®*!* ^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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