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jeanpatrickc-blog · 8 years ago

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Journal 1

Service Learning

February 20, my group mates and I discussed our objectives for our CSRGOVE Service Learning Activity. Originally, our plan was to help out a school named Food for Hungry Minds. It is located at Gil Puyat LRT Station near De La Salle University. It is just near but because of the incident where students riding a bus were involved in a tragedy, the SLIFE in De La Salle University prohibited school related activities outside of school. This made our group cancel the initial plan. Surprisingly, the group of Eman Kazemi and Andrea Fernandez had the same situation. They had no beneficiary yet so we decided to merge and collaborate as well. On February 27 their group and ours came talked and brainstormed about what we can do together as a merging group. We then decided to use the St. La Salle Preschool near Agno Canteen as our beneficiary. We got a little lucky because we were able to merge with another group who had the same situation. After class, we were free during that time so we went to St. La Salle Preschool to talk to Ms. Kristine, our contact person from the school regarding our Service Learning Activity proposal.

We also planned what actions to do in order to raise funds for the books we will be giving out to the students of St. La Salle Preschool. We decided to sell cupcakes since it is very popular amongst De La Salle University students. The time frame is 4 days. The cupcakes were to be sold at 15 pesos per piece and our goal is to sell at least 334 cupcakes all in all to earn 5000 pesos to use in buying the books we will be giving out to the students. We decided to position our small booth at the SJ walk since the foot traffic of students there is very high. We decided to sell cupcakes because a lot of students would want to grab a sweet bite while walking around campus

Journal 2

Service Learning

March 2 to 3 we started selling our cupcakes for our partner school St. La Salle Preschool. We were not able to sell half of the cupcakes we had. It was actually painful to see the cupcakes not being sold but at least there were some who bought it. It is tougher than expected; selling cupcakes. I’ve been buying and selling different men’s items such as clothes, bags, shoes, accessories and perfumes online. I post them and put my asking price and it is up to them whether to click on my ad or not. They have freedom whether to check it out our not. I do not need to call their attention or ask them to buy it. I just simply post it online and wait for a message through the application or wait for a text message through my phone. Compared to what we have experienced today, it is but a different story and journey. Selling online is quite easy compared to selling face to face. When selling face to face you have to fake your smile even if you’re tired so that you can attract customers to buy your product, unlike online even if you curse at them, no one know because they can not see you or hear you at all. In selling face to face it is harder in terms of exerting effort because you need to move around and talk a lot to be able to engage customers and sell, unlike online you just have to show a nice picture of your product and give a reasonable price which is shown on the product’s title. Selling cupcake face to face had another disadvantage especially on men. It is harder to sell cupcake if you are a guy because people do not relate cupcakes to men, but rather they often relate it to either children or women. But even if we man had the disadvantage, we still did our best. I did my best, even if I know it is not enough.

I had so much fun despite being tired the whole day be cause I had classes still. On Friday March 3 was our weakest day for sales, I cannot remember fully how many we sold that day but it was the weakest day in terms of sales. It is because t all students have classes on that day. The foot traffic was very little and the students passing by SJ walk significantly dropped in number as compared to March 2. It dropped for like more than 50% leaving our sales very low. But even if our sales were low, it did not really matter because there will be another week for sales.

It was a fun and tiring experience.

Journal 3

Service Learning

March 6 to 7 we continued our cupcake selling for our CSRGOVE and surprisingly we had more sales compared to last week. Last week March 2 to 3, we had sold 117 cupcakes in total, but this week we sold an astonishing amount of 219 cupcakes. During the first week we had so much trouble in calling out people who would want to buy and how to attract them and even on the second week it was hard as well. The first week was quite harder since it is our first time to be seen at the SJ Walk selling cupcakes, but the following week we told our friends to come and visit our booth at SJ, then we had bigger sales. It was a very long journey, I realized that selling cupcakes is not as easy as you think, but when you think of the purpose and the goal, which is to help raise funds for the less fortunate, there is this powerful drive that makes you want to push more and sell more. It is tiring especially when you have to convince two hundred to three hundred customers to buy cupcakes from you. I was actually getting a little ashamed because I was like a salesman desperate to reach his quota. Selling cupcakes is hard, and convincing people to buy a product from a stranger is way harder, but nevertheless, it was a fun and tiring journey. I enjoyed myself even if I was tired, especially when we actually hit our quota; to sell 334 cupcakes in order to gather a total of 5000 pesos. We sold a total of 336, two cupcakes more than what we were supposed to sell. It was so satisfying to the point that I would want to volunteer in the future for another fund raising program to help the less fortunate.

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jeanpatrickc-blog · 8 years ago

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Journal 8

Today is the day of our debate about McDonald’s Restaurant versus Stella Liebeck. This is the case where Liebeck sued McDonald’s for selling coffee that is too hot. The incident was when Liebeck was inside the car. She spilled the coffee on her thighs and genital part, which caused her skin third degree burns. In this debate the groups were divided into three, one is jury, another are the lawyers of McDonald’s and lastly are the lawyers of Miss Liebeck. The debate started out by giving initial information regarding each client. As the debate goes on, the exchange of points between the lawyers from opposing parties started to get heated and more exciting. The lawyers of McDonald’s were pointing out that a product given by the company to the restaurant will be under full responsibility of the buyer. Whatever happens after the sale if the product is mishandled, all injuries are not subject to the company’s misdoing but the handler or the owner. They also pointed out that the brewing temperature suggested by the National Coffee Association is 195 to 205 degrees Fahrenheit, but what they missed out is the ideal serving temperature, which is what we were pointing out. According to the National Coffee Association, the ideal serving temperature for coffee is around 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which is a lot less hot compared to the brewing temperature. We won the debate because of this exact reason. It is such a wonderful experience to go on a debate considering that the other group had a student who is part of the De La Salle University debate team. They did not lack confidence and conviction, but rather they lacked the proper information to keep us under water. If they would have compared the coffee with how companies sell knives, they would have pushed us to the edge but they were not able to use it against us and for that reason we won. I really find it interesting that Miss Azineth even bothered to include a debate in our curriculum. It is much appreciated because it is a very unorthodox way of teaching us how to defend people of their rights. She gave us an opportunity to apply it in a very practical and ideal manner. I find this part of our course very much satisfying because it is an additional set of knowledge and learning. Being able to engage in a debate with people who have deeper vocabulary and actually winning is such an achievement because we were the underdogs and winning as an underdog is more than just rewarding. I also realized that it is actually fun to defend people and their rights if you are fully informed.

Journal 9

Deciding on which one to do first, how to start and when the long list of things to do will ever end are few of the things that a college student may ask himself most of the time. As a college student, committing my time and efforts to other activities other than to my academics has been a big challenge for me. I can say that I did not put so much of my best efforts in my CRSGROVE class for this trimester. Not only do I regret not studying for some of my quizzes and not passing some of my requirements on time, but it also made me realize how much I could have done more for this class. For the many years that I have been studying, I seem to have not found a suitable plan for myself on how to manage my time well with all the requirements of school and other commitments I have to attend to. Although I am having a hard time juggling all these things that I have to do without a plan for myself, I take this as a challenge for me to push harder in getting to know my self and what works for me. With this, I have realized that I maybe given a lot of tasks to do, but it shouldn’t be a reason for me to miss out on other things that I need to do as well. More so, to become successful in life I need to be able to accomplish small opportunities of success in my list to get to the bigger ones. Time management is the key.

Another learning that CSRGROVE taught me is how to prioritize more important tasks and do these efficiently. Procrastinating and cramming are the habits that I am very much guilty of. I tend to postpone my tasks in exchange of things I think is more convenient and fun at the moment without realizing that I am sacrificing so much of my time instead of getting work done faster. Although I work well when cramming and I have somewhat mastered doing this all the time, I have realized that I shouldn’t cram all my home works and projects all at the same time. One, because the quality of work I am giving when cramming is not the best that I could give. I know I could do better and I am capable of doing more if only I put my time and effort on to it. Two, if I don't procrastinate then I can easily tick off other tasks I need to do from my list and I will not be burdened with managing my time doing all my requirements with a little amount of wasted time left.

Overall, I can say that more than the lessons and basic concepts I should learn from CSRGROVE, I learned more important things in life that will help me improve myself. After the dreadful week that I thought I wouldn’t be able to handle, I learned how to work hard and be patient. Nothing in life comes easy and all successes come from learning from your own mistakes and accepting changes and struggles in your life whole-heartedly. With this, I have become more challenged to always do my best in everything that I will do and to always strive to be a better version of myself.

Journal 10

For today in CSRGOVE my group and I are the reporters for the meeting, we discussed about PDRC, an employee named Ashton and corrupt East African officials. The case is about an employee who was given her first managerial assignment by her manager. She is assigned to seal a contract in East Africa and get a building permit to be able to begin with the construction of the PDRC’s headquarters. She is given a task that will determine whether or not she is the real deal. She accepted the assignment but the problem began we she found out that the norm in East Africa is to bribe the officials in order to get the contract sealed and get a building permit. It is illegal to bribe foreign officials and if she is caught she will be imprisoned and the company she is working for will have to pay millions of dollars to pay as their fine. Our decision was for her to forfeit the assignment and report it to the authorities because we believe that it is the best way to avoid her being jailed and for the company not to pay millions of dollars if caught. We agreed upon this decision because we thought that it is better to give up the assignment because it may lead to a bigger problem in the future. I personally realized that we should have pushed through with the project by asking a local to bribe the government officials because through this, Ashton will not be imprisoned because there will be no evidence that she gave money to the locals. The company will also extinguish the possibility of paying millions of dollars if caught. If she had given money to a local to bribe the officials, it would have been a utilitarian form of action and decision, which will benefit the majority. I personally believe that it is the best way to handle the situation because everybody wins if that happened. Having these thoughts, I realized that not everything illegal is bad and not everything legal is good as well. What matters is the good of the majority. I personally stick to the utilitarian mindset where the greater god should be the priority, unlike the Kantian where it focuses on the individuality of humans. I find the ethics interesting mainly because it opened my mind to different possibilities and it made me a wider and deeper thinker when it comes to decision-making. If I were not able to learn this from Miss Azineth then my knowledge about ethics would be dull and shallow. I believe CSRGOVE is a useful subject not only in school, but also in the real world because it allows you to explore different points of view. I feel like I am more empowered than before because I have gathered more knowledge.

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jeanpatrickc-blog · 8 years ago

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CSRGOVE JOURNAL

Journal 1

Today is the first meeting of our CSRGOVE class with Miss Azineth Castillo. This day is such a blessing not only because our professor is a jolly one but also the lessons to be taught to us sounds really interesting. I find this subject quite intriguing mainly because it is all about our corporate social responsibility and ethics as well. I see this as an opportunity to use the lessons I will be learning in this class to the business my friends and I established. We founded a shoe business that acquires services from shoemakers in the under rated community of Marikina. It is a shoe business that purely relies in Marikina made materials and Marikina craftsmen as well. I believe that learning more about corporate social responsibility will give us the right tools to properly handle and maintain the business. It can also help us create a better society, which gives proper treatment and reasonable gestures to our sapateros. It can also generate greater opportunities for our Marikina sapateros since learning more about corporate social responsibility gives us the edge and knowledge when it comes to the assessment of our actions and how we should do things right to build a great foundation not only for our business but also for the Marikina community.

I also think that learning ethics in a business perspective will help us in our decision-making, and how to make it more effective and efficient in a way that maximizes everyone’s wellbeing. Learning about ethics I now know that it should come together as a compliment on how businesses should work and how people should treat others and how the business and the people should decide accordingly. It is a great opportunity to learn more about ethics since it is used by many different organizations and business all through out the world. Being able to use this knowledge in ethics gives us the wisdom in decision-making. It also allows us to maximize a specific decision’s efficiency so that we will be able to create the wisest if not, most effective steps we can for the business’s betterment. I believe that corporate social responsibility and ethics are both essential in managing a business and creating a better society.

Journal 2

Today in CSRGOVE, Miss Azineth Castillo taught us the justice values. These are different kinds of values manifested in different kinds of people in our society. These are also the ideal values everyone must have or learn to at least contribute to our country properly and accordingly. These values are essential building the welfare not only of an individual but also the nation as well. I learned that justice is all about being fair to everyone. There should never be favor in a loved one, or a family member when it comes to dealing with crimes, same goes to the oppressors. After learning about these justice values, I now believe that each and every person in our society should be given the chance for justice to fight for his or her right in gaining something. Being fair is what gives our society the stability to create efficient decisions without any bias or favoritism.

Today is also the first good news Monday for the class. They presented to us how McDonald’s effectively and efficiently helps out our society in terms of reducing waste. Even if McDonald’s is one the largest producers or fast food and at the same time one of the largest producer of food waste, they still manage to reduce the waste they generate through advanced technologies offered to them by our brilliant tech engineers who created machines to fully disintegrate waste coming from these large food chains. One great example of how McDonald’s is reducing their waste is by recycling the oil they used in cooking. Instead of throwing away the oil used in cooking tons of fast food straight to wherever it should be thrown, McDonald’s further developed a way to reuse this huge amount of oil with the help of advanced technology and inventions created by developers. They are now being able to efficiently convert used cooking oil into biodiesel fuels that are used to power their delivery trucks and motorcycles. In this way, they are managing waste properly and this is one great way of showing a company’s corporate social responsibility. They do not just prioritize income and sales but also the wellbeing of the environment. Converting waste into renewable resources is one of the most brilliant ways to reduce waste and help preserve the environment. Through this, we can say that McDonald’s is a great fast food business not only because of the taste their food has to offer, but also because of the waste management they are doing to positively help in our environment.

Journal 3

Today in CSRGOVE, a group presented Google’s corporate social responsibility. They talked about Google and what they do to commit to their corporate social responsibility. One of the events Google created is the Google China Innovation Cup for University students. This event is great because it gives students the opportunity to showcase their talent to the whole of China and also to Google. Another aspect we can look at is that while Google is handling the event, they are also able to find great individuals who can manage to work in Google as one of their employees. It is also a great opportunity for these college students to find funders in their experiments and inventions. Google is helping them in achieving greater heights in terms supporting the students and their dreams of creating a better world for everyone. The social responsibility manifesting in these programs are willfully strong that it actually creates this chain of empowerment and personal welfare. Through this, Google’s efforts in creating such an event are not put to waste but into meaningful encounter.

It is actually amazing and unbelievable that these companies engage in these kinds of efforts in order to help the people. It is so dignifying to know that Google being a large company also prioritize in the wellbeing of the people. I always thought before that big companies do not actually give a damn about anything other than profit and company progression, but I guess I was wrong. The activities promoted by Google are surprisingly beneficial even if it requires a huge amount of money. They are still willing to spend for the betterment of the people. This for me is such a great surprise because I never thought that big companies such as Google would help out others just to commit to their corporate social responsibility.

Another lesson taught to us today was about people and their decision-making when the going gets tough. Miss Azineth explained to us how people forsake the legal or good process in order to achieve the ultimate goal. I realized that people do unpleasant actions when they need to achieve a certain goal but they have little resources to do it. One good example is when employees are required to reach a certain quota. This is the most vulnerable situation where people act unpleasantly. We often forget about the process when all we can see is the goal.

Journal 4

Today I just finished reading our case, “The Parable of the Sadhu”, a man who is considered as a beggar. He lives in the mountains of Nepal with a very small amount of resources. He is weak, and without food, also, he is freezing and without clothing. Mr. McCoy together with Stephen and the other hikers are also part of the story. They plan to climb the Himalayas and reach the top. Upon hiking they encountered the Sadhu in the mountains. Mr. McCoy and everyone else saw the man’s situation. He was freezing and hungry and almost dead. They weren’t prepared in how to respond to what they saw so it resulted into something unethical. The hikers may have chosen to help the man, but it was done a way that they just had to help for the sake of helping. They did what they did half-heartedly. I realized in this parable that if we are to help someone, we need to help with all we have got and give all we can. We cannot just let people in need suffer if we have the resources to help them. It is selfish and beyond evil to not do everything we can to save a life. We need to take full responsibility to help others in need.

Today, the reporters chose Starbucks as their subject for reporting. Starbucks is one of the largest coffee brands in the world. They have multiple branches all around the globe and are still increasing in number. What the group reported is how Starbucks is helping out the farmers grow their life even better and gain better opportunities as well. Starbucks made a program that gives farmers the opportunity to gain more money by growing their own coffee beans in their backyard. Through this, the corporate social responsibility is manifested in the lives of the farmers who work for Starbucks. It actually surprised me that Starbucks is helping out their farmers since there have been a lot of negative news about Starbucks. The news often mentions how Starbucks oppresses its own farmers and that Starbucks is making the lives of their farmers harder in terms of salary reduction. It was always popular that Starbucks was involved in force labor and if the workers do not do their job, they will be fired.

Journal 5

Today in CSRGOVE, I learned about Apple’s advocacies and how they are able to cater to their corporate social responsibilities. One of Apple’s main goals in accomplishing their corporate social responsibility is manufacturing without harming the environment. Its goal is to reduce their machine’s carbon footprint, which will be helpful in reducing the global warming. This does not only help only help in a small scale, it actually helps in global scale since Apple is one of the biggest manufacturing companies in the world. They launched the “Clean Energy Program” in 2015. This helps reduce the carbon emissions from their manufacturing supply chain. Included in the “Clean Energy Program” is the recycling program that has already diverted 508 Million pounds of electronic waste since 2008. Apple launched a waste diversion program in 2015 to be used on 22 of our factories. This includes reusing internal packaging, shipping packaging materials back to vendors for reuse, and limiting food waste from worker canteens. To date, efforts have diverted 73,773 metric tons of waste from landfills. Apple also started the Clean Water Program in 2013. This reduces the use of freshwater in our processes. Through proper management and efficient measures, they were able to help save more than 3.8 billion gallons of freshwater. They use innovative steps and ideas not only in their products but also for the good of the environment. Also, they are now creating new solar energy and green material projects in their processes to reduce carbon footprints. They are even creating a more mindful way to reuse, reduce, and recycle devices using robots. One more is that 240 suppliers and 270,000 workers have participated in the Apple Supplier EHS Academy program. Apple launched Apple Supplier EHS Academy; an 18-month program that aims to improve employee health and safety in the industry throughout the globe. The program ensures the employee health and safety. There was also a video wherein a robot named “Liam” shows us what happens to our Apple devices after being used or destroyed. It is yet another innovative solution that shows us how Apple attends to their corporate social responsibility. I just realized how efficient and effective Apple is in terms of preserving the environment, helping reduce carbon emissions and creating a better employee community. Knowing that Apple is big company, I never thought that they have been a lot in the sustaining of our environment. I was surprised that they are not only using their innovations to create beautiful gadgets, they are also using these innovations to help out the world for as their corporate social responsibility.

Journal 6

Today in CSRGOVE, my group mates and I discussed about “Down Sizing”. The other groups discussed other different lessons as well. Today I learned that downsizing had a lot of causes and effects. Down Sizing is a strategic action where a company reduces the size and scope of its business in order to fully improve its financial performance. It is the reduction of the number of employees on the payroll. Downsizing is done in order to cut down costs and increase company profitability. Another is for technological advancements, since machineries presented increased productivity, less error and consistency in work quality, most manufacturing industries made use of machineries and went into automation. Another reason for downsizing is due to business mergers, companies downsize their employees to avoid work redundancies. Another is for outsourcing of jobs. The practice of having certain job functions done outside a company instead of having an in-house department or employee handle them.

Lastly, when there is a lack of demand from consumers. Businesses have less income because of lack of demand from the consumers, therefore leading to downsizing. Now for the effects of downsizing I learned that there are multiple possibilities both positive and negative after downsizing. One effect would be the reduction of productivity and quality of the work the employees provide. Another would be that the employees will unlikely recommend the company leading to the company’s unpleasant reputation to other applicants. Lastly, the reputation of the company suffers since they experienced awful results from the company. It may not be explained to other people but there are other drastic effects downsizing gives especially to employees with a low income supporting a big family, or someone who has to pay for his/her debts. There have been news about suicides from different employees from different companies regarding downsizing. I realized that downsizing may be beneficial to the company but it drastically affects the employees leading to a much greater negative effects. I believe that downsizing should be seen by employees as something normal so that when the time comes that a company decides to downsize, employees would easily recover from it, and on the other hand, companies should be responsible to provide an alternative work for the employees being downsized so that everyone will be treated properly.

Journal 7

Today in CSRGOVE, my group mates and I discussed about unethical advertisements. We chose the alcohol brand “Napoleon Quince”, Destileria Limtuaco & Co., Inc. and their advertising agency’s advertisement “Nakatikim ka na ba ng 15 anyos?” was released for its Napoleon Brandy product. Their billboard is so big and it is located in Metro Manila and what is disturbing about it is their tagline, “Nakitim ka na ban g Kinse Anyos?”. Feminist groups protested against the ad because of its suggestion to child prostitution and sexual innuendo. The Advertising Board of the Philippines quickly ordered to pull-out the advertisement from the public.They definitely used this tagline to showcase or capitalize on the fact that they have premium quality of rum, which has been aged for fifteen years. It is a brilliant way of saying that their product is of quality since they have been aging it for fifteen years, I must say. But if you look at it and read it in a Filipino context, it sounds malicious in a way that it portrays a woman aged fifteen years old. A proof of this is their radio advertisement where the tone of the man voicing over sounds really manly and as if he is talking about a woman aged fifteen years. This for me is really brilliant and malicious both at the same time. It is brilliant mainly because it specifically targets a certain audience, which are men and relating to this is their likes, which is alcohol and ladies. Its brilliance is in the context that it targeted men properly, but its maliciousness is recoil towards women as if they are objects of pleasure. It is as if women who are younger taste better than older ones. In our society, fifteen years old is still a minor and this advertisement subconsciously encourages this malicious point of view to look at women under aged as pleasurable. This context ultimately disrespects women of all ages and not only the under aged ones. It actually disrespects women as a whole. I believe these kinds of advertisements should be banned in all forms because it will negatively affect our society mainly our Filipina women. It actually disgusts me since I cannot imagine under aged women being used as subject of pleasure and I deem this really unethical and disrespectful. I realized that it may be a brilliant advertisement in a way of perfectly targeting men, but it is such a malicious ad that it over powers its brilliance. To the company and ad agency that released the ad, there may have been no malice, although there is a gray area being treaded. But an average person’ looks at it differently and takes offense that undermine the moral fiber of the community.

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