“We are still young and we have a lot to learn,” Dominique shared. “We actually find it difficult to talk to convince people, especially company executives and government officials, to support our app or partner with us because we still don’t have much experience professionally. So maybe, we should gain more experience and build our credentials first.”

Hernie insists that they are not giving up on the startup dream. “We will definitely pursue it. This trip and training are going to help us a lot in developing the app and our business model as well,” he said.

The students’ trip coincided with President Rodrigo Duterte’s trip to China and they were part of the Filipino community that met and welcomed the President at the Grand Hyatt Ballroom.

“This is the 15th year of Huawei in the Philippines and we are looking forward to the continued economic growth and prosperity of this country. For the past several years, the Philippines has achieved very high-speed growth, so we are optimistic in the next few years we could achieve more,” Liu said.