Financial Analysis and Completed Term

Posted on March 16, 2016 by russalex

The end of this term leaves me with mixed feelings. I have thoroughly enjoyed this class, even the parts of it that were challenging. Professor Van Londen’s feedback and helpfulness was always so great to have, plus the material we covered was excellent. I loved what I learned here around gender gaps, women in STEM fields, cyborg theory, etc. Lots of new information to someone like myself who had little previous knowledge on some of these topics.

The financial analysis also proved to be so educational for me, as I learned that my dream trip is a possibility and I also learned a little about spreadsheets and how to set up a proper budget. I’m excited to take everything I’ve learned this term into the future with me.

Gender Lens recap

Posted on March 7, 2016 by russalex

This project was really excellent and informative. I feel like I’ve learned so much more about a device that is such a big part of my life.

At times, I felt that I wasn’t getting enough information. But overall, it was a great project. I’m excited to move on to the Financial Analysis project next!

Gender Lens continued.

Posted on February 28, 2016 by russalex

Quite the opposite of the cultural research project, I’m finding myself with much more information in this project. The learning has been great because it’s all on a topic I’m so interested in. I think I’ve learned in the project how to separate the different sections of a topic and how to define like what part of it is social vs cultural vs political, etc.

In the political portion of my project, I’ve learned some things that made me kind of mad. I don’t want to go into depth here, but I learned that people are morally against IUDs for a strange reason.

The Gender Lens.

Posted on February 22, 2016 by russalex

So I chose the Intrauterine Device (or IUD) as my topic for the Gender Lens project. I’ve always been extremely curious about the history this tiny device that prevents pregnancy for years at a time. My interest in it stems from the fact that I have one and it’s helped me so much since my body can’t handle the hormones in normal birth control (such as the Pill or Depo shots).

The research was relatively simple for various aspects. I used the Lane Community College library resources again to try to find good scholarly articles. I feel like the history of the IUD is fairly short, from it’s initial prototypes to major developments. But I want to hopefully use this to help educate women on this birth control option that many seem unaware of or misinformed on. There’s so much about it that’s just fascinating. Plus birth control is one of my favorite things to talk about and learn about, which sounds pretty bizarre when I think about it.

I’m excited to get this project going now that my research is nearly complete!

The Project Nears an End.

Posted on February 15, 2016 by russalex

The Cultural Research project has been extremely challenging. While I’ve had a good time learning about such an amazing, fascinating, inspiring woman, I’ve realized that maybe she wasn’t a good choice for this project. Zhou Qunfei’s story is one of economic success, not necessarily one of a woman rising to the top of the game in a STEM field. She heavily involved in the tech world, but only the products she manufactures. She is a businesswoman through and though. I’ve found myself getting stressed out many times while writing the paper and trying to follow the instructions because of this.

For example, the “trends” and “technology” sections were particularly difficult due to having little material to work with in this topic. Additionally, Zhou is a fairly unknown person in the media. There were few articles written on her and most provided me with the same details over and over. She is private and didn’t become a person of interest until within the last few years. It was hard to find information on her.

But all in all, I’ve honestly loved what I’ve learned about Zhou Qunfei. I regret not choosing a subject with more readily available information, but I’m glad I got the opportunity to learn about someone completely new to me.

The Cultural Research Work

Posted on February 5, 2016 by russalex

This project has been pretty challenging. I’ve stopped and started working on it so many times in the last week and it’s still not even close to being done! I’ve completed bits and pieces along the way, bookmarked all my sources, I added the incomplete subpages just now, and the rest of the weekend will be dedicated to completing the research and citing all my sources.

The challenging parts for me have been finding enough information about Zhou Qunfei. As I mention in my paper, she is a rather private person so information about her is sparse and it’s more common to simply come across the same information about her over and over again. Frustrating.

But I’ve put together a decent amount of information about her and I’m still searching for more. Also, it’s unusually difficult to find information about the specific technology she manufactures. She’s more of a businesswoman that a technologist, so that’s a bit tricky to work with.

It’s a work in progress though and I know it’ll be something I’m proud of once it’s finally complete.

Research Week Four

Posted on February 1, 2016 by russalex

It’s been many years since I’ve gone to a librarian for specific research help. I decided to go to the library at Lane Community College for this assignment since I live in Eugene and am most familiar with their library.

My experience was initially not really productive towards the project itself. I asked one of the librarians about tips on how to find good peer reviewed articles or interviews with specific people. She directed me to LCC’s library website that lists various resources for research and also a function that allows you to have online chats with librarians to help you with online navigation. This intrigued me quite a bit so after I was done talking with her, I went home and tested out the chat function.

My fear with the chat function was that it would be automated responses from a chatbot. I still probably don’t know if the person on the other end was real or not, but he did guide me to the “business” section of a research database so that I could go from there and find information I needed. I was so excited to have found many articles regarding Zhou Qunfei and her business.

In retrospect, I could have done the same thing using OSU’s library, but since I don’t live in Corvallis and am dual enrolled in LCC, I went with what was most familiar to me.

Zhou Qunfei

Posted on January 21, 2016 by russalex

I’ve decided to do my cultural research project on the richest woman in China, Zhou Qunfei. She is the founder of Lens Technology which provides touchscreen technology for smartphones and other electronics.

She has a very extraordinary story of being born very poor in China and working extremely hard to get an education and make money. She worked in factories near her university so that she could work and go to school. Her first company was established in 1993 with her savings of around $2,000 USD.

I had initially picked another woman for my topic, but am glad I found Zhou Qunfei instead. I wanted to find a Chinese woman to do my project on since I am half Chinese and am always eager to learn about prominent Chinese women. Sexism is prominent in Chinese culture, so the story of a woman making her own success from nothing is incredible.

Interviewing her would be next to impossible. She is alive, but she is, as I mentioned, the richest woman in China. She’s busy with her company and also, she doesn’t speak English. I would be open to trying to find a method of communication to contact her, but it seems unlikely that an opportunity would present itself.

Regardless, I am so looking forward to researching her further.

RSS Feed

Posted on January 18, 2016 by russalex

Setting up the RSS feed was really cool! I had no idea how to do that before and it’s exciting to know how for future reference. I feel like my blog is looking more and more professional and interesting.

Week Two