Alex Wartecki, an undergraduate studying at Queen’s University in Ontario, knows a lot about…well, a lot. He has been president of the Debate Club, co-director of the Band and Strings Club, and a lifelong athlete in everything from taekwondo to swimming to cross-country.
“I’ve always been physically active, my parents raised me that way,” he said. As a volunteer instructor for area children, “being able to share that with a younger generation those same kinds of things I enjoyed when I was a kid is what I find rewarding.”
One thing he didn’t know as much about was his father’s job, until the opportunity came to apply for the DRI Foundation Scholarship for college undergraduates. That’s when Alex was able to connect another knowledge area – economics – with an issue his father, Matt Wartecki, deals with as an ABCP working in emergency management for the Province of Ontario.
“For the first nations communities, they deal very frequently with forest fires and floods as their seasonal events,” Matt said. “They tend to be very remote communities, so my focus in that case is ensuring that the telecommunications and infrastructure in the areas where they live remain active.”
When Alex began work on his essay, Matt suggested how economics plays a part. “I just mentioned to Alex, the preparation and advanced preparation usually cost less than response after the fact.”
“My dad touched the economic side of things – that it makes more sense fiscally to take into account vulnerable communities and have a plan beforehand, which relates to what I’m studying as well, so I found that interesting,” Alex said.
In his essay, Alex expounds on the issue:
“From an economic perspective, ensuring inclusion and equity within continuity planning is indisputably the best course of action to take. When it comes to disasters, preventative and protective measures are almost always cheaper than reactive measures. Ensuring the safety of all people before a disaster is the smartest, most economically efficient thing to do without a doubt. Take a hurricane as an example. If it is known that a strong hurricane will take place in a city and evacuation orders are issued, there will inevitably be people from lower socio-economic backgrounds without a means of transportation who are unable to evacuate. It is a far more efficient use of resources to charter buses or some other means of transportation to evacuate these people, than to have to rescue people and provide medical aid after a disaster.”
Heading back to university this fall, Alex is enthusiastic about getting further into his economics studies. “In my first year, I started off mostly focusing on general arts, since the economics program doesn’t actually start until second year. So diving deeper into economics and really focusing more on my studies in that specific topic is what I’m most looking forward to.”
The DRI Foundation wishes him the best. Click here to read Alex’s winning essay.