This photo was taken at a school in Baan Nam Khem, Thailand, where the group visited and made a donation. The entire UW group along with the school’s students are shown. This area (Baan Nam Khem) was the worst hit by the tsunami (1/2 of the village’s 4,000 inhabitants were killed) and many of these kids lost parents, relatives and classmates.

The University of Washington offered 30 exploration seminars last summer for students interested in gaining cross-cultural experience within a variety of environments around the world.

The number of seminars has gradually been increasing in recent years, as their popularity has risen, and in response to the demand, several new courses were developed.

One of these, “Corporate Social Responsibility in Southeast Asia,” is the brainchild of James Reinnoldt, lecturer in the Global Environment of Business and International Marketing at the UW Bothell.

The concept for Reinnoldt’s five-credit seminar derived from his personal experiences while living and working in Asia for over 20 years. Reinnoldt was the Managing Director for Northwest Airlines for Southeast Asia and Greater China and was based in Singapore.

He was also employed by a U.S. company in Thailand as a management consultant. Ten years ago, he left the corporate arena to start his own consulting company, Axess Asia.

Today, Reinnoldt continues to run his Bangkok-based company, while also teaching several courses at UW.

In explaining the motivation to develop the seminar, Reinnoldt says, “Through my many years in Asia, I learned quite a bit about the challenges that the world faces, but also about the increasingly important roles that companies and individuals must play to help the governments, communities and peoples overcome these issues. It was through my growing awareness of these challenges, as well as my desire to share this knowledge and the role that one can play, that provided the impetus for this seminar.”

The goals of the course focused on identifying and learning about key issues that developing countries, in this case, Thailand and Cambodia, are dealing with currently, including HIV/AIDS; gender-based violence; the plight of the Burmese (Myanmar) refugees and illegal workers in Thailand; population control; challenges of both the urban and rural poor; the lasting impact of the tsunami and pollution and other environmental impacts.

Courtesy photo
UW students in rural Cambodia “made merit” by giving a food donation to the Buddhist monks who did a traditional blessing of a home that was sponsored by the students’ charitable donations.

To gain an understanding of these problems first-hand, students spent three weeks in Thailand and Cambodia, visiting various organizations and corporations that are working to address the issues.

They met with people working at the Life Home Project, a non-profit home for HIV/AIDS-infected women and their children in Phuket, Thailand, and spoke with individuals involved with the International Rescue Committee, as well as the United Nations Population Fund.

They also went to Baan Naam Khem in Thailand, a school in a village that was hit hard by the tsunami.

Additional visits were made to several companies that are responding to the challenges, including Chevron, Merck Pharmaceuticals, the Shinta Mani Hotel in Cambodia, Coca Cola Thailand and Wonderworld Toys.

Sixteen students, many of who are business majors, took part in the exploration seminar and prior to their departure, they had to complete an assignment on the political, cultural and economic environments of each country.

“There was also a strong community-development component to this seminar,” says Reinnoldt. “Before they left on the trip, the students raised about $7,000 to donate to the orphanages and non-profit organizations we visited.

“We also used this money to have five water wells and two houses built for poor families in rural Cambodia. I think the students will tell you that visiting these families and seeing the completion of these projects, which wouldn’t have occurred without the money they raised, was probably the most profound experience of the trip.”

This was taken in rural Cambodia (near Angkor Wat). It shows the water well that was sponsored by the students who raised money. This well was donated to the family (the woman is nine months’ pregnant) who you can also see giving a traditional “wai” of thanks. By having this well, the family is now self-sufficient in water and can grow and sell or barter crops.

Shannon Nishio, one of those enrolled in the seminar, concurs with Reinnoldt. She adds, “Meeting with the people that were actually affected by what we had done was such a high point for me. They were so gracious and grateful and we were able to be present during the monks’ blessing on the house. To be able to experience an integral part of their culture was so special and I felt connected to them in a deep way.”

This was Nishio’s first trip outside of the U.S. and it proved to be an eye-opener in many ways. It gave her a perspective on what’s happening with the global economy and helped her see corporate social responsibility in action in a developing part of the world. She is currently studying marketing and public relations and hopes to eventually get a job with a company that is involved in socially responsible programs around the world.

For student Bob Everson, the seminar provided a view into a culture that went below skin deep. He comments, “You can’t get this kind of perspective by reading books or even by visiting these countries as a tourist. We were privy to many unique experiences that tourists never get to have.”

Everson echoes Nishio’s comments regarding the trip to the Cambodian village and adds, “We were allowed to be a part of such a private moment and see the meaning that this experience carried for the people.”

Though he had planned to become an entrepreneur when he graduates, Everson admits that now he is undecided about which direction he wants to take.

He says, “This whole corporate social responsibility thing opened an avenue for me that I hadn’t thought of before and I’d like to explore it more.”

In Reinnoldt’s opinion, the seminar was highly successful, though not without its challenges; many of which involved planning the logistics of such a complex trip.

However, he points to the decisions he had to make regarding what issues to focus on and which organizations and corporations to visit as presenting equally difficult challenges.

“Overall, it was a very satisfying and rewarding experience and I will definitely do it again,” says Reinnoldt, “because it really had an impact on the students and gave them exposure to cultures that are so different than their own. I think they gained awareness and knowledge and I hope that the experience has helped them to begin to crystallize their career plans.”

Reinnoldt is also currently developing a series of experiential travel seminars to be offered in 2008 that will provide small groups of students and families from the Woodinville and Bothell area with the opportunity to understand some of the challenges that people in developing countries, like Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam face.

In addition to visiting the fascinating sites in such places, participants will also get the chance to make a difference in the lives of the individuals they meet.

“They can, for example, sponsor a teacher’s education,” explains Reinnoldt. “Or provide a home for a family or even build a small water treatment facility for an entire village. I think that these types of experiences can be empowering and help people see the profound affect they can have on others’ lives.”