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.
