Living and Working in the Tropics

Greetings everyone, and hope you've enjoyed your July 4th tremendously. Here's a warm update from Sagar from the tropical island of Singapore.

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Hey everyone!

To start with, let me just give a shout-out to everyone who helped make PennSEM possible: the board, the professors, the university, the mentors and us! It's hard to believe that I am immersed up to my nose in a field that I hadn't even heard about two years ago.

Singapore is a great place, a serene amalgamation of fundamentally eastern culture with all the conveniences, technology and opportunities that the western world has to offer. I've been here twice in the last two years, and can only say: it works. Those who have never been here tend to mock the country for being 'strict' (the chewing-gum stereotype), or reject the regime because they haven't seen the quality of life. It's obviously not Philadelphia with its crazy hobos and sprawling graffiti, but I love it only marginally less. So I have been spending my time eating at hawker centers (there are even 'VEGETARIAN' stalls here), Little India and McDonalds, trying to speak Singlish, futilely scouring football fields for a pickup game, drinking Margaritas on Clarke Quay and getting a hands-on experience of Social Entrepreneurship.

I have learnt a lot more about SE, work that is par excellence and soft skills in the last two weeks than I have in many years of school, especially through sustained interaction with Vivian. The work content is also fascinating because we are looking at macro sector issues, and attempting to create systemic change which is very different my original perspective on SE - working to create products and technologies that directly impact those in need, which is more on the enterprise side. If I do choose this track as my career path, this will be definitely be a question that I will have to grapple with. At the end of the day, it might also be decided by my abilities and experience, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

On another note, I have just started using Twitter as a means of information. Signed up to follow Ashoka, Acumen and a whole host of other SE related organizations. It' s even better than an RSS feed.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for more thoughts on SE. Can?

-Sagar