Category: Students

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Entrepreneurship students putting winning social business plan into action

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Volunteer students from Oregon State work with kids at STAR Sports at the Corvallis Sports Park.

In October 2012 a group of Oregon State students won the first-ever Oregon Social Business Challenge, beating out 16 teams from around the state.

Their plan was to start a youth sports program for children with disabilities. While the win received the headlines, over the past year the group has put the plan into action and quietly improved the lives of dozens of children in the Corvallis area.

“The progress has been gradual, but the small changes, the excitement of the kids when they’re making goals or seeing their friends, those little things are just as great,” said OSU College of Business student Alli Stangel, a project lead.

The idea was conceived by the OSU Enactus entrepreneurship club, of which Stangel is a co-president. Called STAR Sports, the program meets once a week at the Corvallis Sports Park, which donates space and equipment for the program.

Activities focus on team building as well as how to play sports such as soccer and basketball.

“The ultimate goal is to have them be able to participate with their peers at school, so they know what the sports are, the rules and what behaviors are expected,” Stangel said. “We just want to make it a real low-pressure environment and encourage everyone to participate.”

Around 15-20 children take part each week, with a nearly one-on-one volunteer ratio. That involvement was part of what made the plan a success at the social business challenge. The Oregon State team saw the supply of active, engaged students in a college town as a resource the venture could use to its benefit.

“Sometimes it’s overwhelming the number of people who want to come. Sometimes people just have to come and watch or support,” Stangel said.

There have been challenges, though.

With the space and equipment being donated, sometimes times and location change, which can be difficult for families. While college students are great volunteers, occasionally classes can interfere with activities.

“It’s hard explaining what midterms are to a 5 year old,” Stangel jokes.

Still, the program has been a success. This year a STAR Sports session fell on Halloween. One mother told Stangel that she gave her three kids the choice of Trick or Treating or going to STAR Sports.

“They chose STAR Sports,” Stangel said with a smile. “Just to hear that was incredible, and makes all the hard work so worth it.”

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Freshmen entrepreneurship students create their own “Project Runway”

Photo by Justin Quinn.
Photo by Justin Quinn.

A student’s first term of college can be intimidating, full of new experiences and challenges. For a special group of first-year College of Business students, it included planning and hosting their own public fashion show.

The show was one of four events put on by students in BA 160, an introductory class in the Austin Entrepreneurship Program. Designed as the students’ take on the hit show “Project Runway,” the event showed off styles highlighting different themes important to college students, focusing not only on style but affordability and business attire.

Read more in the coverage by the Daily Barometer, and see photos of the event by photographer Justin Quinn below.

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Oregon State BIS awarded increase in SIM scholarships

Since 2001 the Portland Society for Information Management has awarded more than $250,000 to universities in Oregon and Washington, much of it coming to Oregon State.

This year Portland SIM awarded OSU $20,000 in scholarships, up $2,500 from last year.

“Portland SIM has been a model for other SIM programs across the country in raising funds to support BIS programs,” said Byron Marshall, a BIS and Accounting professor at the Oregon State College of Business. “It’s allowed us to award dozens of scholarships in the past few years.”

Portland SIM is a leading organization for information technology executives. In addition to OSU the group works with the Oregon Institute of Technology, Portland State University and Washington State — Vancouver.

 Read how a Portland SIM scholarship helped Oregon State graduate Daniel Changkuon. 

The increase for Oregon State reflects the growth in the BIS program, which has been steadily growing over the past decade.

“We’ve been doubling in the past few years,” said Rene Reitsma, director of the BIS program at OSU.

Reitsma said BIS programs struggled after the Dot Com crash of the early 2000s. OSU had around 30 BIS students after the crash, but has grown to around 90 this year, Reitsma said.

He attributes part of the growth to an increased interest in programming, especially after the introduction of the iPhone and other products that made computing cool again.

Some BIS programs also changed their curriculum to try to draw more students attracted to the business side, Reitsma said, something Oregon State never did. He said that strong base in technology — and having faculty able to teach it — gave Oregon State an advantage when students again wanted a more technical degree.

“I think the reason we survived is that many programs threw away all their tech pieces,” Reitsma said. “We never did that and took a risk and said we’re not going to do that. We stayed with technology and survived.”

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After 16 years, mother of four returns to Oregon State to complete her dream

Maria Jimenez, chair of the Dean's Student Leadership Circle at the Oregon State College of Business, returned to school after more than a decade to raise her family.
Maria Jimenez, chair of the Dean’s Student Leadership Circle at the Oregon State College of Business, returned to school after more than a decade and a half away to raise her family.

Second chances don’t come often in life, so Maria Jimenez doesn’t mind it took more than a decade to get hers.

Jimenez came to Oregon State in the fall of 1994 after graduating from Sandy Union High School, ready to pursue a science degree.

The only impediment was Jimenez was pregnant with her first child. She finished two years at OSU, but decided to leave school to focus on her family.

“I felt I was leaving my family aside for my schooling, and for me family is No. 1,” Jimenez said.

Now a mother of four, Jimenez is back at Oregon State, this time majoring in Business Management and providing a lesson to her children in perseverance and the value of education.

“I realized I started on the wrong foot, but my kids are No. 1,” she said. “They’re why I’m doing my best to set an example and show them education is the way to a better life. I want to show them I can do it.”

While Jimenez waited to make sure her children — Marianita, 19, Evelyn, 16, Lizbeth, 14, and Angel, 12 — were old enough for her to go back, the credits she had earned in her first trip to OSU expired. While discouraging, it also freed her to explore other academic options.

While working at Assurant Solutions in Albany, Jimenez developed an interest in moving up in the company as a manager. After starting in 2005 as a bilingual claims representative, she soon was promoted to a senior claims representative, managing and coaching other employees.

She realized she enjoyed the role, and applied for a supervisory position at the company only to find she needed more advanced education, motivating her to try again for her degree.

“At first, it was discouraging, but it was a wake up call for me, to realize that I needed to take charge of my life,” Jimenez said. “The only way I could advance within the company was putting in more years of managing experience or to continue with higher education.”

She started her journey at Portland State in 2011 before transferring to Oregon State last year. Since then she’s taken an active role in her education, including joining and becoming the chair of the Dean’s Student Leadership Circle at the College of Business, a group of student leaders picked by Dean Ilene Kleinsorge to advise her on topics important to the college.

“I’m delighted to have been named chair of the DSLC because I will have the opportunity to interact not only with Dean Kleinsorge and DSLC members but also with other professionals, enabling me to enhance my leadership skills and broaden my professional network,” Jimenez said.

The commitment means extra time away from her classes and her family, but Jimenez wants to get everything out of her education.

“Before I wasn’t involved in school. It was class, library, home,” she said. “Now I want to get involved. I know I have a busy schedule, but I want to push myself to grow, increase my personal development.”

Jimenez makes sure there’s plenty of time left for her family, though the activities have changed a bit. Eldest daughter Marianita is in college, studying nursing at Linn-Benton Community College, and now the whole family brings schoolwork home at night.

“There are times when we study together, and it’s fulfilling watching my children do their homework next to me at the dinner table,” she said.

Jimenez still faces challenges before her graduation, which she’s expecting will be summer of 2014.

Supporting her education and her family financially has been a struggle at times. Combined with the daily balance of family, school and work, there are some days where Jimenezes’ goal seems out of reach.

Still, she remembers talking to her sister, Luz Maria Jimenez, when she was thinking of delaying her return until her children were just a few years older.

“My sister told me ‘Sis, I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy, but is not impossible either, and at the end believe me, it’s going to be worth it, you can do it,” she remembers.

“Her words remain engraved in my heart, and I can never thank her enough, because of her I’m here at OSU to finish what I started more than a decade ago.”

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Finding a common language between science and design

(from left) Interior Design and Renewable Materials major Camille Moyers and Wood Science Assistant Professor Robinson go over Moyers' work.
(from left) Interior Design and Renewable Materials major Camille Moyers and Wood Science Assistant Professor Seri Robinson go over Moyers’ work.

“We’re working with chemicals and fire today, people,” shouts Seri Robinson, an assistant professor in Wood Science and Engineering at Oregon State, before a meeting of her Renewable Materials in the Modern World class.

“I felled an ash tree in my yard this morning for you.”

While the statement may not be completely out-of-place for the Wood Science majors in the room, it is a little different for the engineers, designers and other students also part of the course.

Which is all part of Robinson’s plan with the class, dual-listed in Wood Science and the School of Design and Human Environment within the College of Business. Her aim is to bring students from different backgrounds and experiences together and teach them the collaboration skills necessary to succeed after graduation.

“The goal is that they get an appreciation for renewable materials, but more importantly, that they learn how to talk to each other,” Robinson said.

The class is designed to be accessible to any student. There are no prerequisites and no tests, with most assignments photo-based. Students are introduced to a topic around renewable materials and then sent out to find examples of it around them.

The class culminates with a group project creating a product out of renewable materials incorporating the skills of each member.

Robinson originally designed the course while working at the University of Toronto when industry leaders approached her with a problem.

“The big issues they had were designers who worked with wood but didn’t know the materials, and scientists who didn’t know how to talk to designers,” she said. “They wanted a class the two could take together.”

Over the years teams created baskets from used chopsticks, blueprints for homes and functional objects like chairs and dishware. The only requirements were that the project use renewable materials and all the talents of the group.

“You work with this group member or everyone fails, just like in the real world,” Robinson said. “Everyone’s background is showcased.”

This is the first year she’s run the course since coming to Oregon State in January. On this day Robinson is demonstrating how to steam bend wood, with students creating twisting and curving creations from some pre-cut pieces and the remains of her ash tree.

Camille Moyers, a dual major in Interior Design and Renewable Materials, said it’s been interesting watching her two worlds come together in the classroom.

While she said the learning curve has been steep for some of her SDHE peers, the interaction has been worthwhile.

“We have some different personalities, but it’s the same as in life,” Moyers said. “It’s important to learn how to collaborate. It’s something we’re going to do the rest of our careers, especially in design.”

Devin Stuart, a junior in Renewable Materials, said working with other disciplines has changed the way she sees her own major.

“It’s cool to do that,” Stuart said of the collaboration. “It makes you think about other aspects of the renewable materials field, like textiles.”

Robinson has big plans for the course. She hopes to run it two terms next academic year and start to include more students from other colleges at Oregon State.

Eventually she wants to open some spots for online students — something she did in earlier versions of the class — creating another challenge for collaboration within groups.

Anything she can do to make her classroom more like the unpredictable world students will navigate as professionals, the better.

“The class is not easy and it’s not designed to be easy, but it prepares you for the real world in a way no other class will,” Robinson said. “But you have to be willing to step outside your comfort zone.”

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Veterans Day holds different meanings for College of Business vets

College of Business student Robert Fredlund remembers how he felt the day he returned from Iraq.

It was February of 2011 and he had just finished a 10-month tour of duty with the United States Army. As he stepped off the plane, Fredlund heard something he wasn’t expecting on the runway.

“It was the first time I had stepped on American soil in about a year, and there was a group of people clapping for us,” Fredlund said. “It’s tingly, chills. It’s that feeling you are appreciated and it means a lot.”

For veterans in the College of Business — including students, faculty and staff —those small gestures can often be just as special as the parades and ceremonies that are a key part of Veterans Day traditions.

Oregon State College of Business student Robert Fredlund, a U.S. Army veteran, helps construct the Veterans Day float for Give 2 The Troops.
Oregon State College of Business student Robert Fredlund, a U.S. Army veteran, helps construct the Veterans Day float for Give 2 The Troops.

Fredlund started at Oregon State in the fall of 2012 and pursuing a dual major in Business Management and Entrepreneurship with a minor in Leadership. His personal experience led him to get involved with veterans’ organizations while at OSU, and try to pay back the kindness he’s seen as a veteran.

As the president of the OSU Management Club, Fredlund has organized activities through Give 2 The Troops, a group that sends care package to soldiers overseas.

The club has participated in packing parties and other events. This year the club used a meeting to handwrite notes for the boxes and helped build the Give 2 The Troops float for the Albany Veterans Day Parade.

“I saw it as an opportunity to apply the skills I’ve learned at the College of Business,” he said. “These projects are a good way to get real world experience but also give back to the community.”

Malcolm LeMay, director of operations for the college, spent 20 years as an aviator in the Marine Corps.

LeMay has made it a point to stay connected to veterans in the college and the community since coming to Oregon State. He served as president of the Military Officers Club of Corvallis, and makes an effort to meet with students who have served and are looking for advice.

“It’s neat to see recent vets going through here,” LeMay said. “You can tell the experience, the maturity and confidence they have.”

LeMay has been impressed with Oregon State’s commitment to veterans. More than 1,000 students receive veteran educational benefits at OSU, and the university has a number of resources available to help the transition.

“We go out of our way to make it easy for returning veterans to get started with class,” LeMay said. “That’s more than just on Veterans Day. It’s year-round commitment to veterans and their skills.”

Dan Schwab, a College of Business advisor, has experienced that commitment firsthand.

Before coming to the college Schwab served three years as Commander of the OSU ROTC program, and then 10 years as OSU’s director of student conduct after retiring from the U.S Army as a lieutenant colonel in 2004.

“I thought it was a rewarding job because I was preparing future leaders, my replacements,” Schwab said. “It was a good transition job from active duty to a civilian job.”

A third-generation military veteran, Schwab said he has always felt a call to serve, which helped lead him to higher education after his military career ended.

“I like to serve something, to serve people,” he said. “That’s why I’m an advisor today. I feel I’m serving students.”

New College of Business Assistant Professor Charles Murnieks previously served students and his country as an instructor at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Murnieks joined the Air Force Academy after high school as a way to give back to a country he felt had already given him so much.

“I entered the service because I felt there was something honorable in serving my country, and serving to protect it,” Murnieks said. “When I signed up I felt I owed the country this, I never felt the country owed me anything.”

After joining he realized he wanted to make the Air Force his career, and later was asked to join the academy as an instructor. The Air Force encouraged him to continue his education, supporting him as he earned his MBA from UCLA and his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado.

While he’s enjoyed his move to Oregon and out of the Air Force, Murnieks said he is grateful for the reminders of his service and thanks he’ll get from people he speaks with.

“I’m always struck anytime someone takes time out of their day to say thank you,” Murneiks said. “I’m always touched by that, because I don’t expect it.”

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Teaching better training through paper airplanes

 

Oregon State College of Business Assistant Professor Anthony Klotz watches as students in his Human Resource Management class throw paper airplanes for a lesson on training.
Oregon State College of Business Assistant Professor Anthony Klotz watches as students in his Human Resource Management class throw paper airplanes for a lesson on training.

As Anthony Klotz started class Thursday he handed out the quizzes as usual, but also asked his students to take a few sheets of brightly colored paper.

A few moments later they lined up at the front of the class and tossed hastily assembled paper airplanes as far they could, which wasn’t very far at all.

For Klotz, an assistant professor of management at the Oregon State College of Business, it was a quick setup to teach his human resource management students a few things about training.

Now that his students had a task they could improve at, Klotz walked them through different training strategies before getting another attempt at the end of class. They watched a YouTube video on making paper airplanes and met in groups to strategize.

Klotz also demonstrated the need to convince your employees — or students — that training is important.

“You need to make it meaningful,” Klotz said. “So if they beat the class average by 20 percent on the second throw, I take away a quiz.”

“All of a sudden they get really dialed in, and by the end they’re cheering and clapping for each other.”

Klotz’s first class on Thursday threw their planes an average of 12.8 feet on their first attempt. On the second, the class improved to 23.3 feet, a 90 percent improvement.

“The key is that training is not fun,” Klotz said,  “but it’s important to do it and measure its effectiveness.”

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Students give their education a lift with summer internships

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College of Business student Parker Edwards on his internship this summer with Alaska Airlines.

Oregon State College of Business student Parker Edwards heard a familiar phrase over and over this summer.

“I don’t know if this is possible, but …”

The Business Information Systems major spent his summer in Seattle with Alaska Airlines as a systems and process intern. Working with maintenance and engineering, Edwards’ job was to structure the huge amount of data connected to every aircraft and make it easier to find areas needing repair.

“I love data,” Edwards said. “It’s so powerful. People get really excited. Someone would come in and say, I don’t even know if this is possible, but if you can find a way … if I could click a button.”

Edwards was just one of a number of College of Business students who worked around the country and the world this summer as interns with some of the biggest companies in their industries.

Edwards’ role with Alaska combined his interest in technology and problem solving with his love of aviation.

“I want to get my pilot’s license as soon as I get out of school,” he said. “Also working with an airline that’s as prominent in the northwest as Alaska was a great opportunity.”

Interning with an airline also comes with perks beyond great experience.

Between his time as a system and process analysis intern with Alaska, Edwards and other interns flew free around the west coast and to Alaska and Hawaii. Edwards’ favorite trip was a day in Honolulu, leaving in the morning and returning the next day.

Edwards also had a great view at the office.

“Because it’s at the hangar, you can go downstairs at any given time and there would be 747s and just outside the door it’s SeaTac International Airport,” he said. “That was probably the coolest thing I could do there.”

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Georgia Brown on her internship with Daimler Trucks North America.

Georgia Brown is still finishing her summer internship with Daimler Trucks North America in Portland.

That’s because Brown is part of MECOP. The prestigious, Oregon industry-sponsored program places students in a pair of paid six-month internships with some of the biggest firms in the Northwest.

“The most appealing thing about it was the fact that I would graduate with a year’s worth of work experience in my major,” Brown said. “I’m not exactly sure what I want to do once I’m out of college and having the chance to work for some of the most competitive companies in the Northwest is a great way to find out.”

As a project management intern in the Daimler IT Finance department, Brown works as an analyst for her group, bringing together research from different sources to create easy-to-comprehend reports on a variety of topics.

“Since I started my internship, I’ve developed the department’s Sharepoint site, created a customer relationship database in Access, and am working on documenting and learning TM1,” she said. “My knowledge of IT in general has improved and developed way more than I ever thought it would.”

Beyond the valuable real-life experience, Brown said her internship has helped her learn more about what she wants out of her own career.

“I’ve talked to students before who are hesitant to do an internship because they don’t know if they would enjoy that field, but I think this is the best way to try different career options and see what works for you,” she said.

In the School of Design and Human Environment Internship Program, more than 163 students completed internships during the 2012- 2013 school year with more than 109 companies. Overall, 11 students interned in New York City’s Garment District, eight in Los Angeles and three internationally.

Through the program, facilitated by SDHE Internship Coordinator Sandy Burnett, students take a preparatory class before their internship and then a “Field Experience” course during, with weekly check-ins to mark progress and goals.

Merchandising Management student Kahli Lanning interned with Donna Karan during the summer, where she was able to work with teams from Donna Karan Japan.

“Getting to sit in on their meetings and being able to practice my Japanese in a business setting was a great experience for me,” Lanning said. “It is a great program, and I think the experience I gained will be invaluable to my future career.”

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Students make professional connections at Industry Info Sessions

Oregon State College of Business student Elizabeth Yamada didn’t know what to expect when she sat in on her first Industry Information Session.

Yamada is hoping to join the MECOP business and engineering internship program and wanted to hear from representatives of the Boeing Company, one of the session’s featured companies and a MECOP sponsor as well.

She spoke with Boeing Project Manager Katie Schuberg, an OSU Finance and MBA graduate and former MECOP intern herself.

Yamada left with her questions answered, a new contact at a company she’d love to work with and renewed confidence in her path.

“[Schuberg] was also a MECOP intern, and hearing she doesn’t have a technical background — like me — I needed to hear that,” Yamada said.

Put on by the College of Business Career Success Center, Industry Information Sessions bring representatives from multiple companies to Bexell Hall 328 at 4 p.m. every Tuesday.

Every session focuses on a different industry, allowing students to meet with recruiters, find out more about companies and start networking for future jobs and internships.

Fall term’s first session featured the aviation industry, with representatives from Boeing, the Port of Portland and Evergreen Aviation.

Yamada said the environment was welcoming, with recruiters open to questions and eager to give advice.

“It’s not as scary as it sounds like,” she said. “When they announce it in class, networking can sound intimidating, but the recruiters are just like we are.”

Schuberg said she enjoys coming back to Corvallis as a Boeing rep now, and encourages students to attend as many professional events as they can before graduating.

“It’s about opening students’ eyes to the possibilities at a company,” she said of her role on campus visits. “I never thought about Boeing until I was there.”

The sessions and in-person contact with a representative can also be tools when looking for future positions.

“That face-to-face interaction with representatives from a company is huge,” Schuberg added. “We do take resumes and answer questions, and it shows you’re proactive.”

For her, that active role in the job search is the best thing a student can do.

“You’re the only one looking out for yourself,” Schuberg said. “Put yourself out on a limb sometimes.”

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Accounting student finds $10,000 scholarship lost in the stacks

This July Oregon State College of Business student Scott Schaub went to his parents’ home and started one of the many rituals of returning students: He opened the stack of piled-up mail left in his old bedroom.

Tucked away in the pile he found a two-month-old letter announcing he earned a $10,000 scholarship from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

“It turns out the letter had been sent in May, yet for some reason my parents failed to mention they had placed all of this mail in my room,” Schaub said. “I don’t think I will ever let them live that one down.”

Congress established the PCAOB as part of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The nonprofit oversees the audits of public companies to protect investors and the public interest.

The act also established a scholarship for accounting students funded by penalties paid to the board.

This is the third year the PCAOB has awarded the scholarships. Each year it selects institutions from across the country to nominate students for the honor, and this year chose Oregon State as one of 77 to participate.

Oregon State Professor of Accounting Roger Graham was impressed by Schaub’s enthusiasm in one of his classes and nominated the then-junior for the scholarship.

“Scott’s one of those really smart students the College of Business gets, but what I liked most was how outgoing and engaged he was in class,” Graham said. “He’s the kind of student professors really like because he talks in class, engages and really tries to understand the material.”

Schaub, a dual major in accounting and finance, said he stumbled into accounting after taking his first introductory course in the College of Business.

“I really enjoyed the fact that the subject matter is applicable to all types of businesses and I felt it would open doors to a variety of industries,” he said.

Schaub spent the summer interning for Geffen Mesher in Portland, but kept up with Graham to see if there was any news of the scholarship.

“We kept emailing back and forth, have you heard anything?” Graham said. “Then he sent me this link that said Oregon State had received a scholarship and wanted to know if maybe someone else had gotten it.”

That was when Schaub went back home and found the notice, officially naming him as a scholarship recipient. This is the first time PCAOB has awarded the scholarship to an Oregon State student.

“To be honest, I had no expectation of being awarded the scholarship, but was thankful and flattered to have been considered.”