Tammy's WRIT340 Blog

  I think there are many things in the world that can be improved whether it’s unequal access to education and healthcare or more local problems like food insecurity and homelessness in LA. However, a lot of these seem unachievable given the scale of the problem. One way to make the world a better place that can start from ourselves is to become more conscious consumers. Consumerism is a big part of our lives nowadays, for example I can buy just about anything off of Amazon within one tap and have it arrive on my doorstep within a day. However many of us, myself included, turn a blind eye on Amazon as a company and their problems such as the poor treatment of their workers or their environmental impact.  Another similar instance is Halloween shopping. Thanks to fast fashion, it’s easy to fall into the mindset of “it doesn’t matter if I only get one wear out of it because it was so cheap, I can throw it away after.” This mindset neglects the environmental impact of how lon...

Every semester, there are a couple of exchange students that come to USC from Thailand. For the students that come in Fall, I always tell them that they made the right choice of coming to USC in fall.  I tend to enjoy fall semester more than spring semesters because there is usually a lot more to do. For division I schools like USC, there are tailgates and football games every other week. This is an experience unique to American colleges that you don't see in colleges in other countries. USC is also one of the most un-apologetically proud student and alumni network. Students can also experience other holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving. For us students coming from tropical countries, we only see two types of weather: hot and rain. Although LA may not have the full four weather spectrum, we still get a taste of summer, fall, and a little bit of winter. Temperature wise, it is quite an easy transition since LA stays warm pretty much up until October. Surprisingly, the biggest ...

Even though it has been a few weeks since my previous post, I have not finished this book yet. In the beginning it was a rather easy read as I was able to draw parallels from my own experiences. Funnily enough, before transferring to USC, I took a couple of introductory level religion classes, funnily enough in Atlanta, GA. To me it was interesting to hear the flip side of teaching world religion to undergraduate students in a liberal arts college. However, the classes I took were online and nowhere as interactive as Barbara Brown Taylor's. I appreciate the lengths she went through to let her students immerse in the content, especially for a lower level course. This level of passion is usually seen in upper electives where professors tend to have more autonomy on what they want to teach and don't have as much structure to follow like they would in an intro level course.  Aside from that, I think it is interesting read so far and unlike other books I have read. I think h...

To : Clark Hansen, CEO, AMDP From : Tammy Kongboonma, R&D, AMDP Date : October 18, 2022 Subject : Investment Analysis of Everlane As requested, here is an analysis of a potential candidate of Anima Mundi Development Partners sustainability fund. Upon further review, I would advise against investing in Everlane in the near future. This memo will outline: Investment Standards Everlane Company Overview Environmental sustainability Employees and Unions My Recommendation Investment Standards Triple bottom line states that in addition to financial performance, businesses should also focus on their social and environmental impact as well. The triple bottom line includes the three p’s: profit, people, and planet (“The Triple Bottom”). Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR is a business model that ensures companies are being held accountable for their actions, people, and the public. CSR typically encompasses: environmental, ethical, philanthropic, and financial responsibility (Jorgensen...

  The book I have chosen is Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others by Barbara Brown Taylor. This  book follows the author’s journey in re-learning about other religions and faith. The book starts off with  her first semester of teaching Religion 101 in Piedmont College located in Rural Georgia. Through her  Religion 101, some students raised some thought provoking questions which made her question and  challenge her beliefs. Together with her students, she sets off on trips all over Georgia to learn more  about different world religions.  I chose this book when Professor Hansen said that it was set in Georgia. This was intriguing since I spent  my freshman year studying in Atlanta, Georgia. There were some references to Georgia that made me  laugh like how “ Christianity was as mainstream as Coca-Cola ”. This was especially funny because Coca- Cola was founded in Atlanta and you can see its legacy everywhere such as in the name of buil...

In my first semester of college, I took an Introduction to Linguistics class for exactly 2 weeks before I  dropped it. The professor lost me once she started talking about phonetics. In my final year of college,  I am once again taking an introductory course to linguistics to fulfil my general education requirements.  Like a lot of people, I usually dread my GE classes and try to save them to the very end. For me, I don't  really see the direct application of the content I'm learning to my daily life or to my major. But this semester, I have decided to give LING 115 a shot and so I have been pleasantly surprised by the class.  The course I took in freshman year mainly focused on Linguistics in America. This naturally excluded  international students like myself, who were still familiarising themselves with all things American from  geography, accents, to cultural norms and ambiguities. The course at USC however draws examples  ...