Summer Research - for a Postbac and International student.

I am looking for a summer research position that pays so I can save up money to buy airplane ticket and come back home for a week or two during the summer. Searching for one is exciting yet challenging. During January, I browsed hundreds of summer research websites to pulled out several ones that may be open to me, as a Postbac Premed student and an international student. The Postbac premed program is not yet popular and most of programs do not know how to approach such a profile. Should I be considered as an undergrad premed student?

I missed the critical timing for research opportunities, I vividly realize. If I were a first, second or third year student and an American student, there would be 300 times more of opportunites open to me!

I am still hearing from several more places. So far, I've got couple rejections already. It was quite disappointing! Lets just keep hopes. I just need one of them, and the Siteman Cancer position that I want most still remains unrevealed, which to me, means hope.

I don't like to brag but that would hinder me from showing my full capability. I learn a lesson from the interview with CRSTI. Next time, I would practice mock interviews more with friends, thoroughly investigate what they are looking for to express my qualities and experiences regarding to that. I would be aware of the questions: "So what can we get from you?", "What is the disappointing/ affirming moment of research?" Each application or interview helps me to self-discover, self-examining which prepare me with a step closer to the goal of getting into medical school. Of course, I would be happier if I can get a position confirmed. However, if it does not bear fruit, the whole searching/ applying process with help from friends is not at all in vain. I obviously learned.

By the way, fingers crossed for more decisions on their way. Fingers crossed!

P/S: I am drinking Chai tea that Sai made for me. I love the taste. Sai said that she would give everyone a gift before she leaves, a gift that reminds each person about Sai. Tonight, I will cook some noodle for the Potluck at Promita's place. Chris is studying across from my seat. I am studying at Becker library. It's Spring Break, I am taking care of Allison's kitten when she is back to New York and Fannie may come this week to join me soon. :D

An interview.

20 mins before the Bio Lab class, my mind is still in the moment of 2 hrs before.
I was meeting with a client today. He's a Law Student here at Wash U and he is looking for a caregiver. I make a perfect fit for the position.
He asks me if I have any experiences doing this type of job. I reply with respect and honest that I babysat before but I have never taken care of people with disabilities.

He, after all, is physically challenged. However, he is the most impressive person I have met for a long time. There is such an overwhelmed inspiration around him. He reminds me not about how harsh life could be, but about how he himself beats it in an extraordinary way.

I visited his website and knew that he is from University of Illinois - Urbana, Champaign. I bet everyone there knows him since he is the class of 2010 representative speaker. This is some favorite lines in his speech:

You may be familiar with the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box. As the story goes, Pandora opened this box that contained all the ills, evils, and sufferings of mankind. Pandora closed the box, but not fast enough to keep these plagues from escaping. All seemed to be lost until it was discovered that one small thing remained. And that…was Hope. Fortunately, Hope isn't such a small and powerless thing after all. It is, perhaps, the most important, empowering, and transforming thing in all the world.

As Dean Gallagher mentioned, I worked for that Obama character. He’s also a big believer in Hope and I’d like to share something with you that he is fond of saying:

“Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of Hope! In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.”

Class starts soon. Better run now. :)

Health care Bill

According to the newest Wall Street Journal copy issued on October 30, 2009, the health bill, “milestone” in the US legislation has already been approved. However, the decision has not yet put an end to arguments taken for months; instead concerns about the new program’s effectiveness remains between people familiar with the topic. Wall Street Journal has covered various opinions by professionals about how the new program would affect private insurers, doctors, hospitals, drug companies, and medical suppliers on copies issued from Oct 27 – 29, 2009 when revealing not much about consumers’ views on the topic and whether consumers are happy with the public plan.

The new bill clearly declares that “Employers must provide health-insurance coverage or pay fine of 8% of payroll (for those with payroll greater than $750,000)” which predicts a big drop in profit for businesses as they have to pay more to cover health care for their employees. In order to enforce this new bill, the government plans to set aside $894 billion over a decade resulting in higher taxes to firms and significant spending cuts to Medicare. Business Round Table, currently representing 10 million employees and providing health care to more than 35 million Americans, emphasizes higher taxes discourage businesses and job creation which simultaneously put firms at disadvantageous position when competing at the international market. This discouragement in domestic market may drive firms to outsource and seek for opportunities oversea. According to the article “Political Uncertainty puts freeze on small businesses” on Oct 27, the fact that firm lay off more employees due to its anticipation of potential higher taxes from healthcare overhaul would impede economy recovery post- recession.

So far, the new public plan embraces no support but from the government and consumers. Big Business Groups are against it because of higher taxes and increase in national debts. Small business groups believe that the public option is unnecessary to spur competition. Insurance companies complain the new bill is going to drive them out of business as the government is such a “big rival”. Doctors and hospitals have to undergo a negotiation about payment rates which are lower than private insurers pay them and suffer 21% cut to Medicare payments. However, the motives of the new plan is encouraging as it is expected to lower costs of medical service and” It would leave 96% of legal U.S. residents with health insurance by 2019, up from 83% today”. Moreover, the public plan is necessary to prevent escalating health care cost as Business Round Table estimates in the next decade, the employer have to pay nearly $29,000 for each employee’s coverage compared to $11,000 today if there is no health care overhaul by the government. All in all, the public plan is necessary but it may carry finance risks and hurt the economy if not handled carefully.


Reference:
1. Ademy, Janet. “House Leaders Unveil health bill”, Oct 30, 2009. Wall Street Journal.
2. Ademy, Janet. “Business Groups push hard against the Senate bill.” Oct 29, 2009. Wall Street Journal.

The difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something

I am at Seymour Library, and I visited Microsoft's Research's website to see what projects these programmers are working on. Following the introduction video of the Project Tuva and Bill Gates' suggestion, I am curious to know more about Professor Feynman. Fortunately, there is a series of videos on YouTube about his thoughts, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out and on Microsoft Research Website about his physics lecture.



This reminded me of what was in my mind after dinner talking with Miguel tonight. I realize that I actually learned a lot from My Business and Society class. The knowledge from the class is not just general assumption say, corporation should address community responsibility because it helps the corporation to avoid potential public critics. By addressing the case study of IKEA, I know more about how SPECIFIC solution is.
I like professor Spittell because he has strongly impact my life. I do believe he has taught me how to think, encouraged me to get involved, paving the way for my curiosity to grow.

Happy 5th B'day, Firefox!

Photo at Firefox's website: 5 Years of Firefox Cake at the Firefox Developer day in Tokyo, Japan



Yesterday (Nov 9) was Firefox's 5th Birthday.

First let me introduce features of Firefox 3.5 (the fastest Firefox ever more than twice as fast as Firefox 3) developed by Mozilla.
All its updated features are explained on the company's website or we can take a quick glance at its new features on Youtube,



And Google Chrome, introduced in September 2008.



The rise of the modern browsers -Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome- has surpassed the world's most popular browser - IE over the last 5 years.
According to Hack.Mozilla.org, "It’s also worth noting that Gecko and Firefox are unique in this space. The highly modular nature of Gecko mixed with the fact that Firefox itself is written in HTML and XUL (another UI-focused markup language) means that it’s the only browser that’s hackable like the web is. Every other browser is built as a monolithic desktop application from the last millennium. This natural advantage not only means that Firefox has the widest array of add-ons and developers, but is also a source of inspiration for most of the rest of the market."

Firefox builds a browser for mobile devices:


Technology is heading for data, privacy and identity when there are more and more people interact with the Internet, share information and write their own web programming on an open browser like Firefox.
When I was in Tokyo last year, I took the class - the International Roles of Japanese business and we have a guest speaker from big companies for Japan every class day. The Docomo, Japan's premier provider of leading-edge mobile voice, data and multimedia services with 54 million customers in Japan, talks about its plan of emerging advanced features for the next generation of cell phones. Cell phones in the next 5 years can be used as a commuting pass, passport, credit cards, etc.

Firefox has done a good job over the last 5 years, made dramatic changes in the Internet sector. I believe it is gonna make another miracle in the next 5 years.

P.S. It's also note-worthy to take a look at Microsoft's article, Imagining what Comes Next.

$2 for Children

This is an Fund raising event I create at Knox. I posted the detail on Facebook.

$2 for children.

If we all chip in we can really make a difference.

Start Time: Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 12:00pm
End Time: Friday, November 6, 2009 at 2:00pm

To create a better life for the children of Sapa, Vietnam.

There will be a table set up for donation outside Oak Room during lunchtime the week of the event. Please pass by with $2 ready if you wanna help.

If you are not at Knox, you can still contribute by using either of these links:

http://www.firstgiving.com/sapa_mission

http://www.redemptoristsdenver.org/


Below is some basic information about the program.
------------------------------

Local children of Sapa, Vietnam has been suffering lack of health care, compulsory quality education. These children do not have warm clothes to wear during winter. They rarely go to school as they have to help their families to earn living by selling items to tourists. They do not have access to clean water and basic health care.The program Sapa Mission started from Summer 2009 to create a better life for these children.



This is what Sapa Mission has achieved since Summer 2009 til now:

Water Treatment Project:

Currently, there is no water filtration/purification system within the Hoa Toa Village. This results in illnesses to the children and villagers. They currently use the mountain streams and one spring where they attach a plastic water bottle and a hose to bring water to the village. They also capture rain water to be used for irrigation and washing dishes. The goal is to build a water treatment building that will also include 12 shower stalls for the villager’s. The foundation has been built for the water purification building and we are waiting on the appropriate government paperwork to begin building the system. Miles Steele, a civil engineer, visited the village this August with Vicki Thompson. Miles is currently designing the water purification project and is working closely with Father Nghia to plan the next steps for this project.



Hope Center I

The Hope Center I is up and running. This building was built by the villagers under Father Nghia’s leadership and training. They are now competent construction workers and are able to be hired by other projects in the town of Sapa. The Hope Center houses the tailor school project mentioned above, along with a kitchen, the beginning of a library and the medical supplies. Father Nghia hopes to expand this to include a learning center with computers, library and a medical clinic.


Hope Center II

The land has been purchased (around the corner from the Hope Center I) for the Hope Center II. With the help and encouragement of Vicki Thompson, the LWF team provided the funds to purchase this land and Father Nghia finalized the purchase just this week!! Father Nghia’s vision for the Hope Center II includes a community center for the many mountain villages to gather together in order to share the word of God and have fellowship together. It will be a gathering place for the different denominations among the villages. It will be a place for community meetings and gatherings for various purposes, such as, adult education classes, bible studies and social gatherings.


Some photos taken:

http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=fundraising&w=21377624%40N02


Another way to donate:

http://www.firstgiving.com/sapa_mission

http://www.redemptoristsdenver.org/


Sponsored by:

CSsR Apostolic Center San Antonio (of the Redemptorists of the Denver Province)
[http://www.redemptoristsdenver.org/]

Leadership Worth Following
[http://www.worthyleadership.com/]



Contact Information:

Hue Le

Address: Knox College K-1036,

2 Eastsouth St., Galesburg, IL-61401

Phone number: 309-335-3927

Email: hle@knox.edu



Vicki Thompson

Phone number: 817-707-5861

Email: vtthompson@gmail.com



Father Nghia Cao

Address: Redemptorist/San Antonio/Sapa Mission

1617 Iowa Street San Antonio, TX 7803

Work Phone: 210-534-4351

E-Mail address: nghiacssr@hotmail.com

Case Study of IKEA with Indian Rugs and Child Labor

IKEA is a Swedish company producing home furnishing products at low prices to make them affordable to people. The company was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad and kept growing tremendously from 2 stores in 1964 to 114 stores in 1994 to 231 stores in 2007 in 24 countries welcoming a total of 522 million visitors. IKEA‘s success story is the result of its founders opening store in 1951 to allow customers to inspect products before buying them, using a catalog to tempt people to visit an exhibition. Its key feature of providing self-assembled furniture starting from 1953 significantly cut transport and storage costs.

Besides its success stories, the company has faced environmental and social issues. The environmental issue in the early 1980s was raised as IKEA products were proved to emit more Formaldehyde than was allowed by legislation. The reason is that most of its suppliers bought from subsuppliers, who collected materials from glue manufacturers. Afterward, the company worked directly with glue companies and reduced the formaldehyde off-gassing in its products. The problem was solved but sales dropped by 20% in Denmark. In 1992, the company hit the same issue, which cost IKEA $6 million to $7 million. IKEA learned a lesson; publicity can bring a great loss in sales, not counting the damage to the brand image.

In regard to social issues, the company confronted the child labor problem, which this paper mainly discusses about. In 1994, a Swedish television showed a documentary film about children working in Pakistan, targeting IKEA. In India, IKEA faced criticism about child labor from various international organizations. In the spring of 1995, another film is threaten to be shown on German television about children working at looms at Rangan Exports, a company used by IKEA and the producer then invited IKEA to send someone to take part in a live discussion during the airing of the program. These events urged the company to consider environmental and social issues more seriously.


Environmental and Social Issues: Cost of Globalization

On the process of globalization, IKEA needs to get the cheapest supplies and therefore go to countries that offer cheap labor. However, these developing countries such as India, Pakistan and Nepal are facing a lot of social issues about human rights. When IKEA set its foot in these countries, it could not avoid these problems. For example in India, estimates of child labor in India vary from the government’s 1991 census figure of 11.3 million children under 15 working to Human Rights Watch’s estimate of between 60 million and 115 millions child laborers and about 200,000 were employed in the carpet industry. Its corporate strategy style partly exacerbates, instead of helps the situation. The fact that IKEA does not have its own manufacturing facilities; instead it uses subcontracted manufacturers all over the world for supplies makes it more complex and difficult to keep track of the company’s suppliers and subsuppliers. It is even more difficult to keep track of children working in homes where whole families worked on looms from the subsuppliers’ level. However, on the positive side, this corporate strategy gives IKEA’s the advantage of being able to change its suppliers without much cost.

IKEA realizes the challenge and questions itself how deeply the company wants to engage and to help eliminate local social issues of child labor. At the initial period, the way that IKEA dealt with Formaldehyde and forestry issues showed its engagement in social responsibility still remained at the reactive step but not yet at the proactive step or interactive step. This inadequate engagement explains why the company keeps undergoing social and environmental issues pushed by the public. IKEA is outstanding at new ideas for marketing but the company is still passive in social responsibility action. To fix this weakness, IKEA needs to be more aware of social responsibility and potential upcoming social issues.


Public issues: Big threat

The best strategy is to avoid social and environmental issues right from the beginning as when these issues emerge, they immediately affect the products’ sales tremendously. In the case of the Formaldehyde problem, the company’s sales dropped by 20% in Denmark. Moreover, those issues lead to a big damage to brand image. IKEA’s main tactic is to reduce cost between IKEA and its customers to offer the lowest possible price. In the case the company confronts child labor issue and customers perceive that the low price they benefit is by child labor exploitation in India, customers will react by avoiding products from IKEA which results in a drop in sales.

To avoid this threat of loss in profit, IKEA may consider withdrawing from India. However, if IKEA withdraws from India market, it will restrain itself from a big opportunity of cheap labor and put the company at disadvantage position as other competitors like Wal-Mart is accessing the same opportunities to compete for lower product prices. IKEA therefore should not look for a new business opportunity by withdrawing from India but keep up with the trend and get ahead of the issue and its rivals. Some people may argue that if the company is actively involved with the issue, it may undergo a drop in profit compared to its competitors. The threat may hold true in the short run. However, IKEA can turn the threat into an opportunity in the long run by actively involving and publicizing its achievement to let customers appreciate the effort. Afterward, IKEA will soon be better off, with better profit and better brand image.


The way out

First we take a look at how the company responded to environmental and social issues when they first emerged. According to the case document, to address the Formaldehyde problem, IKEA “quickly established stringent requirements regarding formaldehyde emissions but soon found that suppliers were failing to meet its standards as the binding material originally comes from glue manufacturers”. Therefore, IKEA worked directly with glue-producing chemical companies and, with the collaboration of companies such as ICI and BASF, soon found ways to reduce the Formaldehyde off-gassing in its products. When the problem returned a decade later, IKEA immediately “stopped both the production and sales of Billy bookcase worldwide and corrected the problem before resuming distribution”. The Formaldehyde events urged IKEA to be more aware of the environmental issue. The company started showing its progress from reactive to proactive steps in addressing social responsibility when it approached forestry event. This time, IKEA anticipated the forestry issue and solved the problem before it was raised by public pressure. IKEA made a move in “establishing a forestry policy under discussion with Greenpeace and World Wide Fund for Nature and standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council”. Instead of investigating at its suppliers level as the company did in the Formaldehyde case, this time IKEA was ready to trace all wood used in its products back to its source. This is a responsible evolution, compatible with its commitment of “the true IKEA spirit” as “willingness to assume responsibility and to help, on our humbleness before the task, and on the simplicity of our behavior.” This progress continued to expand to four other areas: adapting the product range; working with suppliers; transport and distribution; and ensuring environmentally conscious stores.

Referring to the child labor problem raised by a Swedish television documentary which showed children in Pakistan working at weaving looms, we first look at how IKEA addressed the event according to the case document. It “sent a legal team to Geneva to seek input and advice from the International Labor Organization (ILO) on how to deal with the problem. It turned out that India, Pakistan, and Nepal were not signatories to the convention”. The fact that India, Pakistan, and Nepal were not signatories to the convention implies it is unreasonable to accuse IKEA of violating the law of child labor. Still, this fact did not help IKEA much as child labor is an ethical issue. IKEA therefore “added a clause to all supply contracts, stating simply that if the supplier employed children under legal working age, the contract would be cancelled”. The third step was to appoint a third-party agent to monitor child labor practices at its suppliers in India and Pakistan. This third step helped the company in publicity and media, and made things seem fairer from the public’s view. The business manager Barner did some more research about the child labor issue by contacting concerned organizations, such as Swedish Save the Children, UNICEF, and the ILO to get advice. After acquiring some knowledge about the issue, Barner and her direct manager traveled to India, Nepal and Pakistan to investigate the real situation [This action reflects the company’s culture and management style as “management by running around”]. On the trip, Barner learned more about Rugmark Foundation, “organized by the Indo-German Export Promotion, Indian carpet manufacturers, and exporters, and some Indian NGOs, to develop a label certifying that the carpets to which it was attached were made without the use of child labor”. Barner then returned to Sweden and met frequently with the Swedish Save the Children’s expert on child labor. This helped Barner internalize the importance of child labor action which shaped up IKEA’s new attitude and stand. So what Barner initially did is compatible with the situation until the child labor issue called for more specific actions in the next event. In the spring of 1995, a well-known German documentary maker “notified the company that a film he had made was about to be broadcast on German television showing children working at looms at Rangan Exports” and “invited IKEA to send someone to take part in a live discussion during the airing of the program”.

To deal with this complex situation, it is recommended that IKEA should participate in the program. Up to that point, the company had gained some positive achievements to the child labor issue since the problem was first raised by Swedish television. IKEA could discuss the information it had collected so far from UNICEF, Swedish Save the Children and the ILO and show it possesses the same attitude as the director of the documentary film as well as pursuing the same goals of erasing child labor. It could turn the conundrum around by showing its gratitude to the director for helping spot the child labor at the company’s manufacturer and emphasizing that the company is going to consider the case thoroughly. IKEA possibly mentions its spirit of not avoiding mistakes to search for creative solutions. With a carefully considered plan, participating in the television program would help save the brand and image.

After the television program, IKEA needs to come up with a solution for the case and the long-term strategy to deal with child labor issue. Barner may need to make a trip to Rangan Exports and investigate the case thoroughly. All the children working there should be collected and offered education opportunities. The company needs to create its own children budget to help children discovered working at the company. IKEA also should provide a hot line for people to spot children labor cases and hire experts to keep track of the problem and to execute investigation at its supplier and subsupplier level. By this way, IKEA could continue its relationship with its suppliers, calling for the cooperation from suppliers to allow IKEA’s professional random inspection. Working with Rugmark is another good option if IKEA can make sure the child labor problem is under control. Because IKEA does not have its own manufacturers and gets its supplies from other suppliers, it is challenging for IKEA’s ability to manage and control the whole production process. Unless IKEA can be sure that there’s no child labor in the company, it is encouraged to allow Rugmark to monitor the use of child labor on IKEA’s behalf.

If IKEA follows the steps described above, it will advance itself to the proactive level of social responsibility. The company could advance itself to the even higher level, interactive level, by executing more assertive plans. The interactive level promises a long-term advantage in brand image and profit. As child labor is considered “Indian culture”, it requires a lot of time, energy and finance to make progress. The company needs to work tightly with UNICEF, NGOs, and Save the Children Alliance to learn from each other. In India, because of economic initiatives, families send children to work. Therefore, to help improve the situation, IKEA need to fund a budget in the need of education for those families. Besides, the company should lobby to coerce the government to get involved more actively in the process. In the long run, family income boosting plans need to be implemented to achieve a better standard living for Indian families as poverty is the root of the problem. Even though all these effort sounds challenging, a withdrawal from India, Nepal and Pakistan can inhibit IKEA from the opportunity of cheap labor which is fundamental to compete for cheap prices, especially when other giant rivals are looking at this opportunity at the same time.






Reference:

1. Bartlett, Christopher A. Dessain, Vincent. Sjoman, Anders. “IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A)”. November 14, 2006.

2. IKEA Webpage. [ http://www.ikea.com/ ] October 20, 2009.