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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 27, 2012)
®*!* ^Inrtlmiò (Dbsertier lu ne 27, 2012 Page Ashwin Sah of Stoller Middle School in Portland, and Andrew Bal, Akshay Pulavarty, and Raghav Prakash, all of Meadow Park Middle School in Beaverton, represent Oregon in the Raytheon Math Counts national competition. The coach is Jin Yang o f Stoller Middle School. Achieving in Math Counts A shw in Sah o f S toller M iddle School in Portland w as aw arded the second-place in dividual title in the R aytheon M ath C ounts national com p etitio n at W alt D isney W orld in L ake B u en a V ista. Sah w on a $6,000 scholarship in last Cascade Connections A lgie C. G atewood by It is, indeed, the 21st C entury. D ifferent aspects o f the em erging global econom y can be seen ev ery w here. W hen I had som e trouble w ith m y co m p u ter recently, I d id n ’t take it dow n the street to a repair shop the w ay I m ight have a broken to aster 20 years ago. A nd heaven know s, I d id n ’t try to fix it m yself, Instead, I spent about tw o hours on the phone w ith “T ech S upport.” B ut I d id n ’t spend m y tim e talking w ith som eone from Portland or Se- attle o r C hicago o r H ouston. T he m an w ho helped m e, quite skillfully, was from India. H e w as an em ployee o f the com pany w hose softw are I w as struggling w ith - an A m erican com pany - but he w orked in India, B eing a collegial sort o f person, I d id n ’t ju s t talk shop w ith this young m an - I started a conversation. A s w e w orked on m y softw are prob- lem s, I learned that this skilled, ar- tic u la te p r o f e s s i o n a l h e ld a b ach e lo r’s degree. H e helped strug- gling A m ericans and B ritons and C a n a d ia n s w ith th e ir s o ftw a re troubles for the princely sum o f $ 20 per day - and he w as happy to get it A s m ost people know , the see- nario o f talking to a tech support person based in India o r P a k is ta n or som e oth er far-flung locale is p rac tically a cliché. It’s ju s t the w ay the w orld w orks these days. M ultina- tional corporations have realized for som e tim e now that em erging na- tions have a w ealth o f w ell-edu- cated, talented p eople w ho are w ill- ing to do things like tech support at a fraction o f the w age that an A m eri- can w ould dem and. T his begs a nu m b er o f pertinent questions: A re large corporations greedy fo r seeking out lab o r forces on the oth er side o f the globe w ho are willing to w ork for far less m oney than A m ericans? D o A m ericans - and other W esterners for that m at- ter - have a sense o f w age entitle- m ent that ju s t d o e sn ’t square w ith the global econom y an ym ore? W hile th ese issu es are w orth exploring, they pale beside the m ore im p o rtan t, o v erarch in g question: H ow do w e here in A m erica com pete in this new eco n o m y , and how do w e avoid losing m ore and m ore skilled jo b s to citizens o f o th er na- tio n s? T here is no easy an sw er, I am afraid, but I can tell you w here w e m o n th ’s com petition, w hich included m ore than 200 other high-achieving m iddle school students from around the country. A state com p etitio n w as held to pick the O regon com petitors, a fo u r-m em b er team w hich placed 14th nationally. B esides Sah, the stu d en ts w ere A ndrew B ai, A kshay P ulavarty and R aghav Prakash o f M eadow P ark M iddle School in B eaverton. T h e coach w as Jin Y ang o f S toller M iddle School. Jobs in the New Economy begin: w ith education. I f w e, as a so c ie ty , m ak e it a p rio rity to p ro d u c e the b e s t-e d u c a te d , b e st-tra in e d , m o st v e rs a tile w o rk fo rce w e can , then w e can c o n tin u e to be c o m p e titiv e in th e g lo b a l e c o n o m y . T h is is n o t a c o m p le te so lu tio n to th e p ro b le m o f jo b o a t-s o u rc in g , b u t it is so m e th in g w e c an d o n o w , w ith th e re so u rc e s an d in fra s tru c tu re w e a lre a d y h a v e o n h a n d . A n d th e b e st p la c e to sta rt is at y o u r lo cal c o m m u n ity co lle g e. T o d a y ’s c o m m u n ity c o lle g e s are g ro u n d zero fo r o b ta in in g the and b ey o n d . sk ills n e c e ssa ry to fin d g a in fu l M y com puter works j ust fine now, e m p lo y m e n t in t o d a y ’ s thanks to the young m an from India. h y p e r s p e c ia liz e d , te c h n o lo g y - I w as happy to talk w ith him and d riv e n w o rk p la c e. A w h o le ran g e learn a little bit about his life. A s I o f tw o -y e a r d e g re e s a n d p ro f e s hung up th e phone, h o w ev er, I sio n al c e rtific a tio n s can be e arn ed c o u ld n ’t help im agining a w orld in at c o m m u n ity c o lle g e , w h ic h a l w hich I co u ld take m y com puter low p e o p le to fu n c tio n p ro d u c dow n the street to a rep air shop - tiv e ly and in te llig e n tly in a jo b and have it fixed by som eone w ho m a rk e t th a t is a lre a d y fa r m o re studied at the com m unity college in c o m p le x th a n it w as ju s t a few his o r her neighborhood. y ears ag o . A nd o f c o u rs e , c o m Algie C. Gatewood, Ed.D. is m u n ity c o lle g e is a lo w -c o s t g a te president o f Portland Community w ay to e a rn in g a fo u r-y e a r d e g re e College’s Cascade Campus. 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