PSU Magazine Fall 2013

First to offer business training in North Korea North Korean officials have invited Portland State to deliver a program of international business training in their county beginning this fa ll. This is a first for the country, which is consid– ered to have one of the world 's most centrally planned and isolated economies. The training program will begin in Pyongyang, capital of North Korea, at Kim II Sung University. A delegation of North Korean international trade officials and econo– mists vis ited the School of Business Administration in May to work out details of a PSU proposa l to offer a program introducing North Korean trade offi cials and enterprise managers to the processes of international trade and the mechanics of international trade transactions. PSU has been in contact with North Korean officials since Novem– ber 1999, when PSU was issued the only license granted to date by the U.S. government to offer business training in North Korea. PSU 's Free Market Business Development Insti– tute, which has extensive experience offering international business training in socialist and post-socialist economies, will implement the pro– gram. Earl Molander, professor of busi– ness administration and executive director of the institute since its fo unding, will direct the program. The proposed International Busi– ness Tra ining Program will initially focus on improving understanding among international trade officials and enterprise managers about how to negotiate with foreign enterprises contemplating sourcing, direct invest– ment, and/or joint venture partner– ships with their country. The initial program structure envi– sioned by PSU's Free Market Institute includes sess ions in Pyongyang taught by PSU business faculty and interna– tional trade experts, with the eventual goal of bringing North Korean inter– national trade managers to PSU fo r more advanced international business certificate and degree programs. Prof helps Haiti vaccination campaign The World Health Organization called for assistance, and several weeks later Prof. Jan Semenza was stepping off a plane into the hot, humid air of Haiti to help run the biggest polio vaccination campaign the country had ever experienced: vaccinating 2 million children under the age of 10. Taking on this kind of assignment is nothing new for the community health professor. Last winter, PSU Magazine reported on his contribu– tion in bringing vision care to people of the Amazon Basin in Brazil. Summers allow Semenza to leave the classroom and take his expertise into the field. He is a molecular epi– demiologist, a relatively new vocation that stud– ies genetic and environ– mental risk factors at the molecular level as well as the distribution and prevention of dis– ease within populations. In Haiti the need for experts like Semenza was critical as 21 cases of polio were reported this past year among its children. Haiti shares the West Indies island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. It is a poor country lacking in infrastructure, as Semenza and others were to find out. Roads were often dirt tracks that washed out with the coming of rain. Lack of electricity meant vac– cine needed to be transported in ice chests and stored in gas-powered refrigerators. Taking these difficult conditions into consideration, the logistics of the campaign and monitoring its effectiveness were the responsibility of a local administrator and a team of international consultants, of which Semenza was a member. Scott Rigdon '99, a public health graduate student in the School of Community Health, joined Semenza for three weeks of a two– month stay on an internship. The outbreak of polio in Haiti was most likely the result of not enough people being vaccinated in the past. That is why, in the recent campaign, it was imperative that all children receive the oral vaccine. Volunteers and paid workers went door to door, drawing a circle on each residence served. Semenza and Rigdon checked up on those Jan Semenza mak es sure all the Haitian children in this residence have received the polio vaccine. It came too late for their older brother (center). giving the polio vaccine in some of the hardest to reach areas of the country. It was a grueling experi– ence, says Semenza, but worth it. He would like to establish a fellow– ship that would allow students to gain public health experience in an international setting. He is explor– ing potential funding sources. "This is high-impact work-pub– lic health at its best," says Semenza, "and I receive a lot of personal sat– isfaction from helping in this way." (Jan Semenza can be contacted by email at semenzaj@pdx.edu) FALL 2001 PSU MAGAZINE 3