With none of us being avid hikers, we ended up accidentally choosing the harder course...and it was quite tough! But the view at the very end..priceless!
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Salève
I realized that I've never done a real "hike"since I came to Geneva and what a better time to do it than during the summer and with a bunch of people? So that is why a bunch of us from the UN program decided to embark on Salève, one of the favorite hiking courses among the Swiss and the French. First stop: going past the border!
With none of us being avid hikers, we ended up accidentally choosing the harder course...and it was quite tough! But the view at the very end..priceless!
With none of us being avid hikers, we ended up accidentally choosing the harder course...and it was quite tough! But the view at the very end..priceless!
GSP
After my summer school course was over, I participated in another program called the United Nations Graduate School Program in which graduate students from all over the world come together to learn more about the UN agencies and discuss on various coming topics. This year we focuses on the Sustainable Development Goals which are of course, the post-2015 goals from the Millennium Development goals and are in the midst of being discussed and approved by the UN member states in September.
It's been a grueling 10 days with listening to presentations and forums all day. Plus I had somehow become the leader in my working group - hence we had a report and presentation at the very end which was nothing more than pure intense work...but it all paid off in the end.
目まぐるしい一ヶ月でしたが、無事夏期講習＆研修を終えることができました。
最後の2週間は毎年国連が開催している大学院生プログラムの研修でした。世界中から代表者が集まり、国連でのさまざまな機関について学んだり、最終的には現場で働く国連職員の監修の元
グループでプロジェクトを仕上げるというかなりの強行スケジュール。あたしのグループは監修する人がほとんどいなくてレポートをまとめるのが大変だったけどなんとか完了。プレゼンも無事終わりホッとしました。世界中から学生が集まるのでお互い情報交換したり、文化の違いについて話し合ったりととても濃い時間を過ごすことができたような気がします。さてジュネーブでの一ヶ月は今日で終わりいよいよ明日から南フランスで6週間のミニ留学が始まります！
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| One of our (many) intense meetings in working groups グループでミーティング中 |
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| Study break at the open cinema! 長い長い一日の終わりはオープンシネマにてみんなでピクニック |
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| 世界気象機関にてみんなでランチ |
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| 研修中は毎日33℃以上の夏日真っ盛り。毎晩ルマン湖沿いでみんなで涼んでました |
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| 研修中一番仲が良くてよくご飯食べに行ったりしてました。左からチェコ人、ドイツ人、あたし、イラン人 |
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| It's show time!! (video interviews) プレゼン前日。グループワークの総まとめとしてインタビューされています 笑 |
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| Night time at the UN... yes I'm done with my work now プレゼン前夜は10時までかかってまとめてました。あー疲れた 汗 |
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| My tired eyes..最後に研修修了証書をいただきました |
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| UNCTAD presentors... we're done! ドイツ人とあたしがグループリーダーだったのでプレゼン担当。無事終わりました |
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| Oh LAMA, how I'll miss you! |
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Summer School at University of Geneva: CSR
It's been a whirlwind these past 2 weeks so I was unable to update at all!
Basically I was taking a summer school program at my school for an intensive course on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). I can write an entire essay on the topic so I won't go into details but to be very brief. Also, there's many schools of thought please don't quote me on any of this. I am just trying to give a very general overall broad concept so people with no knowledge (aka my mother) is able to understand it a bit better CSR comes from the concept that business can no longer function with just the goal of making profit. Instead they must integrate economic, social, and environmental aspects while addressing shareholders and business expectations at the same time.
Therefore, there's a greater need for businesses to take in consideration of society and the environment in order for them to succeed in the longer run. For example, running a business without taking environmental aspects into consideration will end up in pollution damage. Though they may make profit business wise, they will come under severe criticism from other stakeholders, hurting them in the end.
Hence businesses today try to incorporate CSR in many forms into their business plan. For example, have you ever seen companies that promote doing charity? This is the most common form of CSR. On a more advanced level, there are companies that incorporate sustainable measures into their business plan such as IKEA selling hand made baskets from Thailand made in partnership with an NGO. Sorry these are very bad examples, I'm sure you can find much better examples with a quick Google search.
I was very blessed that our school has offered us to meet with many different agencies and companies to hear what their initiatives and work they have been doing in terms of CSR. We've gone everywhere from the UN to Nestlé to P&G, hearing amazing stories on how each organization is trying to implement CSR within its own business/organizational framework. Studying about sustainable development, it certainly has been a wonderful chance to learn more about how the concepts we've learned are being applied in the real world. It's not perfect and there's still a lot of work that needs to be done on CSR but I am hopeful about how it's going to continue bringing change into our society on many different levels
Basically I was taking a summer school program at my school for an intensive course on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). I can write an entire essay on the topic so I won't go into details but to be very brief. Also, there's many schools of thought please don't quote me on any of this. I am just trying to give a very general overall broad concept so people with no knowledge (aka my mother) is able to understand it a bit better CSR comes from the concept that business can no longer function with just the goal of making profit. Instead they must integrate economic, social, and environmental aspects while addressing shareholders and business expectations at the same time.
Therefore, there's a greater need for businesses to take in consideration of society and the environment in order for them to succeed in the longer run. For example, running a business without taking environmental aspects into consideration will end up in pollution damage. Though they may make profit business wise, they will come under severe criticism from other stakeholders, hurting them in the end.
Hence businesses today try to incorporate CSR in many forms into their business plan. For example, have you ever seen companies that promote doing charity? This is the most common form of CSR. On a more advanced level, there are companies that incorporate sustainable measures into their business plan such as IKEA selling hand made baskets from Thailand made in partnership with an NGO. Sorry these are very bad examples, I'm sure you can find much better examples with a quick Google search.
I was very blessed that our school has offered us to meet with many different agencies and companies to hear what their initiatives and work they have been doing in terms of CSR. We've gone everywhere from the UN to Nestlé to P&G, hearing amazing stories on how each organization is trying to implement CSR within its own business/organizational framework. Studying about sustainable development, it certainly has been a wonderful chance to learn more about how the concepts we've learned are being applied in the real world. It's not perfect and there's still a lot of work that needs to be done on CSR but I am hopeful about how it's going to continue bringing change into our society on many different levels
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| Meeting at the UN |
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| UN guided tour |
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| UNICEF visit |
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| ILO visit |
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| Nestlé visit |
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| Final presentation session at the UN |
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| Final reception |
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| Final results |
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| Beautiful view from atop of the UN |
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| Groupie! |
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| With few of our classmates, professor and coordinator. Thank you for a lovely time! |
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