The Career Forum was amazing.

I didn't actually get to go because of my bio lab, but nonetheless I find the whole concept quite astounding. To understand my shock, you would have to see it all in light of what I saw this past summer.

I spent my summer in Hong Kong, one of the areas in Asia whose economy has gone down the drain. Before my visit, I hadn't realized how bad it is. An air of gloom hung over the whole city--all the malls were empty, the shops filled with "Going Out of Business" signs and the headline news everyday was either of another jump in the unemployment rate or of yet another major company closing down. The suicide rate has gone up; there was an unemployment-related one just a few days ago.

Small businesses were of course hard-hit, but big firms, like Cathay Pacific Airways, also suffered huge losses. Tourism, a major source of revenue, dropped to terrifyingly low levels, and confidence in the government plummeted. This was the first year that the locals had run their own government, so Hong Kong residents began to think that, maybe--just maybe--their own people simply weren't as qualified for the job as they had anticipated.

All this, of course, has been especially hard on recent college graduates. The economy forced some students, many probably just as ambitious and promising as ourselves, to abandon their dreams of an extended education and instead join the work force early to help out their families. They were considered lucky, though, if they were able to find a job.

The unemployment rate went up with the new batch of graduates this summer, and some students of prestigious universities were forced to take temporary jobs as sale clerks after graduation. Many of my friends there have told me how fortunate I am to find a summer internship in such conditions.

I am indeed very fortunate. Just look at the Career Forum here this past weekend. All these big-name companies recruiting right on our own campus, passing out free stuff to get us interested, holding information sessions and spending major money in full-page newspaper recruitment ads.

Instead of "downsizing", these companies visit our campus to look for new people among us to hire. At dinner tables, my friends and I discuss careers and aspirations, not just temporary jobs to subsidize our families. At an age when we are supposed to be dreaming up big plans for our futures, our circumstances are allowing us to do exactly that.

Pretty amazing, ain't it?

So many of my friends back home would have loved to walk through our Career Forum and explore the opportunities that are out there. Sure, those companies come because we're Harvard, but many, many students in Hong Kong and elsewhere are just as qualified--and maybe even more so--to be at this school but simply don't have the needed resources. You just don't go abroad to study when your family can't pay the next month's rent.

Wow. We are lucky indeed.

--DAWN LEE