March 2008 Stories

Cross-Country Champion Wins NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship

She’s already won back-to-back cross country national championships, raked in numerous regional racing wins and been honored as one of the top eight student-athletes in the country. Now Sarah Zerzan ’08 has another honor to add to her list: NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.

The prestigious national scholarship will provide Zerzan, who competes on the Willamette cross country and track and field teams, with $7,500 to help pay for graduate school. Only 29 male athletes and 29 female athletes receive this award yearly for each season of the athletic calendar (fall, winter and spring).

“I was pleasantly surprised and excited to learn that I had received the scholarship,” Zerzan says. “I hope to use it for medical school tuition. Medical school can be very expensive, and since I plan on becoming a doctor one day, it will be very helpful to have this assistance in funding my education.”

Willamette’s cross country and track and field programs have a strong history of producing NCAA Postgraduate Scholars — Zerzan is the fifth Bearcat in the last four years from these programs to receive the award.

The scholarship extends a long list of accomplishments for Zerzan during her time at Willamette. In January she was chosen one of just eight student-athletes nationwide to receive the NCAA Today’s Top VIII Award, which honors character and leadership in addition to athletic and academic achievements. She won NCAA Division III cross country individual national championships in 2006 and 2007, making her only the third athlete to repeat as the women’s champion in the 27-year history of the contest. She also earned All-America honors for three seasons, and she was named NCAA Division III National Female Athlete of the Year in cross country for the past two years.

When she’s not competing, Zerzan remains devoted to her academics. She is majoring in biochemistry with a minor in Spanish. Two summers ago she traveled to Costa Rica through the Organization of Tropical Studies, headquartered at Duke University, where she studied the epidemiological effects of dietary change in the country’s indigenous populations.

Her concern for helping others extends to her other extracurricular activities, which include volunteering as a bilingual mentor in several local schools and co-founding the Willamette chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign, the largest student network in the nation committed to ending the HIV and AIDS crisis worldwide.

“I feel like so many people have helped me and touched my life in so many ways that it’s important for me to try to give something back,” Zerzan says. “I was raised with the conviction that we are here to help others, and this belief motivates a lot of my actions. I hope that at least in some way what I do can make a positive impact in the lives of others.”

For information on this scholarship and others, contact Monique Bourque in the Student Academic Grants and Awards office on the second floor of the University Center.

Bringing Africa to Willamette

The African continent comprises 54 countries, each with a unique history that has shaped its languages, ethnic makeup and cultural traditions. Yet many Americans tend to lump all the nations together under one giant picture of “Africa” — a picture that, unfortunately, often includes only negative stereotypes about poverty, war, disease and lack of progress.

“These negative images are not benign — they harm the continent,” says Joyce Millen, assistant professor of anthropology. “Most countries in Africa are growing and experiencing a renaissance, yet due to the continual bad rap the continent gets in the foreign press, potential investors and trade partners fail to see the enormous promise in particular countries. Most people are surprised, for example, when they learn that Africa’s major cities have modern, sophisticated architecture, industries and telecommunications systems.”

Educating others about the true nature of the continent and its diversity is the goal of a growing celebration at Willamette called Africa Week. For the past two years, the University hosted one day of Africa-related events, but with increasing interest among students and faculty, the program expanded this spring to an entire week.

This year’s activities included screenings of films about Africa, a workshop exploring the resilience of Sierra Leonean women and the creativity of young African musicians, discussions on African sculpture at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, and presentations by students who have studied abroad in South Africa, Ghana, Egypt and Uganda. The campus community was able to taste African cuisine all week in the University’s dining facilities and peruse an African market on the final day.

“We want people to celebrate the diversity of Africa’s nations, and not just think of the continent as one country,” says Kelsey Walsh ’09, one of the organizers. “We’re lucky to have professors like Amadou Fofana [assistant professor of French] and Joyce Millen who care about teaching what is good about Africa.”

The most interactive and visual event of the week was the creation of a giant Africa puzzle map. Groups of Willamette students from residence halls, sororities and Tokyo International University of America each were given blank puzzle pieces representing all the countries in Africa. The challenge was to research ethnic makeup, geography, history, political movements, languages, natural resources and other attributes that make each nation unique. The groups decorated their pieces to reflect their newfound knowledge, and all the pieces were put together to form a map of the continent that is 15' by 15'. They also created posters that displayed at least 20 facts about each country.

The colorful map — which included drawings, photos and paintings of everything from flags to topographical features to literary and language references — drew numerous admiring comments from the students, faculty and community members who viewed it. Three groups received awards for their work: Most Educational went to the piece representing Chad, created by Pi Beta Phi sorority; Most Creative was given to Madagascar, made by students living on the third floor of Matthews Hall; and Most Beautiful went to Nigeria, created by students from the first floor of Lausanne Hall.

Organizers hope to extend the learning beyond Willamette by making the puzzle available to other Oregon schools.

“Willamette has a lot of interest in Africa, and I think the fact that events went so well this year and in previous years attests to that,” says Ben Clanton ’10, another organizer. “Many of the stories you hear about Africa involve issues like HIV/AIDS, or crises in areas like the Darfur area of Sudan, but we want people to know more about the positive aspects of the continent and the people.”

An Eye on the Global Market

Events in the news didn’t used to pique Simona Bucur’s interest. But that was before she started following the stock market.

Now Bucur MBA’08 constantly reads and watches the news or checks market blogs online, carefully noting how each world event can cause the market to rise or fall. “I’ve started to understand how the news affects the financial market,” she says. “It’s amazing to see that one small event can affect the entire world.”

It’s all part of Bucur’s participation in the Student Investment Fund course at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management. The students invest actual dollars in the stock market, but not before learning to analyze economic, financial and political developments and trends. Their success is evaluated not just on whether they make money, but on the strategy they used throughout the process. “You learn how to be a mature investor,” Bucur says.

The Student Investment Fund is just example of hands-on learning Bucur has participated in since starting Willamette’s MBA program two years ago. Last year she was part of a team of six full-time students who placed second out of 23 teams for their business plan in the International Collegiate Business Simulation Competition put on by the University of San Diego. The competition asks students to create a simulated company that produces and sells its own products. Bucur’s team created a T-shirt design company. The teams drafted business plans for their products, then made strategic decisions for 20 quarters of business simulation.

“While you are playing the game, you have to write a business plan and then a report about your results,” Bucur says. “You are judged on the managerial decisions you made, either on the business plan or on the annual report. The simulation is very realistic because you have to learn how to read macroeconomic and other factors.”

When Bucur enrolled at Willamette, it was her first time studying in the U.S. The Romanian native earned a bachelor’s degree in business in her home country, but she wanted to increase her opportunities and in her mind, the U.S. is “where you can do business the best.” International students seeking MBAs are common at Atkinson. The business school has 30 such students this academic year from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Bulgaria, China, Guinea, India, Jamaica, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine and Vietnam.

Bucur came with a goal of learning better business practices from a country known for its economic prowess. She didn’t expect to learn to examine her home country more critically as well. “The program here focuses on the relevance of what you’re given. It teaches you how to think. That makes me see my home differently. I observe issues and try to think of a solution at the same time. It’s something I do naturally now.”

As a former Communist country, Romania struggles with unique economic barriers. Bucur says rapid changes occurred as Romania worked toward becoming part of the European Union, a status it achieved in 2007. The pressure to develop an infrastructure increased, leading to rapid widespread construction projects. More multinational investors are interested in Romania’s market as the country tries to become more competitive. The education and legal systems are improving.

But problems still remain, Bucur says, as leaders who were part of the former regime remain resistant to change. “We started to do things the right way, but it was one person against 100,” she says. “Fresh blood finally started coming in and changing things, but all the young people are leaving because of the problems. You can’t get a decent job unless you know somebody or you pay somebody.”

These are the circumstances that led Bucur to pursue an American MBA, and her decision appears to be the right one. She recently was offered a job working in marketing for Johnson & Johnson in Romania, and she accepted. “It will be tough to go back to the inefficiency that I left behind, but I’m not afraid. Here, I’ve learned to be an individual and have confidence in my actions. I’m pretty sure that Romania needs young people like me.”