Autobiography
Hello! My name is Joy. My Signature project this year is about encouraging social philanthropy from businesses. I believe that it is through their generous donation that will help the underprivileged and make an impact in the world.
My first encounter of “poverty” came from a school service trip to Cambodia I joined in 7th grade. We stayed in a remote village to teach kids English. These children, who had literally nothing, were so excited to learn in broken tents which they called “classrooms”. They came to class eagerly every day with broad smiles on their faces which contrasted starkly with their scrawny and undernourished bodies. My heart sank as I saw how harsh their living conditions were, yet their eyes were gleamed with hopes every morning when they saw me, as if I would be the one who could lift them out of absolute poverty. I was thirteen years old. I didn’t know what I could do. But I knew that I had a conviction to help the underprivileged, to make an impact in the community.
The Cambodia service trip opened my eyes to the surroundings around me, made me become more sensitive to the needs of others in my own community-Hong Kong. Hidden in the cosmopolitan city, behind all the glamorous skyscrapers, there lies a huge sector of the weak and vulnerable - single parent families who struggle to make their ends meet, elderly who make their living by collecting and selling heavy cardboard boxes for some meager earnings. The conviction to help the underprivileged burns stronger inside of me.
As I grew older, I began to tackle this through a business perspective. This summer, I interned at my father's small social enterprise startup in Hong Kong. I was helping with a research project that aims to analyze factors that affect companies’ decisions on charity donations, and based on the research findings, how we can alter the behavior of companies to donate more. Though my contribution towards the project was very limited-I was only helping to gather data and created a huge databank that includes the donation amounts of all listed companies in Hong Kong in the past five years- it opened up my intellectual curiosity as I do indeed wanted to know how we can one day tap into this vast bank of financial resources in the business sector, to re-distribute the wealth to those of the weak and vulnerable in the society.
This year, my signature project will be similar to the internship. But instead of researching Hong Kong businesses, I will research on American businesses. I will create a database of companies' donation amount, trends, etc and do analyzation. This information will be publicized and afterwards, I will approach and interview companies to find out why they donate to encourage other businesses to donate. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to create a project that combines my passion for business and making an impact in my community.
My first encounter of “poverty” came from a school service trip to Cambodia I joined in 7th grade. We stayed in a remote village to teach kids English. These children, who had literally nothing, were so excited to learn in broken tents which they called “classrooms”. They came to class eagerly every day with broad smiles on their faces which contrasted starkly with their scrawny and undernourished bodies. My heart sank as I saw how harsh their living conditions were, yet their eyes were gleamed with hopes every morning when they saw me, as if I would be the one who could lift them out of absolute poverty. I was thirteen years old. I didn’t know what I could do. But I knew that I had a conviction to help the underprivileged, to make an impact in the community.
The Cambodia service trip opened my eyes to the surroundings around me, made me become more sensitive to the needs of others in my own community-Hong Kong. Hidden in the cosmopolitan city, behind all the glamorous skyscrapers, there lies a huge sector of the weak and vulnerable - single parent families who struggle to make their ends meet, elderly who make their living by collecting and selling heavy cardboard boxes for some meager earnings. The conviction to help the underprivileged burns stronger inside of me.
As I grew older, I began to tackle this through a business perspective. This summer, I interned at my father's small social enterprise startup in Hong Kong. I was helping with a research project that aims to analyze factors that affect companies’ decisions on charity donations, and based on the research findings, how we can alter the behavior of companies to donate more. Though my contribution towards the project was very limited-I was only helping to gather data and created a huge databank that includes the donation amounts of all listed companies in Hong Kong in the past five years- it opened up my intellectual curiosity as I do indeed wanted to know how we can one day tap into this vast bank of financial resources in the business sector, to re-distribute the wealth to those of the weak and vulnerable in the society.
This year, my signature project will be similar to the internship. But instead of researching Hong Kong businesses, I will research on American businesses. I will create a database of companies' donation amount, trends, etc and do analyzation. This information will be publicized and afterwards, I will approach and interview companies to find out why they donate to encourage other businesses to donate. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to create a project that combines my passion for business and making an impact in my community.
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