Finding a place to plant a garden can be tough in Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated places in the world. You could say it’s another example of having nowhere to go but up.

That’s why school children have been making their way to rooftops and getting their hands dirty planting lettuce, tomatoes and other vegetables as they learn how to care for them and about the benefits of organic and sustainable farming.

Aimed at promoting environmental protection in 18 school districts, the project is organized by Amway Hong Kong in partnership with the Hong Kong Organic Resource Centre of Hong Kong Baptist University.

Organic farming is relatively new in Hong Kong, where groups pushing for environmentally-friendly grown produce didn’t appear until the 1990s.

So far this year, children participating in the program have started organic farms at 10 primary schools in Kuiqing, Dapu, Beiqu, Kowloon and Huang Daxian, among others.

We’re extremely proud to know that our little farmers are spreading the seeds of organic farming among their peers! Check out this photo album on Nutrilite’s Facebook Page.

We have great news.

Since 1996, Amway has offered quality consumer goods and our business opportunity to the people of Greece.  

Despite the country’s economic crisis, our business is steady.

And after a ceremonious ribbon cutting with Deputy Mayor Nikolaos Alepous, our employees and distributors are proud to announce that Amway Greece – now 16 years old – has opened a sparkling new headquarters. 

Located in the bustling Athens suburb of Maroussi, our new base of operations is designed with our distributors in mind – to help enthusiastic entrepreneurs build their businesses.

The brightly lit, colorful experience center and training facility provide distributors with an elegant space and contemporary tools to introduce different consumer segments to our nutrition, beauty and home products, and the Amway business opportunity. This exciting business site also serves to strengthen the brand of Amway – ranked as the #2 direct seller in Europe.

In the past two weeks, 15 training sessions have been conducted, and hundreds of distributors have invited their customers to show off the new space.

Congratulations to our friends in Maroussi! This is great news, indeed. 

She thinks she has enough in common with Justin Bieber that they should be BFF, and recently tweeted that she was on her way to a weekly planning meeting with “me, myself and my iPad.”

She is Tori Molnar, and we met this young woman at the June 2012 Direct Selling Association annual meeting. And while we don’t normally blog about other direct selling company executives at Amway Insider, Tori is too exceptional to overlook.

First, Tori is the youngest person to found a direct selling company. She created Utoria in 2010, at the age of 14, to empower teenage girls to learn about business while earning their own income selling jewelry, fashion accessories and gifts. Utoria is for girls only.

Second, she has done all of this and much, much more while managing cerebral palsy, further proof that pursuing and achieving career success, despite any odds, is possible with direct sales.

Tori’s motivation came partly from her rural hometown, where job opportunities for girls are bleaker than for boys, and partly because her parents – themselves entrepreneurs – inspired her.

When Tori approached Dick and Doug DeVos to congratulate them on their recent induction into the DSA Hall of Fame, she seemed apprehensive yet excited. In reality, those of us representing Amway at the event were just as humbled by her achievements. Tori’s Twitter profile says she is on a mission to change the world. We believe she already has.

As interns at Amway, we’re constantly learning things we never knew or thought about before.

This week, we think we’ve discovered the company’s first intern: Dr. Sam Rehnborg, son of Nutrilite founder Carl Rehnborg.

Now president of the Nutrilite Health Institute, Dr. Sam has eaten Nutrilite supplements every day since childhood. “I came to Nutrilite by birth,” he says, “but I have embraced it as my own lifelong passion.”

Growing up, he watched his father persevere against multiple obstacles, blazing his own trail as an entrepreneur to introduce the multivitamin/multimineral and other nutrient-rich food supplements. Today, Nutrilite is a multi-billion dollar brand sold all over the world.

Dr. Sam was determined to follow in his father’s footsteps. Carl was proud of his son, and thrilled that he wanted to preserve the Nutrilite legacy.

How do we know all these things? Dr. Sam spent 10 years writing The Nutrilite Story.

He dedicated this 423-page book to his father and Amway distributors, who have carried his father’s message of optimal health to people around the world.

For more aha! moments, check back for future intern adventures at the Amway Insider.

Amway Home products are top of the line, but don’t take our word for it. Check out a product demo and see for yourself.

To prove the effectiveness of our products, our Research and Development team creates product demos that compare our product performance to that of our competitors.

The Permanent Marker Demo, featuring our L.O.C. Kitchen Cleaner, is a favorite of the Home Care Product Development group. This demo shows a quick and simple solution to an everyday household problem – removing permanent marker from countertops and other surfaces.

Product demos are a powerful tool for our distributors to use in selling our products to customers. Russia and China reported that most distributors in those markets rate product demos as “important” or “very important” to their business. After the permanent marker demo was released in North America, we saw a significant increase in L.O.C. Kitchen Cleaner sales.

See for yourself the demonstrable quality of our products.

It’s been more than a decade since Amway launched the Executive Speaker Series, where interns can hear and learn from our most senior leaders about what it’s like to work here.

The series is unquestionably the highlight of our summer internship at World Headquarters.

Many of us are attracted to Amway because it’s a great place to work and has a strong global presence. But we also have this incredible access to Amway’s top leaders.

Recently, 100 interns gathered to meet the first of this series’ seven presenters: Amway President Doug DeVos. “We all have special gifts to contribute,” said Doug. “But success is not simple. It’s hard work.”

Not too many interns can say they met the president of their organization. But now we can say we did. Interns left the event feeling inspired and ready to face their internship head-on.

Stay tuned for future blog posts on the Executive Speaker Series. Our next speaker is Dr. Sam Rehnborg, president of the Nutrilite Health Institute.

When it comes to makeup, Rick DiCecca says there are four essentials no woman should leave the house without!

“Sunscreen, mascara, bronzer or blush, and lipstick or gloss,” says Rick DiCecca. ”These products provide a profound payoff with minimum effort.”

As the new global makeup artist for ARTISTRY, Rick will bring keen insights and global inspiration to ARTISTRY’s seasonal color collections, assist the Global Color Cosmetics Marketing team in product formulation and shade development, as well as offer technical expertise on application.

“I’m drawn to the ARTISTRY brand for all the passion and potential of its people and its products,” he says.

Rick’s clients have included some of the world’s most famous beauties – renowned supermodels Heidi Klum, Cindy Crawford and Iman. But what Rick relishes the most is working with “real” women with real lives, kids and time constraints – making makeup work for them on their own terms, and giving them the tools and know-how they need to look beautiful every single day.

Please join us in welcoming Rick to the ARTISTRY team!

We’re excited that Amway Chairman Steve Van Andel has been elected vice chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions.

It’s his second time to serve at the top level of this organization, as he was chairman from 2001 to 2002. And it’s a position his father, Amway Co-Founder Jay Van Andel, held as well.

According to U.S. Chamber President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue, Steve and the Amway family embody the value of entrepreneurship and the freedom to take risks.

“In order for business to grow and create jobs, you need an environment that encourages creativity, innovation, hard work and opportunities for people to succeed,” Steve said in his recent speech at the U.S. Chamber’s CEO Leadership Series. “This is the way we need to approach business if we want long-term growth and prosperity.”

Five years ago, Amway and KaBOOM! started a partnership to provide more children with safe places to play.

Four days ago, more than 300 community members and Amway volunteers teamed up to build a playground at D.A. Blodgett - St. John’s Home – an organization dedicated to providing homes and hope for children and their families.

The playground is the 14th built by KaBOOM! and Amway, the 10th built in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and one of more than 150 playground builds KaBOOM! will lead across the U.S. in 2012.

Amway President Doug DeVos and leaders from KaBOOM! and D.A. Blodgett kicked off this Amway One by One project with motivational words that stayed with us all day long. You could feel the energy build as people were dancing to the music and sweating from the heavy lifting. A heart-felt dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony reaffirmed each person’s role in making this dream a reality. 

Building this playground brought hundreds of laughs and smiles, and it will be responsible for many more to come.

How can we make the most of our Amway internship – known here as the 12-week interview?

The Talent Acquisition team hosted a panel of past interns who are now full-time Amway employees to welcome the 2012 internship class to Amway World Headquarters. They answered our questions, shared their Amway stories and offered us words of wisdom.

Three common themes emerged:

A friendly, encouraging culture matters. The culture, which drew interns to Amway in the first place, was so engaging that it brought them back for full-time jobs – even after “wow” experiences like an internship at Walt Disney World.

Actions speak louder than words. People who truly live the company’s values create a welcoming workplace.

Connect with other interns and employees. Many interns are hired for positions – but not necessarily in the same area. Having connections with management outside of their department played a large role in being offered those full-time positions.

Thanks to our panel, we left confident and inspired, ready to get the most out of our Amway experience.