What drive you on earth?

Ohana, my dear APLP fellows!! 

Hope you all are doing GREAT at your home town. 

We had just passed our thanks-giving holiday and coming to Christmas celebration in December. 

December is always a season of joy and spreading love. 

Hong Kong is having the most beautiful season throughout the year, clear blue sky, gentle wind and warm sunshine, and a bit chilly weather. It is so grateful to write something here to share my lives with you all at my lovely home during this most beautiful time.  

2013 is a just a vigorous year to run in my second mission of my life –as you know I spent most of my career outside home to do humanitarian work and it is a difficult mission for me to return home and readapt to this ‘new’ environment, including life-style, living environment, work, rebuild social network and family gatherings. All of the new changes come together at the same time and honestly, it is very difficult to strike a balance in between; especially I used to spend much of my time at work. But well, this is the challenge that I realized during APLP and determined to have more holistic and balanced life. I am so much thankful to have a break at Hawaii to clarify my way ahead and make a clear goal and set priorities. 

Being the host of the blog in December, I would like to start with a review of my set goals in 2013.(please excuse I still put my work as my first priority .. ^^)

 “Goals provide purpose and direction, as well as motivation and commitment. They are viral way to enhance performance and realize preferred futures.”

I recalled the days at Japanese Garden, we think, reflect and plan about our purpose of life and set goals. This is what I written “My purpose of life is to protect the underprivileged children to avoid any forms of exploitation and preventable danger and ensure they can acquire development opportunity. Children can live happily with dignity and hope.”  This is still powerful in my soul and guiding me the best practice at work. 

I am currently working at Mother’s Choice in Hong Kong which was founded in 1987 by a small group of people concerned with the plight of Hong Kong’s single teenagers and their family members coping with crisis pregnancy. Today, Mother’s Choice continues to impact the lives of thousands in our community through our four services Pregnant Girls Services, Child Care Home, Adoption Services and Foster Care Services. I am one of the new members, acts as a deputy director of services overseeing the four services. Definitely, this is my new era in understanding the child protection issues in Hong Kong and in the region. 

Yesterday, we had a Family Reunion Party at our Child Care Home*. This was to connect the adoptive families in town and had a reunion for those adoptees with our staff. This was a very meaningful yet beautiful event. I saw touching tears from our colleagues as well as the happiness smiles from the adoptive families. The pregnant girls also participated in the event by selling their handmade crafts and handbags. This was such a beautiful event to better understand ADOPTION. 

Family is defined by Love and Commitment, rather than solely blood ties. Our colleagues shared that they personally witnessed a desperate teenage mother carried her baby which is unplanned and she and her family is not ready to raise her own daughter and after careful and painful consideration, they decided to place the baby for adoption, giving him/her the best blessings for another destiny. On the other hand, some awaiting adoptive parents are also patiently waiting for their daughters call their own. I can see a little live which was said to be a curse or crisis is ACTUALLY a blessing at it’s another side. Adoption is a new knowledge for me and I am deeply impressed and amazed by the dedicated love from adoptive parents as well as the birth parents. 

People will always give stigma to those young adults having unplanned/ crisis pregnancies as moral or ethical issues and expect their responsible behavior is to raise their own child despite unfavorable conditions of his/her own families. Or another way is deal with crisis pregnancies is to do abortion--thought it was an ‘easiest way’ to deal with the ‘problem’. However, no matter which choice they pick is DIFFICULT and HEART BREAKING, as all are related to lives and permanent loss. I personally witness many ladies suffered from depression or mental illness as of abortion experience.

My job has extended my horizon and insights that placing the child for adoption is also a positive option for crisis pregnancies and building families. 

As of my job nature, I came across many children in foster care and institutional care service. They were placed out of their home as of unfavorable situations at their biological families, for stances  birth parents have mental illness who are unable to take care of their children; children may have risks of exposing child abuse or neglect. These residential care services are supposed to be temporary care for children in need for shelter and serve as a protection measure; however, there are many children just spending their childhood at these care services; Most of them are staying at these small-group homes or institutions or foster home for at least 3 years. Children suffered lots of emotional and attachment issues, their developmental opportunities are diminished. 

This is one of the most shocking phenomenon when I returned Hong Kong and this set me a clear determination on improving the situation. To me, every new-birth on earth worth celebrations and children deserves a permanent and loving families call their own. They should have parents who dedicate to their lives. And I am so much proud to be part of the team using daily practice to tell even small little efforts pay a big difference to the society –bring hope and transform lives, and inject positive energy in the society.  

I am so thankful to have APLP experience that gave me an invaluable reflective period in the earthy paradise. I am so glad that I am still working on what I committed and desired for --'I love to utlize my talents, capacities, opportunities, network as well as my time to bridge the needs of community to policy makers. Be the vocal person to raise the public awareness of the needs of vulnerable children'.

Jacob Chen - An Adoption Story 

*Our Child Care Home has been home to thousands of children since we opened our doors in 1989 who, for a variety of reasons, are awaiting a permanent family. Our holistic caring model promotes healthy growth in each child’s physical, mental, psychological and social development to enable them to reach their full potential and to eventually meet their forever family.

Welcome Emily for hosting our G12 Blog in December

Please move to Hong Kong where Emily has been performing with her passion at the Mother's Choice to support for babies and children who need perpanent homes, and singles girls facing crisis in pregnancies.

The Blog's floor is yours now Emily! We look forward to reading your first article soon.

G12 Ohana.

Return to Work at the East-West Center

In experiencing the Asia-Pacific Leadership Program (APLP) as participants or fellows, the academic-world part of it was only half the East-West Center experience. We were only on a “stage” performing a lot shows (APLP activities), and we received applause and congratulations from the audience (friends and family members) for our successful completion of the shows (graduation from APLP). Have we ever imagined how much work the program team did to make our APLP a successful performance? Having been a part of the education program team this semester, I have experienced amazing work behind the scenes accomplished by a program team that has made such a program success.

That said, it is not only how I feel about the APLP but also some other programs that I have been directly involved in such as the MARA Leadership Transition Program and ProSPER.Net Leadership Program.

The EWC education program has carried out the MARA Leadership Transition Program in collaboration with and funding by the Government of Malaysia, fostering leadership skills and advancing entrepreneurship and a doing business mind-set for Malaysian government leaders, whereas the ProSPER.Net (Promotion of Sustainability in Postgraduate Education and Research Network) was implemented in alliance and support by the United Nations University to develop practical leadership skills and enabling participants from various stakeholders, informed policy-thinking and decision-making, new ways of managing knowledge, and implementing research solutions.

Those are not all initiative and innovative leadership activities at the EWC. The program team consists of the same human resources, as you know, that have been managing many other programs. For example, the Century Leadership Program (CLP), the Pacific Islands Leadership Program (PILP), the Pacific Islands Women in Leadership Program (WIL). In the summer, there is the SUSHI and Brunei program as well.

I have been fortunate to be able to participate in some of those programs’ key sessions as part of their training activities that merged with the MARA (in September) and ProSPER.Net groups (in November). The merging sessions were of a similar format that our APLP class experienced with the Brunei group last year.

 Round table discussion - merged activities between MARA and APLP, September 2013

My workday normally starts at 8:00am and ends at 5:30 or 6:00pm.Sometimes I leave much later and work during the weekend, mostly facilitating outdoor activities or site visits with the fellows - for example joining the fellows to visit Pearl Harbor or hiking to the top of Diamond Head. Working and having fun with them is just fantastic! It always brings back nice memories, many of them, of my time as a fellow with all of you with the APLP program last year.

Hiking to Diamond Dead with ProSPER.Net fellows, November 2013

In short, my main role is training operations and facilitation. They considered me as a “glue” to help everything come together, putting all parts of the puzzle in the right place. The puzzle picture is the training program that has been designed. The puzzle pieces are international fellows, guest speakers, training venues, site visits, transportation, training materials, best photo collection, etc. The job requires the ability to handle many different tasks at the same time, requires special attention to detail, and especially to be on time. Sometimes, in order to accomplish multi-assignments, I run around like crazy, resulting in my rarely being in high heels! Hence, I guess my long legs and quick reaction and adaptation have helped a lot to perform this job :-)

Although I consider 6pm late for me, I always see Lori still sitting at her desk, and many times with a tired expression on her face. I don’t know how she can manage such a range of backdrop tasks supporting different programs while still also active in her Hula training activities which, I believe, is her talent and passion. She can even find a time to teach a weekly Hula class at Burns Hall for a group of fellows. Although working in such busy environment, everyone can hear and enjoy her really inspiring laugh. That is an amazing lady. I wish I could have her laugh!

Likewise and it is no surprise that Nina is often in her office late afternoon. Additionally, I bet if you access the APLP hub, you can see her online late in the evening. One of the MARA fellows told me that he was surprised and seriously impressed that one day he had an emergency request by his management in Kuala Lumpur resulting in his needing to talk to program management, and he could come to Burns Hall that day to talk to Nina around 10pm!  The issue was resolved quickly the next day thanks to that late meeting. I have seen Nina involved in teaching an APLP class as well. Wow! Further, she concurrently still effectively manages, coordinates resources and inputs of all programs.

Last Wednesday (before the Thanksgiving), I asked Nina whether I should work on Friday. “It’s calm time for family. I would try not to work this day” – her response really touches me. And yes – I have been enjoying more time with my beautiful children. Do I have time for family? Absolutely this is the right time!

After shopping with my kids on Black Friday, 26 Nov 2013

In the recent staff meeting, I heard Scott mentioned that Nina was going to give a shocking news. I wonder what that was. The answer was that she is going to take off three weeks for her annual leave! :-) She has been working and working so hard, and I guess that she is only taking the leave for Christmas to visit her family in the mainland.  

With Christina at the Waikiki Yacht Club, September 2013

Working with Christina to support the above programs has been the best part of my working and learning experience at the Education Department. I have picked her brain for its reservoir of innovativeness and flexibility in designing and handling crisis, especially last minute decision-making that is sometime very important for the program to adapt to new situations and fit with a specific group of fellows and the funders’ requirements.

Thank-you card from Christina. What a beautiful culture of Thank-you expression!

The members of the Leadership Program, I have found, are of marvellously unique characters from whom I really enjoy learning. It seems that everyone involved in running the programs work at their highest capacity. I wish the EWC would be able to raise more funding so that will allow the Leadership Program to operate with more resources.

Making sure the fellows meet their study objectives, ensuring their leadership skills are enhanced, and bringing them together through many in-class and outdoor activities is a big part of the program’s success. An example of bringing fellows from different parts of the world together is that I have been able to help connect many of them on Facebook. Just a simple click to Add, Like and Comment, that can bring peoples closer – a big difference, isn’t it? We learn that even those who come from the same countries did not know each other before.

I would also like to share my general view of the Leadership Program based on my perspective as an alumnus and a colleague after working with the program team this semester. Having a business-development background, my view is that everything is similar to doing business. One of the successful criteria of a business establishment is the ability to earn benefit by delivering the right and good-quality services and products that meet the right investors and customers satisfaction. My observation though many training programs is that the EWC Education Program has been highly accomplishing their mission. The program’s customers are international fellows, the investors are the funders, and the products and services are many diversified long-term and short-term leadership programs at the EWC.

What more? Oh yes - working and supporting different programs, I am so glad that I have been able to learn from different perspectives and insights from new fellows. The greatest part is that I can learn from their special country perspective related to politics, economy, culture, etc without travelling around the Asia-Pacific. Of course, it is always good to experience in person what is going on in the reality. I believe that working with the leadership program has been enabling me to focus on my academic and career development in international affairs.

Author: Loan Le

Interview with Hawaii Executive MBA Program - November 2013

I have recently been interviewed by the Vietnam Executive MBA Program at the University of Hawaii. The interview is part of the Program's published Newsletter which I would like to share with you since some of my answers addressed the balance between work and life and referred the APLP experience.

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Ms. Loan Le is a graduate of VEMBA Hanoi Intake 2 (2001-2004), and has recently graduated from the Asia Pacific Leadership Program at the East-West Center in Hawaii. The Editorial Board of (VEMBA Alumni Newsletter) congratulated and interviewed her on this recent achievement as well as her experience with VEMBA Hawaii.

Ms. Loan Le photo at the VEMBA 2 Graduation Ceremony with the Program Coordinator Dana Alden, May 2004

Loan Le's short biography: A career business development and program management professional, Ms. Loan has worked with the Embassy of Denmark in Hanoi, USAID Vietnam, UNDP, the International Trade Center (ITC) of Geneva, Strategic Consulting Group, MiTac International Corp. (Taiwan ICT), Singapore Business Group, and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) in Vietnam.

During her time working with these international organizations, she has provided significant support to the private sector of Vietnam, the U.S., and Denmark. Her major expertise includes business match-making, business development, social entrepreneurship, and trade and investment advice. She has developed hundreds of commercially viable partnerships in various sectors and facilitated many business disputes and resilience-building in Vietnam.

VEMBA Hawaii: What motivated you to study VEMBA Hawaii & how has this program changed you?

My career passion in strengthening the private sector in Vietnam and helping Vietnamese companies to better integrate and cooperate with international partners was my initial motivation to pursue the VEMBA Hawaii. My background and work experience with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) was a good start for me to move forward to my passion.

In 2002, I was working with a UNDP Trade and Export Development Project in Hanoi. Knowing that the VEMBA Program was one of the best-quality accredited MBA programs in Vietnam, especially with it designed to fit with those who had already had business experience at the executive level, I decided to upgrade my skills and knowledge in business management to a larger scale.

The program provided outstanding American professors from Hawaii to teach us not only in theory but very much in practical. I can tell that because a number of professors were business consultants who shared with us a lot of valuable business experience in the U.S.

I was glad that what I learned from the program enabled me not only to perform effectively at the workplaces but also to network and integrate into the community and society both in Vietnam and the U.S.

After graduation from VEMBA, I worked with the Economic Growth Program at USAID, then subsequently with the Business-to-Business (B2B) Program of the Embassy of Denmark in Vietnam where I earned a reputation for contributing significantly to the growth of the private sector in Vietnam and Denmark. And since I studied and worked at the East-West Center, I have continued voluntarily to promote doing business in Vietnam with Hawaiian companies by connecting with relevant business stakeholders in Honolulu. As for me personally, the VEMBA Program also changed my mindset in many aspects of life. For example, I learned how to think and work in creative and innovative ways. Before, I was just a good follower to do what exactly I was told to do, in sync with Vietnamese culture :- )

Another unique aspect of the VEMBA program is its offering elective courses in Hawaii. I found this to be a superb opportunity for me and other VEMBA participants to join class with American students and attend a lot of networking events. Until now, I can still maintain my network with people we met in Hawaii 10 years ago. Some have become my mentors; some are my great friends.

The bottom line or what I gained perhaps most from the VEMBA: Confidence. Before graduating from it, when I would receive leads for high-powered jobs, I just didn’t have the confidence to go for them.

That changed with my having earned this Executive MBA. In fact, I became the Head of the B2B Program for the Danish Embassy, with my replacing a career Foreign Service Dane after the Danish Ambassador Peter Lysholt Hansen recognized in me my ability to run his program.   

VEMBA Hawaii: What thing do you remember most about VEMBA Hawaii?

What I remember the most is my time learning and working with my group consisting of six people. We applied each knowledge-gained from the program and our professional experience to help develop a business strategy for a newly established joint venture (JV) in the bedding sector.

One year after consulting and developing a strategy for the venture needing improving, we learned that they had implemented our strategic recommendations; as a result, their sales, turnover, and revenue had increased 30-40% compared to that of the previous year. We had learned well, and the University of Hawaii had taught splendidly!

That was the first time for my performance to bring a tremendous benefit to a company, a fantastic experience in learning by doing. More specifically, it was my group’s performance; they had chosen me to be their group leader.

This consulting where we had to go out and find a company for them to pay for our help was our VEMBA capstone course.

My three favorites about VEMBA Hawaii: Teamwork, fun retreat with the VEMBA cohort, the program staff and professors, and an absolutely wonderful trip to Hawaii for a summer session.

VEMBA Hawaii: VEMBA Hanoi Intake 8 and HCM Intake 6 will take place next month. Could you share with them some advice to be successful in the program or how to balance work-life during this intensive program? Any message you want to give them as new students and as future alumni? 

Asking questions is the first thing I would like to share with VEMBA participants. For example, English is our second language; therefore, sometimes we may not fully understand a part of the lecture. One needs to ask to make sure of understanding.

The more you ask, the more you can learn. Asking questions related to your work is the way you can quickly learn in practice. VEMBA professors sometime may give marvelous advice that helps you make a competent decision or resolve a dilemma in life or at work.

VEMBA program is indeed intensive. I remember often staying up late until 2-3am (even 3:30am for the management accounting course), to complete my individual assignments and coordinate with my team to accomplish group assignments.

Most of us worked during the day and had no time for homework during the day. I was fortunate to have great support from my parents and spouse who took good care of my child for me to concentrate on my work and study. It is hard to have a good balance in this situation, but when we look back, we should be proud of accomplishing successfully such a program. Practice makes perfect, diligence is the mother of success – as our Vietnamese proverb :-) (co cong mai sac co ngay nen kim).

Ms. Loan Le’s photo with her 3 year old-daughter on the VEMBA 2 Graduation Ceremony, May 2004

  

VEMBA Hawaii: You have had one more time to study with the University of Hawaii as an East-West Center Fellow. Could you share your success with East West Center Fellowship Program? How did you experience this opportunity and your advice for candidates this year? 

I am a graduate of the Asia Pacific Leadership Program (APLP) this year. As I know, many fellowship programs prioritize for alumni. I believe that being a VEMBA graduate (GPA 3.5) was part of my success in receiving the APLP fellowship award. And of course, professional work and academic experience, personal talent and capacity are also some criteria that the East-West Center looks into during the application assessment.

My short comment about the APLP at the East-West Center: Participants will enjoy in-class, outdoor activities, potluck, fun, networking, leadership, connection, friendship, collaboration, sharing, team spirit, and especially a three-week field study visit to the east coast of the US or China. For me, it was just a fantastic learning experience not only from the US and international lecturers but particularly from fellows from the many nations of Asia Pacific.

The APLP applications for 2014-2015 are now being accepted through Dec. 1, 2013. Please visit www.eastwestcenter.org/aplp or email aplp@eastwestcenter.org for more information.