Annemarie Lewandowski Archives - College of Business

May 3, 2016

Impact at Work highlights student success

Oregon State University President Ed Ray and Sara Hart Kimball Dean Mitzi Montoya both noted the challenges and importance of accessing higher education May 2 during the College of Business’ Impact at Work event at the Portland Hilton and Executive Tower.

The reception and dinner, attended by 150, were aimed at honoring scholarship recipients and the donors who help fund their education.

Student success is a top initiative of both the college and the university. Ray pointed out that young people who grow up in families in the lowest quartile of income distribution have just a 9 percent chance of accessing higher education — that’s a better chance than 40 years ago, but only 3 percent better, and he and Montoya are determined to speed up the rate of improvement.

Montoya, who was a second-generation college student in her family, noted that when someone can break through and become the first person in his or her family to graduate from college, it changes the family for the better for generations.

Other speakers included Presidential Scholar Annemarie Lewandowski, a senior in management who will go to work for Boeing as a project manager following graduation, and Dean’s Council of Excellence member Ken Thrasher, former chief executive officer of Fred Meyer.

Lewandowski expressed gratitude for being able to graduate debt free, and Thrasher noted how he hadn’t planned on going to college until his mentor, legendary Portland businessman Bill Naito, helped make it possible — with the proviso that he work hard, do well and then similarly help others someday.

The evening also included recognition for six high school juniors selected for the College of Business’ Future Business Leader Scholarship.

August 3, 2015August 12, 2015

A summer of study, networking

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.

April 2, 2015April 1, 2015

The wide world of Jackie Swint

Jackie Swint and her friend, Foy Renfro, outside the Austin Hall project room Swint sponsored.

College of Business donor Jackie Swint of Tigard toured Austin Hall for the first time on Feb. 28, taking enthusiastic notice of the project room she sponsors, the gleaming and mesmerizing Abacus sculpture that hangs from the ceiling, and … the students’ backpacks.

“Why are all of those people wearing backpacks?” she asked.

Another member of the tour group explained to Swint, a 1951 College of Business graduate, that backpacks were simply the tool of choice these days for hauling around textbooks, laptop, etc.

“Well, I guess it’s better than just carrying a pile of books,” she said.

Swint knows a bit about both books and luggage, having traveled the globe as a secretary for the Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State. Equipped with her degree in secretarial science, she worked in eight countries and eventually published “Who Was That Man?” (Inkwater Press, 2008, $22.95), a collection of stories about her adventures.

The title refers to an on-train encounter in the old Soviet Union with a person Swint imagines as possibly being USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

“She saw the world,” said Foy Renfro, formerly of the Oregon State University Foundation, who worked with Swint to set up the scholarships she funds and also accompanied her on her trip to Austin Hall. “Without OSU, she would not have been able to do all of those things, and she’s very appreciative of that.”

Among the ways Swint shows that appreciation is $10,000 in annual scholarship money distributed to four female students in the College of Business, one in each year in school; $1,000 goes to a freshman, $2,000 to a sophomore, $3,000 to a junior, and $4,000 a senior.

Financial need and academic excellence are the criteria used by the College of Business Scholarship Committee in determining the winners.

This year’s recipients are Ilwaad Aman, Jamie Martin, Annemarie Lewandowski and Allyssa Taylor.

Each year, Ilene Kleinsorge, dean of the college, brings her scholarship recipients to Portland to have dinner with Swint “so she can share her stories with her students.”

In addition to sponsoring the project room and funding the scholarships, Swint has donated to the Memorial Union a collection of 11 rubbings she made at the sites of various bas-relief carvings at temples and other ancient building sites in places such as Cambodia, Thailand, Peru and Greece.

“She thought if international students saw something of beauty from their own country it would help them to feel proud of where they came from and less homesick,” Kleinsorge said.

Lewandowski, who helped show Swint around during her visit, was impressed by her concern for other people, among other parts of her personality and life.

“She wanted to ensure that women within the College of Business have a chance to do what she did,” said Lewandowski, a junior majoring in management. “She wanted to show us that we could do it, too.

“She’s so sculpted by her travels and has such a good world perspective,” Lewandowski said. “Every aspect of her life is so intriguing. I was just completely inspired by this lady. She was so great. I wish I could have sat with her all day and just listened.”