Maria Wang

Growing up in a family where my parents always ask me to pay attention to the usage of water, light, and electricity, I am sensitive to the consumption of resources around me. I was told at a young age that the longer I keep the air conditioner in the summer, the more harm it is causing to the environment. After growing up, the climate changes have worsened, and I had the feeling that awareness of energy consumption among people could, and need to be further improved. I wish to develop a platform to effectively decrease non-sustainable consumptions in the society, and to promote sustainable energy uses. I may break this down into two main functions: Encourage the efficient use of resources from a daily perspective. Here are some potential functions I have in mind now: Energy recycling: if a user used less than a certain amount of electricity per month, the user is able to “resell” the unused portion for credit. The credit could be used toward other platform resources. Plastic bag credi...

Having a healthy body is important, and sometimes more important than I realize. As a graduating senior, I've been struggling to balance all the preparations for life after graduation, while also maintaining a healthy state of my body. After trying multiple ways of stress management and health management, I found useful tools to make my life easier. Here are some tips I found to help maintain a good feeling, both physically and mentally, under the time where changes happen. It starts from managing the mind. Mental health is far more influential to physical feelings than I thought it would be. I have constantly experienced morning headache last month, and I realized it was because that I kept my brain working (to think about my to-do list, and refine any imperfection in my plans) before bed, and even throughout the night. The constant mental activity kept my body on high alert. Therefore, I started downgrade the priority of the tasks, and intentionally leave my mind empty at least 3...

  Feel Good Productivity: How To Do More of What Matters to You The book I picked to read in the past two weeks is “Feel Good Productivity: How To Do More of What Matters to You” by Ali Abdaal. Ali is a productivity expert who graduated from Cambridge, and he runs his Youtube channel discussing practical tips on success-related topics. I chose this book because I am at a stage in my life where I need to figure out what matters to me the most, and try to find balance and reach efficiency among all my daily tasks. Ali’s tips serve as great insights for me to reflect and learn from. I really like this book mainly because of two reasons. First, Ali’s suggestions allowed me to realize some fundamental tips of being productive, which was hard to realize on my own. The most influential one to myself is the importance of feeling good. Being stressed and self-disciplined most of the time, I have experienced the causal relationships between mood and productivity in the past, but I never seri...

TO: Clark Hansen, CEO, Anima Mundi Development Partners  FROM: Maria, Research & Development  DATE: Wed Mar 12, 2025 SUBJECT: Investment Opportunity: Amgen As a member of AMDP’s research team, my job is to recommend a business that is committed to operate in a socially responsible, environmentally sustainable, and profitable manner. After extensive research, I recommend Amgen, a worldwide pioneer in biotechnology that meets AMDP's standards. In this memo, you will find the following: ● AMDP Standards ● Background, financials, and values of Amgen ● Expert’s view on Amgen AMDP Standards The Triple Bottom Line This is a business concept that states firms should commit to measuring their social and environmental impact in addition to their financial performance.  ● Profit: The financial return an organization generates for shareholders ● People: An organization’s commitment to positively impact society ● The Planet: An organization’s effect on the environment ...

USC Food Choice This is not a guide for the best places at USC to get food. Instead, this is a quick recap of my usual food choices when I am on campus. USC offers a variety of dining options, but there are mainly three places that I spent the most time. Tutor Center (TCC): This spot holds freshman-year memories for me. I had a dining plan and dining dollars at the time, and they could be used toward Tutor Center places. Whenever I got tired of the Village, Parkside, and EVK, I would come to TCC for an acai bowl. There was usually a long line outside the small window, and while waiting, I always watched the staff put fresh fruit into the blender. I also liked the burgers inside the TCC building - the combo with the fries was especially satisfying after a long morning of classes. USC Village:  After starting my Sophomore year, I started exploring different restaurants in the Village. My all-time favorite was Honey Bird. I was so sad when they closed their place in the Village. My ...

The book I read is “ Hit Fresh ”, written by the current CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella. I picked this book because the technology wave in recent years was again reaching a historic peak. I wanted to learn more about how giant-tech leaders navigated similar scenarios in the past, and how they adapted their companies to the constant changes.  This turns out to be a great choice. This book is not only a great one to learn about a CEO’s attitude and consideration when leading a company to a better position, but also an insightful notebook for me to actively think about technology-related issues, and how a leading tech executive would approach these questions. The examples and stories in this book are pretty specific and easy to understand. Corporate strategy and technological discussion are the two main topics Satya discussed in this book. I truly gained useful insights that I want to share with you. First, the importance of culture. Satya mentioned the thing that he doesn’t want to ...