Lan Anh Le – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Mon, 24 Mar 2014 17:35:46 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Lan Anh Le – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Alibaba Group talks Chinese e-commerce at Stanford tech forum https://stanforddaily.com/2013/10/15/alibaba-group-talks-chinese-e-commerce-at-stanford-tech-forum/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/10/15/alibaba-group-talks-chinese-e-commerce-at-stanford-tech-forum/#comments Tue, 15 Oct 2013 08:51:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1079422 While Stanford has often offered students an inside look at Silicon Valley entrepreneurship culture, the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Stanford (ACSSS) brought China’s Internet giant, Alibaba Group, on campus through a technological forum this weekend.

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While Stanford has often offered students an inside look at Silicon Valley entrepreneurship culture, the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Stanford (ACSSS) brought China’s Internet giant, Alibaba Group, on campus through a technological forum this weekend.

The forum attracted more than 250 attendees, including Stanford students and affiliates as well as Silicon Valley and Bay Area-based engineers who have interests in e-commerce and technology in China.

COURTESY OF SHARON ZHANG/The Stanford Daily
Courtesy of Sharon Zhang

Chief Technology Officer Wang Jian and Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai of the Alibaba Group shared an inside look into the inner workings of the company as well as insights on the overall growth of the global e-commerce market in China.

“Stanford is the center of innovation and technological development, and that is what Alibaba [has been] doing for a lot of time,” said James Jian Li, Ph.D. ’17, vice-president of ACSSS’s department of career development.

Founded by Jack Ma, a former English teacher from Hangzhou, China, Alibaba Group consists of a family of Internet-based businesses that strives to streamline online business and make it easier to buy and sell products online worldwide.

Ma’s mission was not only to make the Internet trustworthy and accessible for everyone but also to help small companies who typically face many challenges in doing business.

“[Ma] wanted to create an Internet platform, as to make information more transparent and help the ‘small guy,’” Tsai said at the forum. “He was involved in the import-export trade business before starting Alibaba, and he saw that small companies didn’t have lots of resources and could not easily compete with the big guys.”

Since its foundation, Alibaba has developed leading technologies and businesses in consumer-based e-commerce, business-to-business markets, online payment and cloud computing. Reaching Internet users from more than 240 countries and regions, Alibaba still adheres to its initial mission statement, which is to make doing business easier and help out small businesses.

Tsai explained that while Amazon is single-mindedly focused on consumers and making consumer experience great, Alibaba also makes sure that merchants are happy to sell on their platform while constantly striving to improve consumer experience.

“In e-commerce, you are not merely selling products but creating something like an ecosystem that involves not just consumers but also merchants and service providers,” says Tsai. “While building that infrastructure, we want all parties to be happy.”

According to Li, ACSSS hoped that the technological forum could be used as a platform for students to network with Stanford peers and beyond.

“We want to use this platform to bring together people who want to understand the Chinese market through Chinese companies, to facilitate discussion between people on campus and in [Silicon] Valley,” Li said.

Wesley Koo ’13, Ph.D. ’17, who led a group of Stanford students on a visit to the Alibaba Group headquarters in China over the summer, was impressed by the company after attending the event.

“It’s really about how Alibaba transformed the business in China and how they innovate,” Koo said.

Helin Gao contributed to this report.

Contact Lan Anh Le at lananhle ‘at’ stanford.edu

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Students work, study at Cantor Arts Center https://stanforddaily.com/2013/09/27/students-work-study-at-cantor/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/09/27/students-work-study-at-cantor/#respond Fri, 27 Sep 2013 08:44:06 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1078889 Since she was in high school, Josie Johnson ’13 knew she wanted to work in a museum. At Stanford, Johnson typed the word “museum” into the ExploreCourses search query and stumbled upon a class about being a student guide at the Cantor Center for Visual Arts. After learning about different skills and concepts such as […]

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Since she was in high school, Josie Johnson ’13 knew she wanted to work in a museum. At Stanford, Johnson typed the word “museum” into the ExploreCourses search query and stumbled upon a class about being a student guide at the Cantor Center for Visual Arts.

A student studies a photograph at Cantor Arts Center (JASMINE WEI/The Stanford Daily)
A student studies a photograph at Cantor Arts Center (JASMINE WEI/The Stanford Daily)

After learning about different skills and concepts such as museum administration, exhibition planning and art registration, Johnson realized that she was extremely interested in art history. She ultimately held four different jobs at Cantor during her four years at Stanford.

According to Kim Mansfield, coordinator of student engagement at Cantor, Johnson was one of approximately 20 student staff members who worked at Cantor throughout last year. Students are assigned to different departments, helping with curating exhibitions, public relations and maintenance of the outdoor sculpture garden.

Asia Chiao ’15, another student staff member, said that she was attracted by the practical experience that working at Cantor can provide.

“There are few opportunities in real life to work for museums,” Chiao said. “It’s great that Stanford offers that choice to students.”

However, working on staff is just one way for students to get involved with Cantor. Mansfield said there are three other main channels for students to interact with the museum: taking free studio classes offered at the center, participating in social events and attending academic courses that meet in the Cantor building.

“Stanford students are extremely diverse with different needs and interests,” Johnson said. “But we can all use Cantor as a resource for learning since there are great things there that relate to all academic disciplines, from science, chemistry, history to visual art.”

The studio classes are no-credit, no-fee courses that aim to engage students with the museum’s exhibitions by assigning them a project to produce something that is inspired by the museum’s artwork.

Several professors—particularly in the Art History Department—also choose to take advantage of the ambience at Cantor by holding their discussion sections there.

Mansfield said that a popular method of student engagement is working at “Party on the Edge,” an annual social gathering with student performances, galleries and live music that is held at Cantor. This year, the event will be held on the night of Oct. 10.

The café overlooking the Rodin Sculpture Garden also features student-created art.

For Johnson, working at Cantor was the perfect opportunity to further explore her interests and long-term goals. Besides guiding, her work entailed tasks such as putting together art labels, working on the arrangements of the artwork and researching objects that would potentially be exhibited in a collection. However, Johnson said her most enjoyable experience was working with Elizabeth Mitchell, the museum curator.

Chiao also said that the guiding class at Cantor taught students to choose works of art and talk about them with confidence.

“It is focused toward teaching people how to talk about art without having previous exposure to art,” Chiao said. “Guides will be able to look at art and ask critical questions or help other people see what’s exciting and interesting about it.”

Despite the many opportunities available at Cantor, some student staffers feel that the center is underutilized. While it exists as an educational resource and is home to an impressive number of great works of art, students often don’t seem to see it as a space that’s accessible or approachable.

“It’s the general attitude toward the arts here at Stanford, which is more geared toward engineering,” Chiao said. “Few people are interested in art history and related subjects, resulting in poor engagement with Cantor.”

To Chiao, Cantor should be a place for people to go to enjoy art and supplement their learning. “You can also just come with a friend after class and hang out,” she  added.

“A museum is a place of learning and inquiry, and that is why we are here for students,” Mansfield said. “We want an active and engaged relationship with students. Everyone can take advantage of these rich resources, and there are numerous different ways to get involved.”

Contact Lan Ahn Le at lananhle ‘at’ stanford.edu.

To read “This is not a love letter (to Cantor Arts Center)”, Helen Anderson’s essay about her personal experience at Cantor, click here.

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Former professor leads new model for higher education https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/01/former-professor-develops-new-model-for-higher-education/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/01/former-professor-develops-new-model-for-higher-education/#comments Thu, 02 May 2013 06:32:50 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1076894 For Stephen Kosslyn Ph.D. '74, moving from Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences to become the founding dean of the Minerva Project may offer a unique experience to redefine the collegiate experience.

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For Stephen Kosslyn Ph.D. ’74, moving from Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences to become the founding dean of the Minerva Project may offer a unique experience to redefine the collegiate experience.

Minerva, which will welcome its inaugural class in 2015, will attempt to combine elements of classical and modern educational models in order to offer a more effective and affordable college experience. Enrolled students will take all classes online but — despite the lack of a central campus — will live together in traditional dorms in several countries, from which they will participate in online seminars in real-time and in classes no bigger than 25 students.

Kosslyn, who assumed his new position on April 1, previously served as one of the youngest professors of psychology in Harvard’s history, rising to become Harvard’s Dean of Social Sciences before leaving to direct Stanford’s Behavioral Sciences Center in 2011. He described the project’s model as one that will potentially allow offers of admission to all qualified applicants.

“A huge number of students who applied to a school like Harvard are qualified to do the work, and there is a need that is not being met,” Kosslyn said. “At Minerva, we want to avoid all that. We can expand and take anybody who is qualified.”

Kosslyn said he had not immediately been eager to leave Stanford for such an untested model. After being introduced by his wife to the university’s founder and CEO Ben Nelson, though, Kosslyn’s skepticism soon disappeared.

“The more I talked to him, the more convinced I was that he has effectively diagnosed the problems of higher education and has solid ideas of how to deal with them,” Kosslyn said.

Kosslyn said he became more and more involved in the project, eventually deciding he had to work on it full-time in order to effectively change the culture of higher education.

“I wasn’t looking for another job, but at Minerva I would have the chance to offer change in a way that I just wouldn’t if I stayed at my previous job,” he said. “I was really happy at Stanford, but this was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass by.”

Kosslyn also emphasized the distinct nature of the Minerva Project’s model of education, such as the use of flipped classrooms, compensating faculty in accordance with students’ performance, an emphasis on practical content and rotating students through campuses around the world.

“It’s about deep learning,” Kosslyn said. “We aim to shape intuitions so people can use the information and skills they learn creatively. We are a liberal arts college that wants to invent new ways of learning to equip people with the tools to live a full life and succeed.”

Kosslyn also noted the participation of other prominent individuals in the project. Former Treasury Secretary and Harvard President Larry Summers and former Senator Bob Kerrey (D — Neb.) both serve on the Project’s advisory board.

“Minerva is already having an impact because people are starting to pay more attention to it,” Kosslyn said. “At this point, it is clear what we are doing and how well it is going.”

To date, work has focused on developing the software platform and composing the curriculum, among other tasks.

“We’re also organizing the different majors, so the next step for me is to start hiring faculty additional administrators,” Kosslyn said. “Everything is pretty much on track.”

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Researchers create social systems to reduce political polarization https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/28/researchers-create-social-network-to-reduce-political-polarization/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/04/28/researchers-create-social-network-to-reduce-political-polarization/#respond Mon, 29 Apr 2013 05:50:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1076800 As the partisan divides in American society continue to deepen, a team of Stanford researchers has developed an algorithm demonstrating the process behind that polarization -- and created Internet-based social systems to counter the trend.

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As the partisan divides in American society continue to deepen, a team of Stanford researchers has developed an algorithm demonstrating the process behind that polarization — and created Internet-based social systems to counter the trend.

The team, composed of Associate Professor of Management Science and Engineering Ashish Goel M.S. ‘98 Ph.D. ‘99 and doctoral candidates Pranav Dandekar and David Lee, examined how people form opinions and how their viewpoints evolve over time due to outside influences such as social networks.

“When two people look at a blog and as a result their beliefs become more extreme in opposite directions, the blog has a polarizing effect,” Dandekar explained. “We wanted to come up with a model to explain this effect.”

Before developing their own model, the researchers looked at existing models that attempt to describe the formation of public opinion based on homophily, the sociological theory which assumes that “like seeks like.”

However, homophily models predict increasing uniformity of opinion over time, as people seek to minimize disagreement within their networks of friends and relations and as holders of similar opinions tend to aggregate. Those attributes made the model unsuitable to explaining America’s polarization.

“It turns out that you can’t have polarization with this kind of model,” Dandekar said. “When an individual’s opinion converges to an average of those in his or her network, depolarization happens. Instead, polarization is when opinions diverge.”

The team sought to create an alternative model to explain polarization based on biased assimilation, a different psychological concept.

“We wanted to capture this phenomenon that leads to polarization in the way that we define it,” Dandekar said. “The model would finally provide an adequate answer to the question of whether or not people have some biases that they naturally gravitate to.”

According to the theory of biased assimilation, people favor evidence that confirms their beliefs and reject information that goes against their preconceptions, which explains why two people can come to completely different conclusions given identical evidence.

“In seeing mixed evidence, meaning both the pros and cons, of issues like gun control or nuclear proliferation, people usually take in information that affirms their existing viewpoint and reject whatever that goes against it,” Lee said. “At the end, people have more extreme opinions.”

The researchers used their knowledge about polarization to create Internet-based social systems that allow people to identify similarities — instead of differences — between their political views and collaborate on solutions to issues such as the budget crisis.

“The important question is when people have to come up with a budget, it’s difficult for them to do it because of polarized views and disagreements,” Lee said. “We are finding a way to promote consensus in such situations.”

One system developed by the team is a federal budget simulation called Widescope, which allows users to propose their own budgets with detailed annotations explaining their viewpoints. Through Widescope, users can collaborate on budgets and eventually vote on the proposals.

“It’s like a process of elimination. Eventually the best budget proposals will make it to the end through a series of voting procedures,” Dandekar said. “The goal is to come to a consensus and collaborate to find solutions in a democratic manner.”

Lee and Dandekar said that Widescope was inspired by direct democracy systems, in which the entire electorate takes part in making laws and other political decisions. Through Widescope, Americans can simulate playing a larger role in the legislative process — including learning how to come to a consensus on divisive issues — than they might otherwise do.

“In the last few years, there has been an explosion of social networks,” Dandekar said. “The question here is — can we harmonize this engagement in social networking to drive public policy? Can people come together on these Internet-based social platforms to discuss an issue and come to agreement?”

Both Dandekar and Lee agreed that a website like Widescope has the potential to generate relatively accurate representations of the public opinion on a wide range of political issues, from health care reform to federal budgets.

“We are interested in whether or not we can use the Internet to promote consensus and power democracy,” Lee said. “Aggregate solutions from the crowd can be a very effective one. So can we use the wisdom of the majority to make decisions?”

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Med School professor pioneers new allergy treatment https://stanforddaily.com/2013/03/31/med-school-professor-pioneers-new-allergy-treatment/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/03/31/med-school-professor-pioneers-new-allergy-treatment/#comments Mon, 01 Apr 2013 05:01:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1075915 Kari Nadeau, associate professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine, uses a seemingly counterintuitive treatment for her young patients suffering from severe food allergies: giving them doses of the things that could kill them.

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Kari Nadeau, associate professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine, uses a seemingly counterintuitive treatment for her young patients suffering from severe food allergies: giving them doses of the things that could kill them.

Nadeau has used this technique, called oral immunotherapy (OIT), in trials to desensitize children with multiple food allergies. In OIT, the patient swallows small amounts of an allergen, increasing the dosage over time until his or her body builds up a tolerance to it.

Until recently, the only solution for patients with severe food allergies was strict avoidance of the allergen. However, Nadeau’s work with OIT has provided a viable alternative to the traditional avoidance method, especially for children with life-threatening allergies.

According to Nadeau, the results of OIT’s preliminary trials have been promising.

“The three patients that I have been working with did what we had expected them to do,” Nadeau said. “Gradually, they ate more of the allergen than what they could originally eat, and eventually they have become desensitized.”

 

Desensitizing children with multiple allergies

A Feb. 2013 study in Pediatrics estimated that almost six million children in the United States — one in 13 kids — has a food allergy. According to the study, approximately 39 percent of these allergies cause severe reactions, making Nadeau’s task both more challenging and important.

“There are so many people with severe allergies, kids with multiple food allergies,” she reflected. “I am inspired by my patients to do this work.”

One of Nadeau’s patients is nine-year-old Tessa, who was severely allergic to milk, wheat, eggs, nuts, shellfish and multiple other foods when her mother, Kim Yates Grosso, approached Nadeau about possible treatments in 2009.

Before Tessa started OIT treatment in 2012, she and her family lived in constant fear of a life-threatening allergic reaction. Grosso said that the process of being desensitized to allergens was ultimately not just about “being able to eat a type of food.

“It’s more about diminishing the fear and threats that we used to have to face,” Grosso said. “At one point, Tessa had stopped eating and didn’t want to leave the house.”

After going through an accelerated process in a multi-allergen clinical study, Tessa can now safely eat many of the foods that were once forbidden.

“She has gone from the point where she almost died when milk got spilled on her skin to being a kid who can eat ice cream,” Grosso said. “She can eat 16 peanuts, 16 almonds and almost as much wheat as she wants.”

Like other patients, Tessa has to continue eating the allergens every day so that she does not become allergic again, though the ultimate goal is that she will no longer have to worry about a relapse.

“There’s a lot of hope,” Grosso said. “We just don’t know how long it would be until she can stop.”

 

Stanford Alliance for Food Allergy Research

According to Nadeau, her interest in the immune system stemmed from her experience suffering from asthma and allergies to molds and polluted water in the houseboat where she lived as a child.

She became involved in long-term work in immunology and allergies after discovering the close connection between asthma and allergies, and she founded the Stanford Alliance for Food Allergy Research (SAFAR) to consolidate a clinical research team in fighting food allergies.

According to Nadeau, SAFAR researchers focus on the nuances of the allergic condition, such as the link between food allergies and asthma, how tobacco and pollution affect the immune system and how one identical twin can have allergies while his or her sibling doesn’t. The researchers have also experimented with various treatment strategies.

“We look at different therapeutic methods, from having a patch on the skin or underneath the tongue, to swallowing the allergen to build resistance,” Nadeau said.

According to Rosa Bacchetta, a visiting lecturer in immunology and allergy who works with Nadeau, collaboration and discussion are common in Nadeau’s lab, and Nadeau often solicits advice from other members of the Stanford community.

“She is very expert in immunological techniques, but she also collaborates with many different groups here at Stanford,” Bacchetta said.  “It’s really interesting to combine different ways of thinking, different technologies and different types of study in the work.”

Nadeau stressed that OIT is still in an experimental stage and said that though she is excited about the results of the trials thus far, she and her researchers have to be “extremely careful.”

“The patient might take that peanut and not have that reaction,” Nadeau said. “But after any one day without ingesting that peanut, their resistance might collapse, and they might have a reaction again. It’s not a cure because they have to maintain the dose of the allergen they eat every day.”

According to Nadeau, the next step in developing OIT includes conducting multiple studies with many more patients in order to improve diagnostics and make new therapies as safe and effective as possible.

Despite the room for further advances, Grosso said that Nadeau’s work with OIT has already significantly impacted many families with children that suffer from life-threatening allergies.

“She is an angel,” Grosso said about Nadeau. “She is the first doctor that has given families with food allergies hope. Working closely with Kari makes me more assured that my child is safe.”

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Students trek wilderness in Outdoor Education Program courses https://stanforddaily.com/2013/03/07/students-trek-wilderness-in-outdoor-education-program-courses/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/03/07/students-trek-wilderness-in-outdoor-education-program-courses/#respond Fri, 08 Mar 2013 07:56:53 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1075697 Each quarter the Outdoor Education Program (OEP) offers one-unit introductory courses to expose students to outdoors experiences such as backpacking, rock climbing, backcountry skiing and snow camping.

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For students enrolled in the winter quarter course GES 7B: An Introduction to Wilderness Skills, picking up cold weather survival skills—dressing in multiple layers to keep warm, preparing food outdoors by lighting coals and building shelters with snow barriers encircling them—is both a practical and academic imperative.

“In the wilderness, everyone is cold and miserable—there are not many resources,” said Jeff Chen ’13, one such student. “It’s harder to delegate tasks, decide on who does what and to manage relationships in this setting. But we learned how to depend on each other.”

Courtesy of Outdoor Education Program
Courtesy of Outdoor Education Program

Each quarter the Outdoor Education Program (OEP)—founded by students in 1989 through the athletics department—offers one-unit introductory courses to educate the Stanford community on wilderness travel techniques and expose students to outdoors experiences such as backpacking, rock climbing, backcountry skiing and snow camping.

The fall quarter class (GES 7A: An Introduction to Wilderness Skills) is an introduction to backcountry travel, the winter class is an introduction to winter backcountry travel and the spring class (GES 7C: Advanced Wilderness Skills) is geared towards students with advanced experience who want to develop leadership skills.

“The goal of these introductory classes is to develop students who have never been outside to the point where they can lead a trip on their own,” said Vivian Ericson Ph.D. ‘14, an OEP instructor and former president of Stanford Outdoors—an umbrella organization that contains many other outdoor-related groups.

Student volunteers with high levels of wilderness skills and leadership abilities teach the classes, leading students on four weekend-long trips to state and national parks where they teach students to backpack and camp in the backcountry.

In addition to teaching wilderness traveling techniques, the program also looks to cultivate skills like leadership, group dynamics and risk-management while fostering a multi-dimensional development in students, according to instructors.

“It’s not just about the hard skills,” said Travis Walker M.S. ‘10, Ph.D. ‘14, an OEP instructor. “Students come out of the class also with the soft skills necessary for leading their own trip.”

Instructors cited the classes’ introductory nature as leading to a more diverse range of students, spanning many fields and interests.

“I am a biology Ph.D. student, and I get to talk to undergraduate anthropology majors,” Ericson said. “Normally that just wouldn’t happen.”

Instructors also represent diverse origins. One OEP instructor had previously attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and was highly proficient in group dynamics and leadership. Another instructor, a Knight Fellow from the Stanford Graduate School of Journalism, shared his experience serving in a military division that focused on mountain travel.

Despite the range of expertise, friendships and a deep sense of community often arise from the classes, according to Walker.

“You have a group of people who don’t know each other come into the class, but over the course of eight weeks, they spend eight nights together in the back country and really get to know each other,” Walker said. “They build a strong community, and many students and instructors still go on trips together after the class, or outside of OEP.”

Elise DeBuysser ‘13 said that she enjoyed the class, learning enough to lead her own trip this spring and also becoming involved in the broader Stanford outdoors community.

“Ultimately it got me hooked on the backcountry and gave me skills to confidently do these trips outside of a class setting,” DeBuysser said. “It also motivated me to learn more about the places I visit and do serious planning ahead of time for safe and fun excursions.”

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Stanford Arts Institute grants supports student works https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/27/stanford-arts-institute-grants-draw-76-applicants/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/27/stanford-arts-institute-grants-draw-76-applicants/#respond Thu, 28 Feb 2013 07:01:43 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1075405 The grants, which offer up to $1,500 of funding for projects in various areas within the arts, including architecture, creative writing, film, theater and dance.

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An exhibit of vinyl prints in the Cummings Art Building lobby, a Toyon performance of a student composition for violin and viola, the Cantor Arts Center’s annual Party on the Edge– all owe their existence to student arts grants given out quarterly through the Stanford Arts Institute.

This winter, 76 students submitted applications for grants, which offer up to $1,500 of funding for projects in various areas within the arts, including architecture, creative writing, film, theater and dance. Applicants will learn if they received funding by the final week of winter quarter, and will have the following two quarters to complete their projects.

The Stanford Arts Institute currently offers two types of funding– Creativity Fund grants and Spark! grants.

The student-run Student Arts Grant Board awards Creativity Fund grants and assists recipients throughout the process of creating their work. Board president Hannah Kauffman ’14 said that the goal of the Creativity Fund is to form a connection between students, and among the entire Stanford community, at each level and phase of artistic creation.

“This involvement creates a cycle of community and interest in the arts, which we hope to extend and make more prevalent throughout campus,” she said.

The Spark! grants, awarded by The Stanford Arts Institute and endowed by Leslie Hume M.A. ’71 Ph.D. ’79 and George Hume J.D. ’75 MBA ’75, are part of a pilot program started in 2010 as a part of the Stanford Arts Initiative with the intent of making creative pursuits more accessible to students.

As a result, the grants are open to all students with an artistic vision. Khalil Griffin ’15, a computer science major, received funding to present his production, Ram’s Head’s Original Winter One Acts, in Memorial Auditorium earlier this quarter.

“What I’m constantly really impressed by is how we get applications not only from students majoring in art practices, but also from students who major in biology or computer science who are finding an outlet to do something extracurricular, creative and artistic,” said grant administrator Emily Saidel.

Saidel emphasized the grants’ emphasis on promoting creative extracurricular pursuits among students regardless of academic discipline.

“[The grantees] do not get credits for a class,” she noted. “They are not being graded. They are doing this because they feel strongly about art.”

Andrew Evans, a second-year product design master’s student, was a Spark! grant recipient last spring. Evans has performed magic for 13 years in the United States, New Zealand, Japan, Myanmar, Great Britain and France, and said that he was pushed by his friends to apply for a grant.

With funding from Spark!, he created “Vodbil,” a revitalization of several antiquated illusions.

“These old illusions are not always practical and easy to use on stage. With the grant, I was able to rediscover and build these three illusions and play with really interesting concepts that have been widely forgotten by current magicians,” he said. “It has allowed me to tap into the history of the art.”

Chana Rose Rabinovitz ’13, another Spark! grant recipient, used the grant money to organize “I am From…,” a collection of photographs and creative writing pieces created by students she worked with in Cape Town, South Africa.

Rabinovitz said she believes art is a powerful tool for outreach and community building, noting that her Spark! grant let her put together an exhibition giving a voice to the youths she worked with.

“The experience has changed my life in a lot of ways. I want to work in youth development and leadership in the long run,” she said. “I am grateful that Stanford has the resource that has allowed me to fulfill this need.”

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Mark Lawrence approaches 50 years at KZSU https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/06/mark-lawrence-marks-50-years-at-kzsu/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/06/mark-lawrence-marks-50-years-at-kzsu/#comments Thu, 07 Feb 2013 06:50:56 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074707 KZSU, Stanford’s student-run radio station, has served the Farm since 1947 and is home to a mix of students, faculty, alumni and community members almost as eclectic as the music it broadcasts over the airwaves. Although many station members come and go over the quarters, a select few stick around for years, or even decades. One of them is Mark Lawrence '67, chief engineer of KZSU for 40 years and counting.

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There is a small door on the west side of Memorial Auditorium that leads down to a basement full of amplifiers, transmitters and shelves full of records, tapes and CDs. On top of the doorway resides a drawing of a red heart, whose caption reads “KZSU Stanford, 90.1 FM.”

KZSU, Stanford’s student-run radio station, has served the Farm since 1947 and is home to a mix of students, faculty, alumni and community members almost as eclectic as the music it broadcasts over the airwaves. Although many station members come and go over the quarters, a select few stick around for years, or even decades. One of them is Mark Lawrence ’67, chief engineer of KZSU for 40 years and counting.

[Courtesy of Mark Lawrence]
KZSU engineer Mark Lawrence [Courtesy of Mark Lawrence]
In the engineering lair at the back of the station, Lawrence sits at his desk among myriad colorful wires, soldering tools and brightly lit screens. On his wall there are pictures of his family, Coca Cola ads, a card with a Robert Frost poem and a certificate of appreciation that the KZSU team gave him to commemorate his 40th year of service.

However, Lawrence might get a new wall decoration soon — this is Lawrence’s 50th year with the station. During his college years, Lawrence served as a member of KZSU’s engineering department and he has worked as an engineer at the station ever since he graduated in 1967 with a major in electrical engineering.

In his time at KZSU, Lawrence witnessed many of the transitions that the station has gone through over the years, from the annual change in leadership, to the bureaucratic hoops the station had to jump through to get their FM broadcasting license in 1964. Lawrence was even involved in the process of setting up the station’s FM transmitter at the Dish.

Despite his many years of service, Lawrence’s passion and curiosity for the technology at the station is as steadfast as ever.

“You would think that as the station’s longest [tenured] staffer, [Lawrence] would not be as enthusiastic about radio equipment as he is,” said Sophia Vo ’14, KZSU’s general manager. “That’s not the case. Every time I run into him, he’s tinkering with new technology, dusting off our vinyl record players or checking the emergency alert system.”

Known around the station for always being tapped into his smart phone, Lawrence talked enthusiastically about his fascination with technology, including GPS and computer chips.

“I’ve always been interested in building things,” Lawrence said. “According to my mom, I helped her rewire a pair of desk lamps when I was five.”

His love for technical things eventually led him to obtaining his first radio license as a sixth-grader and building a significant amount of radio equipment on his own in high school.

“So when I came to Stanford, electrical engineering was the obvious major,” he said.

Lawrence valued the hands-on experience of his undergraduate education as an electrical engineering major.

“I liked the practical side of EE a lot, more than the theoretical side of it,” he said. “I struggled with some of the theory classes, but I aced the labs.”

While some of his classmates had never gotten their hands on a soldering iron before, Lawrence was already adept at registering practical details and working with technical equipment. He joined KZSU as a freshman volunteer, deciding that — although he was involved in other student clubs, including the Amateur Radio Club — he preferred actively building things to discussing them.

“My job at KZSU was perfect for that,” he said. “I could spend all of my time building radio equipment.”

Among his other duties at KZSU, Mark helps repair equipment ranging from signal generators to distortion analyzers, replaces delicate needles on turntables and builds most of the equipment in the station’s three studios.

His duties, however, extend far beyond engineering. When, in the middle of his interview, a DJ manning Studio A shouted across the station: “Mark, there’s a burning smell,” Lawrence paused the session and rushed to where he was needed.

“To do this job, electronic knowledge is less important than general handyman skills,” he said after the crisis was averted. “I install new stuff and fix old stuff.”

Still, working with students is Lawrence’s favorite aspect of the job. He has worked alongside students that have gone onto impressive careers in the broadcast industry, including former news director Pete Williams ’74, an NBC News correspondent, and David Flemming ’98, an announcer for the San Francisco Giants.

According to Lawrence, however, the age difference between him and the largely student staff can sometimes be challenging, particularly when leadership of the station changes every year.

“The general manager, who is a student, is selected by the advisory board and serves for a year,” he said. “Technically, I call this person my ‘boss’, although they are an undergrad about 20 years old, and I’ve been working here for 50 years.”

Adam Pearson ’12, last year’s general manager, echoed this sentiment.

“When someone who’s the age of your grandparent is reporting to you, it is a challenging dynamic and conflict,” he said.

Both agreed, however, that a good working relationship was not hard to establish due to a mutual passion for college radio.

“Mark is engrained in the station culture, as he’s been there for so long,” Pearson said.

Moreover, not many students who work at KZSU are interested in the technical side of the radio.

“Do you call the electrical company to thank them that the lights are on?” Lawrence said. “You only think about your electrical company when something is not working.”

Nevertheless, Lawrence is thankful for the support and appreciation he has received from Pearson, Vo and many of the other staff members, whom he considers dear friends. Most importantly, however, Lawrence is most grateful for the opportunity to tinker with technology.

“I don’t do this job for love,” he said. “I do it because I like to build things.”

 

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Female Stanford MBA students earn 79c on the dollar compared to male peers https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/17/female-stanford-mba-students-earn-79c-on-the-dollar-compared-to-male-peers/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/01/17/female-stanford-mba-students-earn-79c-on-the-dollar-compared-to-male-peers/#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2013 09:34:17 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074150 Women who obtain MBAs from the Graduate School of Business (GSB) earn 79 cents on the dollar compared to male graduates, the largest earnings gender gap among elite business schools in the nation, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek research published in December 2012. But representatives and students at the GSB have doubts about the Bloomberg survey […]

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Women who obtain MBAs from the Graduate School of Business (GSB) earn 79 cents on the dollar compared to male graduates, the largest earnings gender gap among elite business schools in the nation, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek research published in December 2012. But representatives and students at the GSB have doubts about the Bloomberg survey results, despite their belief that it sheds light on an important national issue.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek conducted surveys of recent business school graduates for its biennial rankings of full-time master’s in business administration (MBA) programs. The study tracked the gender wage gap at the top 30 business schools, including The Wharton School, Harvard Business School and Stanford GSB.

Stanford’s GSB has the largest gap in earnings between men and women of any of the schools surveyed. On average, a female GSB student from Stanford earns $32,768 less than her male classmates, which is a greater disparity than the overall U.S. workforce’s gender wage gap.

Female to male earnings stand at 86 percent at Wharton, 103 percent at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business and 82 percent in the overall U.S. workforce, compared to Stanford’s 79 percent.

Pulin Sanghvi, director of the MBA Career Management Center at the GSB, said the gender gap is an important national and global issue that should receive more attention.

“I think that all of us who have spent time working in industry would acknowledge that there is still significant distance to travel in achieving true gender equality in the workplace,” Sanghvi said.

Still, some at the GSB claim that the reason for disparity has less to do with gender discrimination than it does with career choices.

“The primary cause of the salary gap is the differences in choice of industry,” said Carly Janson, senior associate director of the Career Management Center.

Universum’s 2011 annual survey of choices in places to work shows that women prefer to work at companies such as Google, Johnson & Johnson and Disney, where compensation is generally lower than at investment banks such as Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley. Along the same line, the 2012 Employment Report shows that GSB women are more highly represented in sectors that pay employees less.

“Female students have a higher representation in industries such as consumer products, media and internet technology –industries with relatively lower compensation — over high-compensation fields like investment banking,” Janson said.

In addition to this dimension, Sangvhi pointed out that in the technology sector, equity and stock options are major components of compensation, which can skew the wage comparison.

Maile Lesica M.B.A. ’13 and Shalie Gaskill M.B.A. ’13 are both female students at the GSB who are considering working for non-finance companies. Lesica is considering an offer from Shopbop, a women’s apparel and accessories retailer, while Gaskill has accepted an offer from Box, a cloud management company.

“Even though retail might not pay as much as other industries like banking, I would never pick a profession that I like less,” Lesica said. “You don’t choose your career based on wage.”

“Stanford does a good job at helping you figuring out what you are passionate about,” added Gaskil. “I would have actually hated it if the school had pressured women into taking higher-paying jobs.”

Both women feel that the apparent wage gap is due much more to different interests in industry than to negligence on GSB’s part.

“It’s not like Stanford has failed at helping its female students find high-paying jobs. I have girlfriends who are rocking it in finance right now. I just happen to want to work in tech,” Gaskill said.

Stanford’s class size is also significantly smaller than peer schools’.

“The GSB class is half the size of the class at peer schools, which makes our numbers more sensitive and causes an amplification of the wage gap,” Janson said.

Despite a larger wage gap, both GSB female and male students earn the highest salaries compared to peer schools. GSB women earn $121,945 while GSB men earn $154,713, compared to $115,651 (female) and $129,219 (male) at Harvard or $115,713 (female) and $135,021 (male) at Wharton.

“Would these statistics have made me choose another school over Stanford? No way. Despite the apparent bigger gap, overall our students earn more,” Gaskill said.

But both Sangvhi and Janson note that income and monetary achievements are only a part of gender empowerment.

“The biggest factor that I pay attention to is whether our students feel they are able to achieve their first choice jobs,” he said.

 A previous version of this article stated that Maile Lesica and Shalie Gaskill work for ShopBop and Box. In fact, both women are currently full-time students and have offers from the respective companies. The Daily regrets the error.

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