Stonehill Exchange students line up for a group photo.
The Vue in Corvallis last Friday was the site of a pair of welcome to the College of Business events for two groups of students.
First, a late-afternoon reception was held in honor of the international students enrolled at Oregon State this term through the Arthur Stonehill International Exchange Program.
The Stonehill program is a 30-year partnership that originally featured OSU, a university in Denmark and another in Australia. Named for the College of Business professor emeritus who spearheaded its creation, the program now includes a dozen institutions outside the U.S.; those are the schools where Friday afternoon’s guests of honor study when not taking classes overseas.
Following the Stonehill gathering was a welcome reception for new MBA students.
The MBA program features seven tracks on campus — accountancy, business analytics, commercialization, global operations, marketing, research thesis and wealth management — plus an online/Portland hybrid format through which executive leadership and business analytics can be studied.
On a sun-drenched afternoon already full of good cheer and start-of-the-school-year enthusiasm, Kelsey Walker of Philomath received an extra boost Wednesday afternoon when Dean Mitzi Montoya announced her as the grand-prize winner of the annual College of Business Popcorn Social’s taste-test contest.
Walker, a sophomore transfer from Linn-Benton Community College, was the only contest entrant to correctly identify all four flavors used to enliven the popcorn offerings: Coffee, dill, ketchup and pumpkin pie.
Her prize: an iPad mini.
“This is quite a welcome,” she said. “More than a welcome.”
Walker was joined by dozens of her fellow first-year COB students – of whom there are more than 600 – as well as college faculty and staff on Austin Hall’s north plaza for an hour of refreshments, mingling and games.
This school year, which starts Thursday, marks the college’s second year in Austin Hall. Austin’s neighbor to the north, the Learning Innovation Center classroom building, makes its debut Thursday; together LInC and Austin combine for arguably the most technologically integrated, innovatively designed, collaboration-focused 1-2 punch on the OSU campus.
After announcing Walker’s victory, Montoya wished all of the incoming students well on their first day of class at Oregon State and looked forward to the college helping them join the ranks of Beaver alumni “in the very near future.”
State Sen. Richard Devlin was so impressed by Oregon State’s new Learning Innovation Center, Austin Hall’s new neighbor to the north, that “it actually makes me want to come back.”
“I’d like to get that degree in history I always wanted, that degree in English literature,” said the lawmaker, one of many speakers Sept. 22 during grand opening ceremonies for the LInC, a 134,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art classroom building.
LInC features 2,300 seats of formal teaching space and another 640 seats in student-directed informal learning areas. The $65 million project, paid for by a mix of state funds and out-of-state tuition dollars, is intended to serve every academic department on campus and is the new headquarters for the University Honors College.
Cassie Huber, president of the Associated Students of OSU, said, “Everyone I know has been talking about attending classes in this building.” Two of LInC’s classrooms are in-the-round style, one with a capacity of 600, the other 300. There’s also the curved Parliament Room, which was inspired by the layout of the British House of Commons and seats 175 more.
Classrooms were designed with collaboration and active learning in mind, allowing lecturers to easily roam and engage students directly.
Devlin noted that when considering requests for funding, he and his fellow legislators always think in terms of will it pay back more than it costs.
“The tens of thousands of students who will pass through this building will provide an excellent return for generations to come,” he said.
Oregon State’s student body president was among the speakers.
Reggie Williams took many lessons away from his role as team leader on a Close to the Customer project that involved helping Honda plan a redesign of its popular subcompact car, the Fit.
“The Honda project was my first as part of the C2C and I learned that there may not be a clear-cut question from a client,” said Williams, who completed his psychology degree spring term. “Coming up with multiple solutions is helpful, as well as taking into consideration client needs and specifics of the market when coming up with a solution.”
The project involved Honda wanting “to get a feel for Instagram and what people were posting about their Honda Fit,” said Amanda Terhes, director of the C2C. “The exciting part for students was when they asked, ‘how do we do this,’ we said, ‘I don’t know but we’ll figure it out.’”
The student team led by Williams ended up pulling approximately 1,000 Honda Fit photos from Instagram and then categorized them thematically – e.g., by what activity they were being used for.
The themes were used to create topic guides for field research by marketing professor Jim McAlexander in the Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles areas. McAlexander conducted six one-on-one interviews with customers and also did nine triads – a triad is a mini focus group of three people.
McAlexander, whose contacts in the auto industry paved the way for C2C being granted the project, presented the results to Honda. The results are understandably proprietary as Honda prepares to execute the redesign of the Fit in five or six years — in such a way that the four-door, front-wheel-drive vehicle still appeals to current customers and potentially attracts new, first-time Fit owners as well.
Williams’ student team included finance major Chris Koenig and MBA student-to-be Jill Wells, plus a sociology major.
“It’s great to have a team with different backgrounds and diverse perspectives and approaches,” Williams said. “A lot of psychology goes into market research, understanding and eventually trying to influence behavior. Thinking outside of the box but at the same time maintaining structure and providing valid results is fundamental to the art of marketing research. It helped that we had a great staff of professors and our director who allowed us creative control and input while guiding us through the process.”
Like the rest of the Oregon State campus this time of year, the Asian & Pacific Cultural Center exudes a sleepy summertime vibe, but staff at the center, next door to College of Business headquarters Austin Hall, are filled with anticipation for their first full school year at the heart of campus.
The 25-year-old center opened its new facility in February and hosted a grand opening celebration in April. Before the move, it was housed in a small, older home on Jackson Street at the campus’ edge.
On a recent afternoon, assistant director Reagan Le and student leadership liaison An Vuong held down the fort, greeting visitors and reiterating the center’s goal to be a place for students of all nationalities. Outreach and community building are cornerstones of the center’s mission, and Le said he hopes the center and the College of Business can partner on events and projects whenever possible.
The one-story, 3,500 square-foot structure was designed by Jones & Jones Architecture of Seattle. Its exterior is based on a mix of housing styles found in some of the regions represented by the center, and the interior features meeting spaces, a student kitchen, offices and a meditation/quiet room, all following the theme of drawing from cultural aspects of Asian and Pacific Island regions.
College of Business students, as well as all other students, should feel free to drop by the center to visit, study or just hang out. It’s just west of Austin Hall on Jefferson Way.
Scholarship recipients Brittany Soto and Charles White with retired management professor Jack Rettig, for whom the scholarship is named.
Management majors Charles White and Brittany Soto have been selected as the inaugural recipients of the Jack Rettig Scholarship, named for longtime College of Business management professor Jack Rettig and established by one of Rettig’s first and most grateful students at OSU.
White and Soto recently met at Austin Hall with Rettig, who retired in 1986, and his son, Richard.
“I am so honored to be a recipient of the Jack Rettig Scholarship,” Soto said. “It all made sense when meeting Jack why this scholarship is in his name. He is passionate about the College of Business and the success of the students. He recognizes the hardships students have to endure in order to graduate from the university and admires efforts to make it happen. I am truly thankful.”
The scholarship was created by William Allen Sizer, a 1965 College of Business graduate who died in 2012. Sizer, who worked two jobs to put himself through college, went on to a successful career in the life insurance/financial planning industry and never forgot the impact Rettig had on him, particularly in understanding his economic challenges.
“It was a unique experience to have met Jack Rettig,” White said. “He was a person who understood the difficulties that students had and felt particularly inclined to help support their success. Mr. Rettig made a dramatic impact on his student’s life so much so that Mr. Rettig was honored with the opportunity through this scholarship to continue to impact the success of students long into the future. I hope that someday I can have that kind of impact on the people whose lives I touch.”
White and Soto each received $1,500 toward next year’s tuition, having been selected by a College of Business committee. Plans call for two winners this first year and one each year thereafter.
“It was a real honor to receive this scholarship,” White added. “Not only did it validate the hard work that I have put in throughout my time spent at OSU but really made me feel a part of the community even more so than before. Even better was the fact that I got the chance to share the honor with a friend and peer, Miss Soto, who I feel is an excellent student, and it was good to be aligned with a person who has such intelligence and talent.”
Back from Europe, Annemarie Lewandowski is interning in Gresham at Boeing.
Summer is a relaxing time for many university students, but often it’s a busy season for College of Business students looking to broaden their experiences, widen their networks and deepen their resumes.
Take Annemarie Lewandowski, a senior majoring in management.
The first part of summer found her studying international business administration at the Bad Mergentheim, Germany, campus of Duale Hochschule Baden-Wurttemberg. DHBW is one of the College of Business’ partner institutions through the Arthur Stonehill International Exchange Program.
“I liked it,” Lewandowski said. “It was a really good experience being in a different culture in a different country, a whole different system. I’m definitely glad I went – it’s one of greatest things I’ve ever done.”
The course structure and schedule took a little getting used to, though.
“We’d have like one class for a week and a half and then be done (before moving on to the next class),” she said. “It was horrible at first being in class from 9 to 4:30 straight; the first couple of weeks were rough. But we’d take a 10-minute break every hour and a half for the smoking students – it was funny, I was shocked at the reason, but I wasn’t complaining.”
While in Europe, Lewandowski visited nine nations.
“You cross over into another country for a weekend, the culture changes, the language changes,” she said. “Everything’s so close and so small, but each country is unique. I was the most fascinated with that. Within 20 feet, the architecture style changed, and the people were completely different in their views and opinions.”
Lewandowski particularly enjoyed the citywide beauty of Prague, capital of the Czech Republic.
“It’s magnificent, one of the places I would go back to,” she said.
Back home in Oregon, Lewandowski is working in Gresham as a business operations intern at Boeing.
She’s helping project managers on individual projects, and also assisting with a company-wide initiative toward leaner, more efficient meetings and reports.
“It’s something we definitely hear about in all of our classes – lean, lean, lean,” she said. “It’s been nice to be onsite, implementing it myself, to see what is taught in class come to life.”
For information about study-abroad opportunities, contact the College of Business advising office, 122 Austin Hall or 541-737-3716. For information about internships, drop by the Career Success Center, 102 Austin Hall, or call the CSC at 541-737-8957.
Parliament building in Budapest.Hiking in Croatia.
Axel Gerloff speaks about study-abroad opportunities.
Prof. Dr. Axel Gerloff, an economics scholar from Duale Hochschule Baden-Wuerttemberg, spoke to students and advisors July 27 about study-abroad opportunities in his home country of Germany.
Gerloff, who is teaching at OSU summer term, told the audience in the Austin Hall Events Room about his university’s two campuses, the main one in Mosbach and a branch campus in Bad Mergentheim. Both cities are in southern Germany and steeped in history; housing the branch campus, for example, is a Renaissance castle.
Gerloff explained that OSU business and engineering students who take part in an exchange would encounter a course schedule that had them focusing on a single subject for one or two weeks, then repeating the process throughout the term with new subjects.
“Our students like just focusing on one topic at a time,” he said. “They don’t have to focus on anything else. But some international students think it’s too intense, that you don’t have time to let it sink in.”
Class size tops out at about 30 students, Gerloff said, which is necessary because of the compressed, accelerated nature of the coursework.
“That works a lot better in smaller classes than larger ones,” he said.
The business program focuses on international business administration, with everything taught in English. Prior to the start of classes, however, is a German-language course geared toward helping international students make their away around the country. Classes feature a mix of students from different nations.
The program is available in one- or two-semester options and is available at both campuses in the spring and at Mosbach in the fall as well.
For more information, drop by the College of Business advising office, 122 Austin Hall, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays or call 541-737-3716.
At the College of Business, we always enjoy hearing, and spreading, the news of our alumni as they take what they learned out into the working world.
So whether it’s via social media, email or an old-fashioned letter or phone call, please do as 2015 finance graduate Majed Abdelrasul did this week and stay in touch with us.
Abdelrasul was pleased to report that he’d accepted an offer to be a financial analyst with Aequitas Capital Management starting Aug. 1. He’ll work in Portland and will, he says, “be supporting consumer financing receivable programs, maintaining and reporting of portfolio management performance, implementing and enhancing financial models, and supporting ad hoc tasks for our team.”
“The COB helped me prepare for success by providing tons of resources,” he said. “Whether that was clubs/organizations, or simply bringing in industry professionals to educate us. There was always help from professors and staff members around the college. At the same time, the college held my peers and me accountable for everything we completed and continued to challenge us throughout our tenure. Everyone was very supportive throughout my time at the college. If I ever had a question, I felt as if I could go to any faculty/staff member and they would be open to helping me out.”
As he prepares to start his career, Abdelrasul offered some advice for those who’ll follow him in the College of Business: “Never give up and always go above and beyond. Even if you have to sacrifice a few hours of your social life or sleeping schedule, it will be worth it in the end. Continue to learn and take on as many responsibilities as you can. Lastly, hold yourself accountable for everything you do, even if no one is watching.”
During the 2014-15 school year, College of Business photographers, as you might imagine, took thousands of pictures.
As with any large collection of photos, only a small percentage of the ones we took worked their way into public view by finding a home in a blog entry, website feature, social media post or print publication.
That leaves a lot of interesting pictures that only the photographer and a few faculty and staff got to see.
To try to remedy that, at least somewhat, this blog post includes a gallery of a handful of the ones that got away. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
