Global UGRAD Program

Thanks to Khai Shing for highlighting this. This is about Global UGRAD program, where Malaysian university students get to be sponsored and spent 1 semester or 1 year at US universities as part of an exchange program. You would be taking courses not part of your degree program there, and hence it might delay your graduation by 1 semester or 1 year.

However, the exposure to get mingling with Americans and living/staying with them, and other international students would be great exposure.

Moreover, you would be getting scholarship for this. Do check out the details at here .

If you could do the 1-year program, you would have the chance to do internship in US too! And for both the 1 semester or 1 year program, you would get the chance to do community service there too!

To get a feel of how it is like, do go to Khai Shing's sharing of her experience .

Check it out!




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Video Lectures from Top Institutions

Academic Earth's website has been revamped, and right now, it shows clearly the large number of video lectures that you can watch for FREE from world's top institutions.

Currently, the lectures available are from Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA and Yale.

Check out at here .

An interesting lecture by Google VP of Search Product and User Experience on “Google: Ideas Come From Everywhere”. The lecture was made at Stanford in 2006.

View It Here

It is 10 short clips of about 3 minutes each.

Lecture 1 - Ideas Come From Everywhere

Lecture 2 - Give Ideas Credit, Not Credit for Ideas

Lecture 3 - Work with Smart People

Lecture 4 - License to Pursue Dreams

Lecture 5 - Learning From Mistakes

Lecture 6 - Data is Apolitical

Lecture 7 - Creativity Loves Constraint

Lecture 8 - Bank Users, Not Money

Lecture 9 - Don't Kill Projects; Morph Them

Lecture 10 - Surviving the Bubble

At another site, there are 100 selected free lectures from top institutions are linked from here .
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Encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I will be more than happy to post it to share

Feel free to quote any post within my blog, as long as you link it back here. Sharing is always a good virtue. :)

Harvard MBA Oath

Thanks to my loyal blog reader for constantly sharing articles with my readers.

Whenever we hear a speech/sharing from a successful person, we often get the advice to ensure that integrity is never compromised at all cost. We are often reminded that we should always preserve the ethics and do the right thing, and do the good thing.

This is a scene happening at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Harvard MBA students (or rather 20% of them) step forward to sign the MBA Oath.

And in that process, many Sloanies (those who went to Sloan Business School at MIT) supported the initiatives too (and some say with greater response than their counterparts from Harvard).

For more info, read up here .

This is the response from the Sloanies. Read it here .
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Encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I will be more than happy to post it to share

Feel free to quote any post within my blog, as long as you link it back here. Sharing is always a good virtue. :)

Economic Cost of the US Education Gap

Yang Jerng shared with me this article on the economic cost of the US Education gap.

Do check it out!

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Encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I will be more than happy to post it to share

Feel free to quote any post within my blog, as long as you link it back here. Sharing is always a good virtue. :)

How to Make Full Use of Universities' Life

17th April 2009 already, so it is 2.5 weeks since the U.S. admission decision was out. Some of you were thrilled, some of you were happy, some of you were ok with it, some of you were sad, some of you were depressed.

I hope that you have come back to reality. To those of you who have gotten in to your dream schools, I would say Congratulations and do make full use of the opportunities. To those of you who got into your safeties, I would still say Congratulations and do make full use of the opportunities. To those of you who has not yet gotten into any university or any of your dream university, I would say that you should never give up, and also not forget to make full use of the opportunities that you are going to have.

Frankly speaking, getting in is just the first step. Some might still be on cloud nine. Yes, you deserve to be so, but I hope that come August, when you hop into the plane, you can be back to be level-headed and focus on your mission, vision and dream.

My this blog post would share on my thoughts to all of you on how to make full use of university life. I have to admit that I fail to make use of my university life. I was pretty much not well exposed when I made the journey. I was struggling initially, and in fact, for quite a long time. I didn't manage to really live up to what I should be doing there. Nevertheless, I would say that I have learned a lot throughout my 4 years there. It was a whole world of change.

Before the journey on the morning of 20th August 2001 from KLIA, I had never taken a plane before. I had never really spent time with an American before. My English command was horrendous. I don't have world view. I was still stuck with my world of knowing stuff that was carried in The Star, and nothing else. That was my world. My first non-textbook English book was "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond, a required reading by my alma mater. It was horrible trying to read a thick English book. I can't recall how many times I fell asleep on the bed trying to read it. To be frank, the words might have been read, but literally I don't understand it.

Okie, lets look forward, and not backward. But what I am trying to do here, is to share what I know, especially to those of you who might come from same background as I. Each of us has different background. While some might be very well exposed, not everyone is as fortunate. I know that some of you who got into very prestigious universities are still in the state of daze. I was too. I never expected myself to get into Cornell. My SAT was one of the weakest among those who applied. I had no national or international credentials. I was never a straight As students.

So, to those of you in those background, don't give up. It will be a struggle, but I hope you can prepare from now, and you will be better off in 4 months' time, when you make your journey over. Don't compare with others who start from different starting line. Main thing is you need to breakthrough yourself. There might be frustrating moment, there might be stressful moment, there might be time that you would be crying, there might be time that you would want to give up. All these not meant to scare you, but to tell you that the journey that you might have to go through. It is not an easy journey, but everything starts from your first step. Make the step ahead. You have gotten the opportunities, wherever you are going to study. To those of you who are staying back for another year, don't give up. Learn as much as you can. There are still a lot of resources online. Do keep up the learning.

While during the application processes, I might have stressed that you should try your best to get into best possible universities, but at this stage, what I will stress is that irrespective of where you are going to head to, make full use of it. What matters is your utilization of the opportunities. You could be at world's best institution and never make use of the opportunities.

Some of the ways that you can utilize during your university time include (in no particular order):-
a) Have fun! Try to enjoy your campus life. If you don't, then there is no meaning in life. So, main thing is explore on stuff that you like to do, or want to do and do it!

b) Before you set out for the journey, try to list down maybe 10 or 20 of stuff that you really hope to do in your life, and during your university days, do go and get those done. You will be able to achieve some of those, no matter how large is the dream. Be willing to dream big. Dream big is one of the most important elements of life. Tony Fernandes gave me 3 words "Dare to Dream", Idris Jala gave me 3 words too "Dream the Impossible". Both the sharings has the word "Dream".

c) Plan your time, at least for each semester or each week/day. Structure your life, so that you can optimize it. Of course, not meant to be fully rigid. Be flexible, but plan it, and mark down the stuff that you want to do.

d) Never procrastinate (Tara's favourite word... hahaha). If there is an interesting opportunity/event etc that you hope to participate, do join it from year 1. Don't wait till the last year, or you might never have the chance to do it.

e) If you have passion in research or plan to go for Master's/PhD, then do start doing research from year 1. Read up about the professor's research, go and meet them during office hour, and start from there!

f) Do attend the office hours of professors/teaching assistants. Those are great time for you to learn from them. Discuss not just about homework/exam, but learn from them in general.

g) Time Management is very crucial. If you can't manage your time well, you will have a hell of time in your university life. Especially if you are taking heavy workload and busy juggling with a lot of other activities.

h) Load yourself with enough load. As most universities give you a free hand in choosing how heavy your workload, do choose appropriately. Measure based on how much workload you think you can take, while not jeopardizing your other stuff. Make full use of those.

i) Take courses that you like. While you might be majoring in a field, do try to explore to take courses that you hope to learn something from, or something that you hope to pick up a skill or two that will be helpful in your life. Be proactive in planning and don't forgo the opportuniites to take a course, because you are afraid that you can't do well in it. Don't think in that manner.

j) Mingle with others. I am not saying that you shouldn't mingle with Malaysians, but you should mingle with others too. Try to go beyond your comfort zone and mingle. The Malaysians or Asians could be your supportive group, and there is nothing wrong in mingling with them. Actually, you shouldn't fully alienate this group too. But strike a balance, maybe spend 2 nights a week having dinner with the Malaysians, but not all 7 nights.

k) Explore new experience. Don't just get involved with only those stuff that you have done before. Nothing wrong exploring further on those of your passion, but takes the chance to do something new. It could be a new sport, a new discipline, a new type of activity etc.

l) Attend public lectures. This is my favourite. I attended 200+ of those during my free time in my university days. These sharings by those who have been there and done that, would help you to prepare for your future. You name it, those Nobel Prize Winners, Presidents/Prime Ministers, CEOs, academicians, NGOs, activists etc will be there to speak. Choose those that you want to listen and learn from.

m) University is the time to take risk and try out. No harm in trying out things and fail. It is a platform for you to learn and grow.

n) Share what you know with others, and learn from others. University environment provides a lot of networking opportunities with fellow students and others. And everyone there is a potential source of your learning. While you are waiting for bus, while you are hanging out at your dorm's lounge, strike a conversation with others. You might create awareness in others or learn from others.

o) Campus is not your limit. The sky is. Go and explore opportunities beyond your campus, be it for international conferences, international research, study abroad, research programs, outreach program, internships, externships, shadowing etc. Some of those international conferences could include Business Today International Conference, Harvard Project for Asian & International Relations (HPAIR) Business/Academic Conference, International Youth Leadership Conference, DOHA International Conference, South East Asia Youth Leadership Service Network (SEALNet), Wharton Global Conoference, China Synergy Programme for Outstanding Youth, World Youth Congress etc.

p) Traveling. During holidays, do go out and travel. Save up during semester and travel. It will broaden your horizon. Don't just go to those mega cities, but walk into civilizations, go into nature, go into new areas that you have never explored, and try to interact with the community there. Observe the people there. It is a lot of learning.

q) Try out the food from around the world. There are just so much new and interesting food around. Do try it. Yes, today, this effect is not as huge, as a lot of food chains are now here. But no harm trying a good meal. Do try to mingle with people during meal time too. Like during lunch/dinner, just sit down with strangers in dining hall and strike a conversation! :)

r) Fraternities/Sororities, while not everyone would want to be part of it, or not everyone will get used to those kind of life, do explore it as well. Maybe could be attend occasional parties there, visit your friends there etc. The network is something to learn and build too.

s) Give back to community there. Get involved in charity/community stuff there. It is a good way to know more about the people that live there. Interaction there will give you learning, while the people there will learn too.

t) Learn from the world, be it internet, libraries etc. Don't stop learning and don't just learn because it is going to be tested in exams. Education is way beyond it. It is about wholesome education and really learn how to learn.

u) Alumni network is crucial. Build up the ties, where it will become a community of learning together. Support one another, and this network will be applicable throughout your life.

v) While you need to put in the hours to get all the homework done, rush all the projects, and be ready for exams, don't let this be the only thing in your educational experience. Those are an integral part, but not let this affects your other parts of life.

w) Sports is a big part of university education, be it participate in it or attending those sports events. I definitely have a lot of memorable time in Lynah Rink, cheering for the Big Red ice hockey team.

x) Do internship. It will prepare you for the career world, especially if you are looking to go into career world after that. If you can't get a good internship in the summer of year 1, no harm getting it back home, but do explore different internships, and it could be ticket to your permanent job offer.

y) Whenever you need help, do ask for it. Whenever you need support, do ask for it. Don't be alone to go through it. The same if others need your help/support, do provide for them too.

z) And the most important thing is share with others what you know. Help others to reach their dream. While you might not realize it, what little effort that you have done, could mean a lot to some people. Lets make this world a better place and lets help others to reach their dream too!

I've finished all 26 alphabets. Guess I should stop. Before I end, I should say that attitude/character is very crucial. Start your university life with the right mentality. Go there with some self-confidence, but don't forget to stay humble. It is a platform for you to learn and grow and do go for it.

I wish you all the best and hope that you could share more ways to make full use of univesities life here too! (I know you're gonna say Facebook! Yes, it is true, Facebook, Gmail, Gchat, MSN is important too to keep in touch with others and make your work more efficient!


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Encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I will be more than happy to post it to share

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INTERNATIONAL FULBRIGHT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING MALAYSIAN STUDENTS

Thanks to ZJ for sharing on this Fulbright Scholarships.

ZJ and Raymond are willing to take questions on this. So, feel free to post it at the comment. They would reply on this.

This is quoted from here .
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FULBRIGHT MALAYSIAN AWARD

2010
INTERNATIONAL FULBRIGHT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING MALAYSIAN STUDENTS
Application deadline: June 17, 2009

The International Fulbright Science and Technology Award For Outstanding Malaysian Student is for Ph.D study at top U.S. institutions in science, technology, or engineering. The award is designed to be among the most prestigious international scholarships in science and technology. The program is funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) in Washington, DC. It aims to convey the message that the U.S. remains the premier destination for serious scientific study and research, and that America not only welcomes top-notch talent, but encourages future leaders to shape their careers through U.S. study.


International Fulbright Science and Technology Award recipients come from all regions of the world and engage in a wide-range of scientific inquiry. Recipients are chosen through a rigorous multi-tiered, merit-based selection process in their home countries followed by a field and discipline review by well-known U.S. academic leaders, final nomination by a blue-ribbon Advisory Panel including U.S. university deans, presidents, and a Nobel Laureate, and approval by the Fulbright Scholarship Board.




ELIGIBILITY






Applicants must meet the following requirements :

1. Be a Malaysian citizen.

2. Applicants must have completed an undergraduate degree (comparable to a U.S. bachelor’s degree) before August 1, 2010. It is highly recommended that bachelor’s degree is in the same or a related field for which you plan to pursue Ph.D. study.

3. Have a strong academic background in the sciences.

4. Demonstrate English proficiency with a recent TOEFL score (or equivalent) of 580 (PBT), 93 (I) test or higher and GRE General Test score.

You are ineligible if you:

are currently studying in the U.S;
have received a previous Fulbright award; or
only plan to pursue non-degree study
Eligible Fields

Aeronautics and Astronomics/Aeronautical Engineering
Astronomy/Planetary Sciences
Biology
Biomedical Engineering
Chemistry
Computer Sciences/Engineering
Energy
Engineering (electrical, chemical, civil, mechanical, ocean, and petroleum)
Environmental Science/Engineering
Geology/Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Information Sciences/Engineering (engineering focus only; business-focused study is not eligible)
Materials Science/Engineering
Mathematics
Neuroscience/Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Oceanography
Physics
Public Health (theoretical focus only)
·




PROVISIONS OF THE AWARD






All grantees receive tuition, a monthly stipend for up to 36 months, health and accident coverage, a book and equipment allowance, professional conference allowance, travel support and specially tailored enrichment activities, and are eligible to apply for additional research funding. After three years, U.S. universities have agreed to fund the remaining expenses toward completion of a Ph.D, assuming the grantees maintains satisfactory continuing progress toward Ph.D. completion.






U.S. UNIVERSITY PLACEMENT






Institute of International Education (IIE) in New York, will be responsible for placement of all Fulbright Science and Technology Award recipients. IIE will work closely with the recipients and ECA to ensure the best placement available for field of study and research interests.






VISA SPONSORSHIP






Grantees will receive J-1 visa sponsorship under the Fulbright Student Program for up to five years starting approximately August 2010. After five years, if necessary, ECA will transfer sponsorship to the host university assuming satisfactory continuing progress toward Ph.D completion. Grantees not able to secure an entry visa to arrive in time for their program start date may lose their fellowhips. Selected candidates must provide IIE with a valid passport prior to the issuance of Form DS-2019.




APPLICATION PROCEDURE






Each applicant will be required to submit an online application from here.

Please refer to the application instructions and application checklist. (Please click on the repective highlight link)

A correctly prepared application packet facilitates the review process and increases your chance for an award. It is your responsibility to ensure that the application is complete before submitting to MACEE.

A completed application should include the following:

i. 4 completed copies of the required application forms;

ii. 4 recent passport-size photos attached to each of the application forms;

iii. 3 letters of reference using the required forms (if they are not submitted online).
Should be in a sealed envelope.

iv. 4 copies of your curriculum vitae;

v. 4 copies signed signature form

iv. 4 official academic transcripts from all post-secondary schools attended, copies of diplomas for all post-secondary schools attended, TOEFL and GRE scores :

These documents must consist of:
a. Academic transcripts: Nominees must submit official, complete and certified academic documents covering the entire period of study at universities and other post-secondary institutions. Documents must be accompanied by complete official English translations. These documents must consist of:

1. One certified, official record (transcript) from each university or post-secondary institution you attended, even those schools from which you did not receive a degree or diploma. The transcripts should list the subjects you studied and the grades you received during each year of your enrollment. Official transcripts must be submitted directly from the schools in sealed envelopes to MACEE Office.

2. Certified, official evidence of each post-secondary or university degree, diploma or certificate awarded to you should be included as part of the completed application.

b. Standardized tests: You will be required to take one or more of the following standardized tests to gain admission to a U.S. university. For instructions on registration, contact the Fulbright Program Office or the website for the test.

1. Tests of English Language Proficiency

a. TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language): TOEFL is an admissions requirement at U.S. institutions for applicants whose native language is not English. All non-native English-speaking candidates should immediately register for TOEFL. Click on to www.ets.org/toefl for more information on TOEFL.

b. IELTS (International English Language Testing System): A growing number of U.S. institutions will accept the IELTS in lieu of TOEFL scores.

2. GRE (Graduate Records Examination): The GRE is required by most U.S. graduate schools and/or departments for candidates applying in the fields of science, technology, or engineering. You should make every effort to register for the earliest possible administration of the GRE. Generally, the quantitative section of the exam is weighed heavily in the sciences. Click on to www.gre.org for more information on GRE.

3. GRE SUBJECT TESTS are required for the following fields:

Biochemistry, Cell and molecular Biology
Biology
Chemistry
Computer Science
Mathematics
Physics
The GRE Subject Test is only offered on a limited basis in paper-based format—October, November, or April. You should make every effort to register for either the October or the November test.

IMPORTANT
Note carefully, you MUST indicate that you want your score reports sent to the Institute of International Education (IIE). You must indicate the IIE code on the registration forms and/or the forms provided at the time you take the exam.

For all TOEFL and GRE exams, please indicate CODE: 2326.
For the IELTS, select the Institute of International Education from the ‘Professional Bodies’ listin.

Applicants must submit 5 copies of the completed application forms with photographs and all required supplemental forms no later than June 17, 2009 to:

MACEE
International Fulbright Science and Technology Award
18th Floor, Menara Yayasan Tun Razak
200, Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur



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Encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I will be more than happy to post it to share

Feel free to quote any post within my blog, as long as you link it back here. Sharing is always a good virtue. :)

Colleges Struggle To Figure Out Who Will Say Yes

Thanks to Xianjin for this article.

This is quoted from New York Times
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By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: March 7, 2009

As colleges weigh this year’s round of applications, high school seniors are not the only anxious ones.

Just as nervously, colleges — facing a financial landscape they have never seen before — are trying to figure out how many students to accept, and how many students will accept them.

Typically, they rely on statistical models to predict which students will take them up on their offers to attend. But this year, with the economy turning parents and students into bargain hunters, demographics changing and unexpected jolts in the price of gas and the number of applications, they have little faith on those models.

“Trying to hit those numbers is like trying to hit a hot tub when you’re skydiving from 30,000 feet,” said Jennifer Delahunty, dean of admissions and financial aid at Kenyon College in Ohio. “I’m going to go to church every day in April.”

In response, colleges are trying new methods to gauge which applicants are serious about attending: Wake Forest, in North Carolina, is using Webcam interviews, while other colleges say they are scrutinizing essays more closely. And they are making more vigorous appeals to try to convince parents and students who will be offered admission in April that theirs is the campus to choose. But mostly, they are guessing: Will pinched finances keep students closer to home? Will those who applied in December be feeling too poor to accept in May — or show up in August?

Colleges have been in the catbird seat for the past decade or so. As the number of high school students swelled, applications rose, allowing colleges to be more selective. And families benefiting from a flush stock market seemed willing to pay whatever tuition colleges charged.

But all that has changed. For students, the uncertainty could be good news: colleges will admit more students, offer more generous financial aid,and, in some cases, send acceptance letters a few weeks earlier. Then again, it could prolong the agony: some institutions say they will rely more on their waiting lists. But there is no question, admissions officers say, that this year is more of a students’ market.

“It’s like the dot-com bubble burst for higher ed,” said Barbara Fritze, vice president of enrollment at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. “We’ve been in this growth mode for a period of time. Now there’s a real leveling going on.”

Colleges consider an amalgam of factors, comparing them to past trends, to predict whether a student will attend, including, for example, what high school he went to; the strength of his grades, scores and recommendations; how much financial aid he has been offered; and whether he plays the cello or wants to study ethnobotany or economics. (If he is a she, the equation looks different still.)

They consider how many phone calls, Web hits, campus visits and applications they have received. They look at how many students put down a deposit in May, then assume a bit of “summer melt.”

If it sounds complicated, it also works. Kenyon, for example, has hit the magic hot tub each of the last five years.

But with high gasoline prices last summer, many campuses reported fewer visits, throwing off one of the better indicators of which applicants are serious.

Applications, too, have been unpredictable. Some public institutions have seen increases of 30 percent. But with almost every state cutting budgets, it is unclear how many applicants those institutions will accept — California and Arizona, for example, are capping enrollment. And private colleges are waiting to see how much public institutions raise tuition; most do not set rates until state budgets are firm.

Meanwhile, applications are down at many private institutions. Colleges and high school guidance counselors say more students are applying to so-called financial safety schools, where they are confident of getting scholarships, even if it means attending a less selective institution.

Officials say parents are reluctant to commit to four years of an expensive private school, worried that their companies might be restructuring. At Kenyon, one mother, after e-mailing to say that the family could not afford the college’s early decision offer, e-mailed two hours later to say they were reconsidering, then e-mailed again two hours after that to say that her son would attend, after all.

“It’s a consumer confidence issue,” said Steven Syverson, vice president for enrollment at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. “Families are feeling like they can’t afford it even if they’re in the same financial position they were three months ago.”

The Internet has thrown off another marker: applicants used to have to call or write for a catalog, giving the college an early signal of their interest. Now, many campuses say 25 percent to 30 percent are “stealth applicants” — the first the college hears of them is when they apply.

Some enrollment officials theorize that applications are down because cost-conscious applicants have made their choices more carefully. Then there is the glass-is-half-empty view, more common at private institutions where applications are up: students set their hearts on where to apply last summer, before the big crash, but will be choosing less expensive schools this spring, as economic indicators plummet.

Institutions had been trying to cut back on the number of students they accept early, believing they would end up with a more economically diverse freshman class; those who are admitted early forfeit the right to shop around for financial aid offers, so are frequently wealthier. But this year, many said they had accepted more early decision applicants, trying to lock in as many students as they could in December.

Still, that may not be a guarantee. Colleges say more and more early decision applicants are circling back to bargain for better financial aid packages, or asking to be released from their agreements so they can consider more generous offers.

So as public institutions say they will accept fewer students, many private schools say they will accept more. The 13 members of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, which includes Carleton, Macalester, Grinnell and Colorado Colleges, plan to accept 10 percent or 11 percent more applicants, said the group’s president, Christopher Welna, to make up for about a 10 percent decline in applications. Hamilton and Gettysburg, among other campuses, also plan to accept a slightly bigger proportion of applicants. And Marquette University, in Milwaukee, said it would accept up to 600 more students to its class of 1,900, even though applications are up 17 percent.

Campuses, meanwhile, are trying to determine — and encourage — applicants’ intentions. Kenyon will write to the parents of accepted students, to reassure them that financial aid will not dry up over the coming years.

And at Gettysburg, Ms. Fritze plans to send out acceptance offers a bit earlier, hoping to generate loyalty.

Barmak Nassirian, the associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, says the first real indication of who is coming could be in May, when students put down their deposits.

“But even that,” Mr. Nassirian said, “may be an overestimation.”

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Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share

Feel free to quote any post within my blog, as long as you link it back here. Sharing is always a good virtue. :)

Obama's Inauguration Speech

Within minutes, Time.com is able to load the speech online.

Check it out here at Time.com .

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My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.


We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: "Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive ... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

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Slow Down - Advice by Harvard Dean

Got this article from a friend, and I find it very good reading. I have read it 3 times already. If anyone can find the original URL of this article, do let me know, so that I can quote it. This is a letter by Harry R. Lewis, Dean of Harvard College in 2004 to the students.

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Harry R. Lewis
Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science
Dean of Harvard College

SLOW DOWN
Getting More out of Harvard by Doing Less

Dear Harvard student,

Students arriving at Harvard have gained admission by participating and excelling in a variety of academic and nonacademic activities in their secondary schools. We hope that you will continue to cultivate many of the qualities that distinguished you in your precollege years — your pursuit of excellence, your strength of character, and your ability to balance your academic drive with participation and success in extracurricular activities. And yet college is different from high school in important ways, and some habits acquired in anticipation of applying to college may not serve you as well while you are here. You may succeed more fully at the things that will be most important to you if you enter Harvard with an open mind about the possibilities available to you, but gradually spend more of your time on fewer things you discover you truly love. You may balance your life better if you participate in some activities purely for fun, rather than to achieve a leadership role that you hope might be a distinctive credential for postgraduate employment. The human relationships you form in unstructured time with your roommates and friends may have a stronger influence on your later life than the content of some of the courses you are taking.

This letter offers some suggestions about how to get the most out of Harvard. Each suggestion requires making choices, which may be hard choices, between doing more things and leaving some possibilities aside. In a larger sense, these suggestions are meant to start you towards a fulfilling life after college, perhaps many years after you leave here. In high school one’s academic choices are limited, and most Harvard students have taken the most demanding choice available where there was any choice at all. Many high schools have counseled students that a longer list of activities, with as many leadership roles as possible, would impress college admissions committees more than a shorter list with fewer titles. Yet in later life most of what we do outside our jobs we do because we want to do it, not because we are in any tangible way rewarded for doing it. College is a transition period; we will certainly give you grades and transcripts attesting to some of the things you have done here, but much of what you do, including many of the most important and rewarding and formative things you do, will be recorded on no piece of paper you take with you, but only as imprints on your mind and soul. It may seem hypocritical for us at the same time, perhaps, to offer you Advanced Standing and to advise you not to accept it; or to explain how to qualify for a joint concentration and to discourage you from pursuing one; or to offer other opportunities and to suggest that you should not take them. But the most important thing you need to master is the capacity to make choices that are appropriate to you, recognizing that flexibility in your schedule, unstructured time in your day, and evenings spent with your friends rather than your books are all, in a larger sense, essential for your education. In advising you to think about slowing down and limiting your structured activities, I do not mean to discourage you from high achievement, indeed from the pursuit of extraordinary excellence, in your chosen path. But you are more likely to sustain the intense effort needed to accomplish first-rate work in one area if you allow yourself some leisure time, some recreation, some time for solitude, rather than packing your schedule with so many activities that you have no time to think about why you are doing what you are doing.

Here, then, are some ideas to consider. Talk about them with the people who know you
best, and whom you trust; consult your freshman or concentration adviser about them. Then consult yourself. Remember that you — not those giving you advice — will be most affected by your decisions.

• Don’t try to get every detail of your academic program nailed down ahead of time. You do, of course, want to do some advance planning, to browse the Courses of Instruction and the Fields of Concentration, to read the important parts of the Handbook for Students so you understand that you have to pass 32 half-courses to graduate, etc. But you don’t need to know as a freshman which four courses you will take during the spring of your junior year. You won’t even need to know exactly what those four courses will be when that term begins, since you will be able to make adjustments easily according to how interesting they look to you as you visit classes during the opening week of the term.

We ask you to fill out a “Plan of Study” at the time you select a concentration, so by that time you will need to demonstrate that you understand the rules of your concentration well enough to have designed one way of satisfying its requirements, and also one way of satisfying associated Core requirements. The Plan of Study is signed by you and by a representative of the concentration, certifying that if you get credit for the courses listed on the form, the concentration will recommend you for a degree. But you don’t have to take precisely those courses, and in practice almost no student winds up as a graduating senior having taken exactly the courses listed on his or her Plan of Study filed as a freshman. Interests shift, new courses appear, existing courses are removed from the catalog or get new instructors, etc. Courses change, and you will change as well; it is wise to recognize from the beginning that you will want to be able to respond to your own shifting interests as well as changes made to the course catalog. The study card you file at the beginning of each term can vary from the Plan of Study, though it remains your responsibility to ensure that the courses you actually take will satisfy your graduation requirements, just as your original Plan of Study would have done.

• Think very carefully before deciding to graduate in three years under the Advanced Standing program. More than half of our entering freshmen are eligible for advanced standing on the basis of their Advanced Placement test scores. Almost all these students ultimately choose to stay at Harvard for the full four years: only about 30 graduate in three years, and another 25 complete undergraduate requirements in three years but remain in residence in the Houses to complete Masters’ degrees their fourth year.

The reason why most eligible students don’t leave Harvard in three years is that they like it here and dion’t want to leave any sooner than they must. Purely in academic terms, each student has the opportunity to sample only a few pages of our massive course catalog even in four years; the chance to take more courses, whether to branch out or to go deeper into a particular subject, is all but irreplaceable once one graduates from college.

Advanced standing is particularly problematic for students with multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary interests. If you’re not sure whether you want to study history or physics, a three year program may require you to make that decision before you have been exposed to these subjects at the college level. If you want to integrate two fields of knowledge, such as psychology and computer science, you need time to take courses in both fields and time also for their intellectual synthesis to mature in your mind.

Planning to graduate early may seem to be a no-risk proposition, but maintaining that option may limit your course choices every term. Especially during the freshman year, which should be a time of experimentation and exploration, the premature commitment to a concentration required if you plan to graduate in three years may distort your academic program. It can seem that a burden has been relieved if you simply relax and assume you will graduate in four years instead of three, and pace your coursework accordingly.

The one irrefutable fact about graduating in three years is that it saves money. Yet we hope that with recent adjustments in Harvard’s financial aid program, the incentives to leave in three years purely for financial reasons have been minimized. There is certainly no reason to think that a life path that may be open to you at the age of 21, say, after three years in college, will be lost if you instead get a year’s more education and graduate at 22. Professional schools, including both business and medical schools, increasingly favor mature applicants who have more on their record than an abbreviated and intense undergraduate education.

If you do choose to graduate in three years, you should consider the possibility of taking a year off before going on to graduate or professional school. At that point you will have been on a pretty fast academic track for most of your life; a year invested in work or travel before you resume your studies may pay dividends forever.

• Don’t think you’re doing something strange or wrong if you take a term or a year off from Harvard before you graduate. If your motivation is flagging, or your grades are not what you think they should be, or you’re just not interested in what you’re studying, take some time off to refresh yourself and get your focus back. Harvard has a very liberal attitude about voluntary time off; readmission, and even a guaranteed room in your House, are automatic if you file the paperwork on time. Students who are struggling almost always do better after some time off.

• Studying or working abroad can give you a new perspective both on your Harvard life and on the world. Going abroad to work or study is a wonderful opportunity for students who are doing well and are enjoying themselves here but have interests that they wish to explore outside the gates of this academic community. You can learn much from foreign study, from an internship, from field work, or from working in a professional office. After a year of review and reflection, the Harvard Faculty has approved new study abroad rules from which you may benefit; we urge you to look to a term or a year of foreign study as an option that may benefit you intellectually and broaden your horizons in nonacademic ways. Study or work abroad can provide a new perspective that brings into sharper focus what you are studying at Harvard.

• Planning your time away will make it more productive. Deciding to take time away from Harvard may well engage you in a serious and difficult discussion with your family, who may, with every good intention, regard a decision to take time off as an admission of some kind of failure, or may simply have trouble hearing that the career path on which you arrived at Harvard now holds less interest for you than it used to. The Office of Career Services can help you make a constructive plan for your time away, and freshman and concentration advisers, Senior Tutors, Assistant Deans of Freshmen, and counselors at the Bureau of Study Counsel can help you think through your decision and how to explain it to others. Parents may even worry that if you leave, you will never come back. All evidence is against that worry; Harvard’s six-year graduation rate is more than 97 per cent, one of the highest in the country, and the roughly 50 students per class year who don’t graduate within six years of matriculation include a few who transfer to other universities, some who take more than six years to graduate due to health problems or family obligations, and a Bill Gates or two, but not many who simply disappoint and never amount to anything.

• Be cautious about doing a joint concentration. Many students who are interested in more than one thing want to study them both while at Harvard, and there is no reason not to do that. Many science students have deep interests in music, for example. Often a student’s first instinct is to sign up for a “double major,” a concept that does not even exist in our curriculum. A joint concentration is meant to be a program that integrates two fields and aims towards a research thesis bridging the areas. In other words, a joint concentration in X and Y is meant for people who have an interest in the intersection of X and Y, not just in both X and Y independently.

If you are interested in studying two subjects, the sensible course is often to pick one as the field of concentration and to take selected courses in the other. You will be able to seek advice from faculty in the second field about what program of courses to pursue, unburdened by that department’s rules for concentrators. Joint concentrations almost always have many rigid requirements, and once those are agreed upon by you and both departments, any change requires coordination of all three parties. It’s rarely worth the trouble — certainly not for the negligible benefit of getting both departmental names on your diploma.

There are exceptions to this broad advice. Students from certain foreign countries may find it advantageous to have the name of some scientific or technical field on their diplomas. Some departments have courses that are open only to concentrators, providing an unintended incentive to sign up for a concentration even if you don’t expect to graduate in it. And certain fields, such as Women’s Studies, are often combined with other fields to create joint concentrations.

• Don’t assume that a special concentration is the way to accommodate your multiple interests. Students often think of turning to Special Concentrations when they cannot decide among three or more strong academic interests. Rather than spending energy on the intentionally difficult process of designing an individual concentration, take courses and seek advice that will help you decide which interest best suits you. As with joint concentrations, your real intellectual objectives may be achievable without a plan of study that bears a particular name. Special concentrations best serve students engaged in emerging fields that have some intellectual coherence but don’t fit in existing academic departments.

• Don’t be afraid to change concentrations, or to switch to a non-honors program. Students are sometimes inhibited from switching fields because they have “only” a few courses to go in the field they now dislike, or because with a late start they can’t achieve everything that other students will have achieved in the new field. Balanced against the disadvantages of flagging motivation to study the old field and the opportunity for intellectual joy in the new field, such inhibitions against the change may be unwise.

On the other hand, should you discover late in your Harvard career that you do not want to finish the concentration program in which you are enrolled, you may have the option to finish a basic (“non-honors”) program in that field. Honors tracks are designed to prepare students to do advanced work in a particular field and to engage independent research, but after studying a field somewhat intensively for a time, some students find that their intellectual development has drawn them in other directions. In that case the flexibility of a more limited concentration program and the opportunity to take courses, and perhaps even do independent work, in other fields may outweigh the advantages of pursuing advanced work in the concentration field.

• Don’t choose a concentration for reasons of professional preparation. It’s a mistake to think that there is an optimal course of study leading to a particular postgraduate career. Many students have concentrated in Economics thinking it would prepare them for life in the business world, or in Biology thinking it is the route to medical school. These perceptions are inaccurate and can keep you from getting the full benefit of a liberal arts education. You gain more from being intellectually engaged with a subject you love than you could acquire in professional training. Professional schools by no means look with disfavor on students who have concentrated in History or in the humanities. The Office for Career Services is an excellent source of advice on what these graduate schools do expect in the way of academic preparation.

• Make choices that leave you more choice, more flexibility. This is a more generalized version of the previous pieces of advice; it may be the most important advice of all. Think of your freedom of choice — of what courses to take, of how to spend your Sunday afternoons, whatever — as a commodity that is precious in and of itself. Don’t construct a schedule for yourself that wastes that freedom. Learn to do constructive things with your time not because you have to (under the schedule and the ground rules you have constructed for yourself) but because you want to. For most of the rest of your life you will be reading a book or playing an instrument or going to a lecture in the evening simply because it is interesting and fun. Get yourself in that frame of mind sooner, and you will be a happier and more interesting person later. Empty time is not a vacuum to be filled: it is the thing that enables the other things on your mind to be creatively rearranged, like the empty square in the 4 × 4 puzzle which makes it possible to move the other 15 pieces around.

• Leave something for after you graduate. If you decide late in your years here that you want to go to medical school, don’t feel you have to cram the pre-med courses into your senior year when you should be getting the most out of your thesis. Slow down — plan to register at Harvard or elsewhere to take those courses when you can give them due attention. Likewise, if you’ve been a Music concentrator and you fall in love with archaeology because of a Core course you take your junior year, don’t feel you have to switch concentrations — take another course or two, and consider taking more after you graduate, at night, in summer school, or, if you want to pursue it seriously, as a special student after graduation or as a graduate student.

• Look inside yourself for the question you are really asking. Students often present deep questions in a superficial or instrumental form about how they can do several things simultaneously. A student who asks, “How can I do a joint concentration in Music and English?” probably wants to know something more profound, such as “How can I keep my interests in literature and in music alive simultaneously?” If you are asking how to do something complicated, ask yourself why you want to do it, and try to achieve your major objectives without necessarily constructing a nexus which, in theory, would allow you to achieve everything and to give up nothing. You may wind up dissatisfied with everything instead, your freedom lost rather than enhanced.

Don’t be afraid to raise with your adviser a question of substance, for example about the importance or wisdom of some intellectual inclination you may have, rather than questions that address only rules and how to satisfy them. Questions don’t need to have clear and crisp answers to be worth asking.

• Don’t try to do two major extracurricular activities simultaneously. Taking this advice requires classifying extracurricular commitments into “major,” of which you should probably have at most one, and “minor,” which might involve a meeting a week, a few hours of volunteering, or some recreational athletic participation that does more to relieve than to create stress. But if you’re starting on the varsity lacrosse team, you probably shouldn’t accept the lead in the House musical the same term. If you are the go-to person for a weekly publication, you probably shouldn’t also be the manager of a conference that will be bringing five hundred students to campus. There are exceptions to this rule too — some people are exceptionally good managers. But before you take on too many simultaneous major extracurricular commitments, you should at least pause to ask yourself if you are trying to prove to someone, either yourself or another, that you are superman or superwoman, and maybe even setting yourself up for failure in that endeavor. Or if, perhaps, you are trying to avoid studying a subject that no longer interests you.

• Join a student group and work to change it, rather than starting a new one. The imagination and innovations of our students are a constant source of amazement. New publications, new service groups, and new musical and theatrical groups spring into existence every year, stimulated by the energies of individual students with special interests. So many of our students are natural leaders that it should not be surprising that they often wish to establish niches of special interest to them not filled by existing groups. Some of the growth in the numbers of student organizations has come from the increasing diversity of the College on many dimensions. Where once there was a single Asian American Association, there are now also groups centered on subpopulations of the Asian continent, and on religious or artistic cultures unique to Asian peoples. There are now nine a cappella groups,
each with a distinctive repertoire. Yet sometimes organizations come into existence simply because groups of students cannot agree on a common agenda. For example, there used to be two Republican clubs, which merged when the leadership recognized that there was strength in unity. Groups born out of protest against the intransigence of established associations rarely survive their founders’ graduation.

It is not hard to start a new student group at Harvard, but it is hard to launch one that gains the organizational and financial stability it needs to survive. It can be a frustrating experience to start something and see it fail, or to feel that one’s personal energy is all that keeps it going. The skills involved in working with others towards common (even if not identical) goals can be as important in later life as a talent for entrepreneurial innovation.

• Don’t ignore your health, physical and emotional. It is characteristic of students to confuse enormous energy and the capacity for extraordinary efforts with something more like immortality. Your mind and body will break down if you don’t relax, exercise, eat well, and most of all, sleep. Give yourself a break — take a few hours just to go to an athletic event, a movie, a theatrical production on campus, a rock concert downtown. Sit outside and read a novel, go to a place of worship, find a pleasant place off-campus where you can be alone with your thoughts. Hang out with your friends, play frisbee, keep up the dining hall conversation till everyone else has left. It won’t hurt, and will probably only help, your academic performance. By the same token, get away from Cambridge over vacations, and don’t come back early. Your academic work will be better and more productive if you are not burned out from having done it continuously for too many months.

• Don’t expect yourself to be perfect. You’ve already accomplished a lot just to arrive here, but life is complicated and every failure offers constructive lessons about yourself. Find subjects you are happy studying, and things you are happy doing, even if you are not going to be the best in the world at them. Do the things that matter most to you as well as you can possibly do them, but don’t be hard on yourself if your best at many things is not as good as someone else’s best. Viewed from the distance of their 25th reunions, most Harvard graduates remember their friends, a few of their teachers, and their coaches, artistic directors, and other mentors better than they remember what they learned in most of their courses. Enjoy your experience here, and the many people who are here along with you, and your Harvard education will sustain you for life.

• Finally, don’t treat my advice — or anyone else’s — as rules you must follow! What
matters is that you come to understand what you want; the challenge is to give yourself enough breathing room to discover your own loves and how to pursue them, your own ambitions and how to achieve them.

It’s your life, even at Harvard. Enjoy it.

Harry R. Lewis
Dean of Harvard College

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Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share

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Bill Clinton Lecture - Q&A

This would be my 2nd blog article on Clinton's talk. The earlier one was on his speech and this one is on the Q&A part. For the earlier part, do read it here .

Clinton's response on the Q&As are:-

There have been some subprime during his administration, where people get mortgage even though they have no money and slowly have to pay back more. But what caused today's problem is mainly due to the institution that started to buy the sub prime in 2004-06, and the rating agency hasn't been doing its job. Institution leveraged it till about 33:1, instead of the ideal 10:1.

Clinton reminded that as Malaysia gets more successful, we would get more integrated into the world, and we would need to have new source of jobs every 5-8 years. And US have failed to have its new source of jobs for the last decade and it does not have good job strategy.

Within the recent Bush administration, it has 5 tax cuts, and 43% of American insurance are paid by government, and the government funded it through borrowing from China and Saudi Arabia. Clinton felt that US shouldn't have tax cut. During Clinton's administration, it was his hope to pay back all the debt to 0.

What currently Obama should do is to bring in more deficit, to create liquidity in the market and then when economy moves, only try to reduce the debt. He should try to create a floor on asset and get economy going. This situation is similar to 1930. Today, millions of Americans have loan amount that is more than the value of their property. Last year, 1.5 Million Americans face foreclosure, and this year is estimated to have 2 Million people, and if each of this cost about USD250,000. That's almost the amount of the entire stimulus. The stimulus would be dragged down by the foreclosure. Today, US banks still have USD600 Billion with Federal Reserves, but they are not willing to use it, as they do not want to lend.

When Clinton took over the administration, the debt was very high and interest rate was very high. Americans save too little.

Globally, we have economic instability, and the system might collapse. Today, 130 Million of children do not go to school, and we need to do something in it.

The current global response to reduce green house gas is not sufficient. For it to be effective, we need to cut by 80%, when the world population is going up from 6.5 Billion to 9 Billion.

One way is to try to put as many girls to work, so that we can slow down the number of new born and this would be an indirect family planning.

World Bank has also recently admitted that it has not been doing enough in the last 30 years to build up agricultural capacity.

Clinton also highlighted that if US, China, India and Russia can increase their energy efficiency to the level that Japan has, it would cut down 25% of green house gas. That would be a major booster. All these would need a global response.

When Clinton being asked about the biggest challenge for his Clinton Global Initiatives, he said that when they started in 2003, very few Aids patients have access to medical aids. Most of those who got aid are those from Brazil and Thailand, as their government could afford. What Clinton did was to negotiate a bulk purchase contract to push down the prices. The company still make money, but now through volune, rather than huge margin. This allowed more people the access. The cost of medical aid per patient per year is now about USD60-100. This has shed about 90% of the original price 5 years ago. Today, 4 Million people get medical aids for AIDS, including 1.4 Million through Clinton Global Initiatives.

Clinton argued repeatedly that those traders need to make money and his job is to create a sustainable business model. And the main challenge is that there is lack of clinics and medical staff to test the patients.

He highlighted in a rural village, where 2 orphans lived. A girl aged 12, have to raise her brother who is age 8. Their total living space is about 4 times that TV that Clinton was watching. After this Clinton Global Initiative saved him, he went to Grade 3 when he is 15 years old. Clinton said to him that "Make sure you stay in school." and his reply was "Absolutely. I want to be a doctor in the future to help others.". And this is certainly amazing and give hope to us on the world population. And this boy was rescued by an uneducated women who was trained to conduct the medical test.

Clinton highlighted that oil/coal may not be the most efficient energy. Landfill is not the right solution either, as it is an eyesore and produce a lot of green house gas, which is 23 times more than CO2. If we can process this waste, we can reduce this green house gas and create job and this waste can be created into biofuel.

Clinton Initiatives also helped to retrofit buildings, which help it to reduce energy wastage and reduce utility bill.

For US, actually, there is enough wind power to electrify entire US, but there is no incentive to invest in it.

For Denmark, it has 0% increase in energy usage and it generated 25% of energy through wind power. Philippines generate 24% of energy through geothermal.

Clinton ended with saying that we now have the biggest economic opportunity, and we should start thinking on seeing the world of what it could be.

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Hope you guys enjoy reading this sharing of Bill Clinton's lecture.

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Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Clinton's Lecture in Malaysia

Thanks to a fellow ReComer for providing me this opportunity to hear Bill Clinton's live today 6pm at Kuala Lumpur Convention Center.

Let me attempt to share as much as I can capture from the lecture, for the benefit of my blog readers! It is a waste that in the hall, there are so many empty seats. :(

Datuk Vinod Sekhar quoted his father, the late Tan Sri BC Sekhar, for saying that "the world as it is today cannot remain. We must have a paradigm shift". We should involve in world harmony. And he asked the audience on whether we involve ourselves, and he highlighted that Bill Clinton is a very suitable person to share with us, especially with his fantastic experience in challenging the world to dream.

He pointed out that Malaysia is a multi racial, multi cultural and multi colours country, and we have been able to thrive together, and it is very critical that we work together.

He hope that it would be ideal with the late Tan Sri BC Sekhar has the opportunity to meet Bill Clinton, but unfortunately he didn't.

Clinton went straight to the podium after Datuk Vinod Sekhar finished his introductory speech. So, the schedule was mixed up, as Clinton was originally supposed to receive his award first, before speaking.

Clinton started his speech by saying that he would be talking about how we suffer the world financial crisis. He apologized for being late, as his journey was delayed by traffic jam, after paying respect to Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister at Putrajaya.

He has just come from Hong Kong, after conducting the meeting of Clinton Global Initiatives there, and it has managed to raise hundreds of millions. They flew in a bunch of poor people from developing nation to join the event, and it is the first time, it is held outside of the United States.

He highlighted that Malaysia represent the hope of the world, where people of all religious background work together. He highlighted his visit to KL Bird Park earlier in the day, and he saw how a male peacock was friendly to 2 other birds. He pointed out of 2 friendly Muslim ladies who greeted him as well.

He is lucky to have the opportunities to serve US, and have visited about 100 countries since he left White House 8 years ago. He has been working on aids relief and educational issues and have been visiting remote villagers in Asia/Africa/Latin America, and these people are the hope of the world.

Today, we have global inter-dependence, and we have to deal with the failure of interdependence, and "divorce is not an option". We have to face the certain consequences that we have today, and most of those are negative now, example would be the negative disaster in Mumbai.

Palestine and Israel share a small piece of land, and that land is the birth place for 3 major religions around the world and how good it would be if both the nations can make peace. For Palestinians, there aren't many poor Palestinians around the world, except in their own home country. He quoted example of how they are being the main economic controller in Eucador, and in US, a number of them are millionaires or college professors. Bill Clinton highlighted that he does know a number of Palestinians.

And beyond the border, if we fail to resolve issues, we would continue to have problems. We need to see global poverty. Like in Ethiopia, most people live poorly. Out of 80 Million population, there are only 700 clinics and the Clinton initiative is trying to create 3,500 clinics there. Yet, in some of those remote areas, we see the people being very resourceful. They power their area by solar panels, and they design school buildings, where in the day, it would be the place, where students study, but at night, it is the place where the women work. And it would have like 4 lights, where 2 of the lights are compact fluorescent lights, which is bright and it is used for gathering and there are another 2 LED lights (which even Americans are not using), and these are highly concentrated lights and it is used for studying or working.

In poor countries, many of those people are working even harder than most of us, and they deserve to be part of this world, to enjoy what we get. The late BC Sekhar highlighted of the need for us to change the way we think. We were always told that we would be successful if we do better, eg: run faster, do it better, have better grades etc, but when we have a winner, we have a loser too. Perhaps, we can think of a way to change the definition of success, although it is easier said than done.

If you believe fundamental of life is global interdependence, then lets share with the world. Embrace anyone who share our values.

This financial crisis is caused by too much debt or leverage and it got spreaded around quickly. Clinton highlighted on the many right things that Malaysia has done during the financial crisis, and yet our growth rate is affected now, even though it is of no fault of us.

In Clinton's last year of presidency, the human genome project was started. And it was interesting that between 99.5% to 99.9% of our genome are the same, and what makes us all look so different is the 0.1% to 0.5% of genome. We have more similiarity than differences.

There is support of common humanities in all religious faith. He went on to cite some quotation of religions, which show that. For example, for buddhists, the only people who are truly human are those who feel the arrows that pierce the skin of others, even though they are not being pierced.

Once we accept the global inter-dependence, then we should look for a world that we share, and we will be in harmony of many great ways that we share. For example, now in California, there is no majority race, and by 2050, there is no majority race in US. And for US, we have just elected an Afro-American as the new President and the father of this president-elect was born in Africa. So, he is just first generation American.

For the past 16 years, US has been moving towards larger community and we have to go forward togehter. When we try to grow top-down, we would create more and more inequality. And no matter how powerful US is, there is no way that US can solve any global issues on its own. It needs the support of others. War for protection should be the last resort.

In WW2, Winston Churchill were constantly taunted by British media for defending US, and he said "US always does the right thing, after exhausting all the other alternatives.

Clinton does hope that US would be able to do better in the next 20 years.

What US have to do now?

While every country should order its own house, US should engineer a fast recovery of the economy, especially in the financial sector and restructure the credit. We can't fix US's problem, unless we stop the devaluation of the asset prices. US should be altering the amount of energy and the way we use energy, and the rest of the world should too. He hopes to see US pay more attention on climate change. No matter how tough the economy is, the developed nation should also invest more in the poor countries. He cited that he is impressed with Malaysia, for helping Sierra Leone.

He gave credits to Bill Gates for being full-time into charity, where he hope to give everyone in the world with the same chance as him to have some kind of life that he has. He hope to reach out to others. He is hopeful about creating future potential, by helping others in educating themselves. He hope for coordinated response for financial crisis too.

The world today is not sustainable. Half of the world is living below USD2 a day. 25% of people who die are due to diseases like aids or poverty-related diseases, including 80% of these people are children below 5 years old. These are all very innocent people.

Coals/Gas/Oil, all these resources were stored in the earth for millions of years, and now we are really utilizing them and we might finish off all these resources in years. And we need to make sure that Greenland does not melt, and it would not be sustainable if the Tibetan ice melts.

Today in China, there are 1.3 Billion population, with 130 Million in China are those migrants in the city. With economy turns bad, these people might not be able to make a living in the city, and if they were forced to go back to outskirts, they might not be able to sustain themselves. Some people do even sell blood using shared needles. Hong Kong, which is the biggest port, might be flooded, if those ice continues to melt.

Clinton then moved on to something controversial. He said that political conflict is good, where nobody is right all the time, and we need to have disagreement. He pointed out that he and his wife do have disagreements sometimes. Today, Barack Obama has a group of economists and they spend time argue over the right policy. However, if we turn back the clock to 15-20 years ago, Americans would not accept a bunch of economists who are arguing among themselves.

Clinton highlighted that he is impressed by Malaysians, where we respect faith and we see someone, we can look straight into their eyes.

Clinton also pointed out that Hillary's aide is a Muslim and her best friend is Jewish, and they can talk about each other's religion openly. We need to be able to share the future, and if we do, the world best days are ahead.

Above is Clinton's sharing, and then it is a video of the late Tan Sri BC Sekhar.

He pointed out that the strength of man is by how much responsibility he is holding. Tan Sri has played a huge part in moving the nation with credibility and ingenuity and he delivers through great people, and he was a scientist, administrator, philanthropist, innovator etc.

Bill Clinton is the first democratic president in 6 decades to be elected twice. He helped to make the longest period of economic expansion in the US and helped to create 22 Million jobs.

Clinton's Foundation helps to meet challenges in global initiatives. They help 1.4 Million people with AIDS and focused on climate change and sustainable growth too. He spent most of his work at Africa and Latin America.

In US, he hoped to help America to reduce the obesity of children. He was also the envoy to help the rebuilding efforts after tsunami. He was born on 19th August 1946 in Arkansas.

Tan Sri BC Sekhar has brought changes to the world and have the vision and make the vision a reality.

He quoted John Quincy Adams, "If your action inspires others, to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."

It is great to see Bill Clinton tries to solve the planet's greatest problem and if there is a will, there is a way!

Would blog about the Q&A session later.

Hope that this sharing of this lecture would be beneficial to my readers.

The Star has a write-up too here

For full article by The Star, it is as follow:-
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PUTRAJAYA: Former United States President Bill Clinton met with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at Bangunan Perdana Putra here on Friday.
Clinton was in Kuala Lumpur to give a talk at the inaugural BC Sekhar Memorial Lecture on Friday.

During his address on Friday, Clinton said political conflict is a good thing whereby disagreements or discussions only promote thinking.

“I was told that there are political conflicts here. That is a good thing. Nobody is right all the time,” Clinton said in reference to the current political situation in Malaysia.

Clinton said just like when he was president of the United States, he would prefer a slightly negative press as opposed to a press that only sings praises of the administration.

“My wife Hilary and I also disagree on many issues but it is this disagreement that allows thinking. It is also healthy to have discussions,” he told a packed hall.

Clinton said he paid a courtesy visit to Abdullah, visited the KL Bird Park and did some shopping for souveniors for his wife and daughter.

Clinton had actually turned up half an hour late for the lecture, arriving at 6.30pm, instead of 6pm as scheduled. He however said it was due to the traffic that lengthened his journey from 35 minutes to 65 minutes.

“Given the current economic climate, having that much traffic indicates that your economy is doing just fine,” he said to laughter from the crowd.

On his visit to the bird park, Clinton said he had met two Muslim women who came up to greet him.

“It is this ability to respect people’s faith that I admire in Malaysia. If only everyone could look another person in their eye and welcome them to their common space, what a different world we would have.”

During the 40-minute lecture, Clinton touched on a vast array of topics ranging from climate change, health issues, global interdependence and empowering people to take control of their lives. He also related the many experiences he had gone through in the 100-odd countries he had visited since setting up the Clinton Global Inititive foundation.

Clinton said the current global economic crisis showed that it was now a fact that the people of the world were simply more interdependent than the entire human race has ever been.

“It shows that divorce is not an option. We’ve seen the negative aspects of the interdependency from terrorist attacks and the financial crisis but good things can also come out of it.”

In this context, Clinton said that the definition of success also had to change from comparing what one person had over another to a situation that ensured all parties benefited. He said it required people to embrace anyone who they shared common values with.

“We have no choice but to share the future. Since most of us care for the future of our children and grandchildren than ourselves, I’m sure we will make the right decision,” he said.

Later during a question and answer session, Clinton said the only way to balance the growth of developing countries at the expense of the environment was to make the business of environment a good business.

“Most cities have landfills. The organic waste could be compacted and used as biofuel and the tyres can be recycled.”

He said the problem was that people think profits could only be made in the way it is already being done rather than challenging the status quo to make profits in a different manner.
Clinton gave the example of how the business model for AIDS medication was changed from one of low volume, high profit margin and uncertain payment to one that is now of high volume, low profit margin and certain payment. He said this sort of paradigm shift could also be done in the environmental industry.

Organised by the Sekhar Foundation, the lecture was held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre and aired live on Astro Awani.

This is Clinton’s first trip to Malaysia. He will also receive the BC Sekhar Medal for Transformational Leadership which is handed out to world leaders who have an excellent record and have brought positive change to the lives of the people.

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Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!