Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Thailand and Cambodia
The three-week study abroad program that I took part in was focused on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Thailand and Cambodia. Through meetings with executives and presenters from 16 different companies and NGOs, our group of 10 students was given a very privileged way of learning about this topic more in-depth directly from the experts themselves.
Our days consisted of site visits to multiple businesses during the morning, with afternoons and evenings free for us to further explore the local area on our own and experience the culture. We primarily traveled around via subway and quickly gained confidence and familiarity in navigating the city.
From the recognizable Microsoft that we’re all familiar with to an NGO that trains rats to detect landmines scattered across the countryside, the organizations that we visited were all exceedingly welcoming. The presenters were fascinating to listen to and I enjoyed learning about the various ways that they performed their CSR activities and their own personal backgrounds. They would typically open with a PowerPoint or start telling their story and we would hold a Q&A session right after. I commend my peers for the insightful questions that they asked which often elicited thought-provoking and genuine responses from the speakers.
Our weekends were free with optional activities if we decided to participate in them. Some examples of these included a visit to an ethical elephant sanctuary, dinner with local Bangkok professionals to explore career opportunities, zip-lining through a jungle, and a cultural tour to the Grand Palace.
A pre-departure assignment prepared us with knowledge about the history, demographics, political structures, and cultures of Thailand and Cambodia. We also completed brief reflections at the end of each week to gather our thoughts and remind ourselves about all that we had experienced. Our final assignment consisted of a unique group project which had us create a CSR strategy and implementation plan for a real grocery chain in Thailand which would be presented to the company owner himself, applying all that we had learned to prove the value of CSR programs to a real company.
My biggest apprehension about this trip was the initial cost of the program. I later realized that it fully paid for itself after calculating the costs of school credit, lodging, food, transportation, guides, and cultural activities for three weeks. This doesn’t include the immeasurable value of having access to 16 different companies with the benefit of having direct access to marketing experts and executives. UW Bothell’s Study Abroad Scholarship assisted me with helping to alleviate the cost of my flight ticket and I highly recommend that all prospective study abroad applicants submit a good faith attempt in trying for it.
If you are interested in study abroad opportunities, I strongly recommend that you consider it. Some may argue that the opportunity to visit these locations on their own will always be there but they would be missing out on the candid discussions with these businesses and the chance to challenge their own complacency when forced into uncomfortable and demanding situations.
For me, I can honestly say that this experience surpassed all of my expectations. I am extremely thankful to the peers that I traveled with for their friendliness, the trustworthy and flexible faculty that accompanied us, and the people of Thailand and Cambodia for their amazing hospitality.
Tim Law, Early Fall 2019
