by Abbey Falk, senior majoring in Marketing

With the current economic climate having an effect on everyone on the career ladder, experienced workers are seeking job advice now more than ever. In order to assist in this area, the Smeal College of Business is now offering career services for alumni with the goal of assisting Smeal grads in times of job transition and to offer networking and professional connections to both students and alumni.

For years, Penn State has had an Alumni Career Services office, which is a partnership between Career Services in the Division of Student Affairs and the Penn State Alumni Association. The office offers a variety of services including career development, resume critiques and interview preparation, career assessments, phone and in-person appointments, networking assistance, and career workshops and seminars. These services are available to alumni from all majors and from all Penn State campuses.

Smeal’s Alumni Career Services office is set up to specifically serve the needs of business graduates. Now in a pilot phase, its services will eventually include career development tools, tips for sharpening interview skills, webinars, and job postings for both job seekers and recruiters seeking to hire recent graduates to experienced alumni. Additionally, SmealConnect, the college’s exclusive online community, will maintain its presence as a destination for job opportunities, career resources, and networking. SmealConnect is available to all Smeal graduates, and provides alumni with connections to their former classmates and other industry professionals.

Robin Stevens, an integral member of the Smeal community since 1995, has been named director of Alumni Career Services. During her time at the college, she has significantly enhanced the undergraduate and MBA internship programs, developed career-related classes and initiatives, and nurtured relationships with employers throughout the nation to benefit Smeal students.

Now Stevens is committed to forming relationships between recruiters, alumni, and students. “Part of the success of this new program depends on developing strong relationships with seniors, and helping them utilize the service, so in turn they will stay actively involved in the Smeal community,” Stevens said. “We are of course looking forward to working with our more experienced alumni as well.”

Stevens also wants to expand the Wall Street Boot Camp educational concept to every major and field of concentration within Smeal. Wall Street Boot Camp is a training program she created to better prepare students who aspire to have careers in the highly competitive field of financial services. The sessions teach students firsthand the skills they need to succeed and provide opportunities to network with Smeal alumni serving as guest speakers.

The initial phase of Smeal Alumni Career Services is a building process. In the coming years, the program will provide more cohesive and long-term connections between students, alumni, and the college. To help get to that point, the Alumni Career Services office is interested in understanding the career needs of its alumni and how it can provide the best services to meet these needs. Please take a few moments to complete a brief survey to assist the college in the next phase of this initiative.

For more information on Smeal’s Alumni Career Services program, visit the Smeal website or email alumnicareerservices@smeal.psu.edu.

When major disasters strike, not knowing or understanding the long-term consequences can be just as terrifying for affected communities as is the destruction and loss of life. Matters are made even worse when corporations and government agencies attempt to shield themselves from legal recourse by deflecting blame and even spreading misinformation. Affected residents are left feeling unsafe and hopeless, not knowing whom they can really trust in their greatest time of need. To restore the sense of safety and normalcy necessary to clean up and move on from earthquakes, oil spills and other such disasters, confidence must be restored.

Perhaps more so than any other catastrophe, in the wake of a nuclear meltdown affected communities are left with seemingly unanswerable questions about their long-term welfare. Such was the case in 1979 and the years following the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, and it’s happening again in the areas affected by the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan. Conflicting reports from the Japanese government and officials at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. have left residents questioning the safety of their food supply and the air they breathe, not to mention their worries over the loss of their homes, families and livelihoods.

Among the millions of Japanese looking for answers is acclaimed Japanese designer Satoshi Nakagawa. While researching ways to help Japan move on from the tsunami and nuclear meltdown brought on by a powerful earthquake on March 11, 2011, Nakagawa came across research conducted by Barbara Gray, professor of organizational behavior at the Penn State Smeal College of Business, and Anthony Baratta, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering. Nakagawa, founder of Hug Japan, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping those affected by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, invited Gray and Baratta to Japan to share the insights they gained helping the communities surrounding Three Mile Island following that disaster more than 30 years ago.

Following the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, poor communication from federal and state agencies and the utility company that owned the nuclear power plant left local residents distrusting of officials in charge. When the decision was made as part of the cleanup efforts in 1980 to release the radiation into the atmosphere, the local community was in an uproar. Most of them had little knowledge of the effects of radiation and they would not simply take the government’s word that they would be safe. Gray, Baratta, and other Penn State colleagues teamed up with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources (now the Department of Environmental Protection) to restore public trust in the recovery efforts.

Baratta, now with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and his Penn State nuclear engineering colleagues created a new device to measure beta radiation, the type released at Three Mile Island. The team placed these devices in communities around the reactor, setting them up to constantly print out radiation levels. Rather than leaving the communities to trust government or utility officials to report and explain the readings, Gray and her colleagues trained 50 residents of local communities on how to use the devices, interpret the results, and communicate the radiation levels. The readings were reported daily in local newspapers beginning the week before the radiation purge and continuing during the five-week release, and in some cases, for years afterward.

“These reports were coming from the people who the community trusted,” Gray says. “They were neighbors who were being just as affected by the tragedy as everyone else. They restored the confidence in the information being reported.”

The initiative, called the Citizen Radiation Monitoring Program, got the community involved in its design and operation and addressed emotional as well as technical issues associated with the release of the radiation. It helped to give  local residents back their sense of trust, understanding and confidence.

This is exactly what Hug Japan’s Nakagawa wants to restore in the affected areas on Japan’s coast. In early November, he hosted Gray and Baratta as well as other thought leaders from around the world at a symposium in Tokyo. While in Japan, the contingent visited Kitaibaraki, a coastal city of about 46,000 residents approximately 50 miles south of the Fukushima plant.

According to Gray, the situation in Kitaibaraki is much worse than what faced the people living near Three Mile Island.

“They don’t know if they can eat the food that is grown near the reactor. There are questions about whether the fish are safe to consume,” she says. “Plus, they are dealing with the cleanup from the tsunami, which wiped out their homes and businesses.”

Kitaibaraki’s many fishermen have been left without work. Their boats were destroyed and Otsu harbor was left nearly unusable by the tsunami. And even if they could fish, there’s no market for their product because of the large amounts of radioactive iodine that have poured into the Pacific Ocean.

Gray’s visit to Kitaibaraki started with a gathering of children at a local school. The children shared pictures they drew reflecting how the tsunami and fear of radiation has affected them and their families. Hug Japan is exhibiting this artwork at shows around the world to raise funds and awareness for the victims on the coast of Japan.

The trip also included a tour of the destruction resulting from tsunami both in the city of Kitaibaraki and in the waters of the Pacific just off the coast. Their boats took them as close as safely possible to the Fukushima plant.

The Kitaibaraki trip concluded with a meeting of about 300 local residents during which Gray and Baratta explained their Three Mile Island project and its positive effect on the psyches of devastated communities. Kitaibaraki’s mayor expressed a desire to initiate a similar course of action in his town.

Back at the symposium in Tokyo, Gray, Baratta, and representatives from consulting firms, NGOs, and corporations shared their ideas on recovery, including ways to get the people of coastal Japan back to work and some sense of normalcy.

Gray says she was surprised at how far the cleanup has progressed since the earthquake and tsunami struck nine months ago. In Kitaibaraki, there were pristine, empty lots where homes once stood, right next to other homes suffering little enough damage to be repaired. The pictures from the news coverage of rubble littering the streets and boats sitting atop buildings were no more, at least in Kitaibaraki.

“These people are so resilient,” Gray says. “They will be dealing with the aftermath of this disaster for decades, but they have already begun the process of moving on. Many feel that their government has failed them, and they just need someone they can trust to tell them that they’re going to be OK.”

For more information on Hug Japan or to make a donation to the recovery efforts, visit hugjapan.jp.

Jones (far left) and Poverty Resolutions team members pick up debris following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

Matthew Jones didn’t consider himself to be a typical MBA student when he applied for admission to Smeal. Rather than setting his sights on becoming a wealthy executive, he decided to devote his business and financial research interests to issues of poverty in developing countries. Jones, now a graduate of the Penn State Smeal MBA Program, continues his mission to serve others through a nonprofit he co-founded with his brother, Andrew, a current MBA student at Smeal.

Their organization, Poverty Resolutions, grew to fruition following the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in January of 2010. Jones, a seasoned traveler, decided that instead of pursuing a traditional internship through the MBA program, he would spend his time off that summer learning about the needs that existed in Haiti and what part he could have in developing long-term solutions to serve those needs.

“For me, Haiti seemed to be so close to the U.S.,” Jones recalls. “With the disaster being so literally close to home, I decided to take advantage of the time I had off to help.”

According to the organization’s research, Haiti was the poorest country in the Americas prior to the earthquake, with more than half of its citizens living on less than one U.S. dollar per day. The earthquake exacerbated this desperate situation. Thousands were driven from their homes and forced to live in tents located in fields and on sidewalks. Even now, many of these families continue to live without clean water, proper sanitation, or nutritious food.

With this knowledge, Jones, his brother, and twelve other individuals teamed up to carry out an immersion in Haiti and document their experience along the way. The group felt that, in order to truly help the people in Haiti, they had to get to know them. Four team members, including the Jones brothers, chose to make a 28-day commitment, in which they would pledge to live on $1 a day and document their experiences living alongside Haitians in a tent city. They developed their plan based upon the premise that nearly one-sixth of the world’s population lives on less than $1 a day. In addition to this standard, the team set guidelines to mirror the experience of the Haitian people as accurately as possible. The team agreed to the following rules:

• Spend only $1 per day on food, supplies, and drinking water.

• Live and sleep in Haiti with one blanket or sheet.

• No toiletries: no toothpaste, no deodorant, no soap.

• Refrain from accepting food from Haitians.

• If caught or scavenged, food can be eaten without penalty.

• Two sets of clothes per person.

• No laundry facilities.

In addition to providing support to the four living in the tent cities, the other team members recorded the experience for Americans back home. As the four were filmed and photographed, the team members searched for opportunities to develop partnerships with Haitians. In addition to establishing strong relationships with the Haitians, the group also networked with fellow humanitarians to learn about what they were doing to help and how they could combine forces. Over the course of the 28 days spent in Haiti, powerful lessons were learned and connections were made with local individuals and organizations that would form the framework for Poverty Resolutions.

The main concern among Haitians they interacted with was a lack of jobs. They desperately wanted to improve their situation, but had no means of making money to do so. Using their own education and experience, the group began to think logically about how to spur small business development and job creation in such an impoverished area.

As with many developing countries, education typically takes a back seat to the more immediate issues surrounding food and shelter. However, it became obvious to the group that if they were going to create and sustain a solution to joblessness in Haiti, they needed to start with education.

Statistics show that only half of Haitian children attend primary school, which has led to a literacy rate of only 53 percent among the adult population. In fact, only one in five young adults attends secondary school. While Haitian children must pass a standardized test to reach this level of schooling, the group found cost to be the greatest roadblock to their education, which in turn leads to unemployment later in life.

By utilizing the network established with fellow humanitarians already focused on improving the educational system in Haiti, Jones and his cohorts set their sights on raising funds to help reduce the financial burden that prevents capable Haitian children from attending school. Poverty Resolutions currently works with an expanding network of nearly ten Haitian schools, helping to raise funds toward educational scholarships, effective training programs for teachers, and school supply purchases.

In addition to providing educational support, Poverty Resolutions also offers programs geared toward funding small business through microfinance, which provides small financial loans to low-income clients who aspire to start or grow their own business. Farmers, artisans, and entrepreneurs who would otherwise lack access to traditional lending services may be recipients of microfinance loans, which are repaid and then reinvested into the program.

“Through donations, we aim to provide loans to support Haitian farmers so they can feed their animals, to artisans so they can purchase supplies to create their products, and to countless other individuals aspiring to build and sustain their own small businesses,” says Jones.

In order to contribute to the larger fight against poverty and the overall progress made by organizations worldwide, Poverty Resolutions has focused much of its efforts on educating and inspiring not only Haitians, but also a second generation of American students who would also be committed to the cause.

“Although younger Americans at the elementary, high school and even college levels aren’t established financially, we believe they are important to target because of their willingness to be inspired,” Jones says. “The willingness to help is there, but most American students aren’t fully educated on the poverty crisis to know what they can do to make a difference. We aim to help them take that next step in becoming involved.”

This spring, Poverty Resolutions plans to engage American elementary schools, high schools, and colleges in the need that exists in Haiti and what they can do to help. The organization has developed a variety of educational presentations and programs, based upon age level, that are intended to illustrate the harsh realities of global poverty. Additionally, the organization has released the documentary footage showcasing their immersion in Haiti. It is their goal that the film will not only offer a glimpse of the desperation present in Haiti, but also the hope that continues to exist. Click here to view the documentary trailer.

To learn more about Poverty Resolutions or to get involved in development efforts, visit http://www.povertyresolutions.org/index.php.

As students begin earning credits toward the real estate option in the new Smeal College of Business Risk Management major, Penn State alumni who work in the real estate industry are finding fresh ways to network and support the college through the new Smeal Real Estate Society.

The Real Estate Society emerged from an effort begun more than four years ago when James B. Thomas, the John and Becky Surma Dean of Smeal, brought together a group of highly successful Penn State alumni working in various segments of the real estate industry. He wanted to gain an industry-based perspective on the best ways to prepare students who will enter the multifaceted real estate field of the 21st century. The group became known as Smeal’s Real Estate Advisory Board, and it played a key role in development of the real estate option within the new Risk Management major.

The board also sponsors the work of the college’s internationally known Institute for Real Estate Studies (IRES), which was formed in 1985 to foster discussion between academicians and business professionals in the area of real estate. Now, IRES and the Real Estate Advisory Board aim to broaden the scope of participation even further by including all Smeal and Penn State graduates who are working in the field through the Real Estate Society (RES).

Led by alumni volunteers Lawrence Colorito ’88 and Edouard Cuilhe ’03, the society’s activities are aimed at fostering the development of all Penn State graduates who are real estate professionals as well as current students. Colorito, who owns a Chesapeake, Va., based appraisal and consulting business, welcomes the chance to be more closely involved with the college and the Penn State real estate community.

“The new Real Estate Society gives Penn State alums who practice in real estate a home back in State College. This is an opportunity for me to give back to the school I love and see some direct impact to the students while networking with others in my business,” Colorito said.

To join RES, alumni are asked to make a gift of $100 or more to support real estate education. Gifts can be made online at www.givenow.psu.edu/InstituteforRealEstateStudies.

Through RES, alumni and friends of the college will find:

• Networking opportunities via LinkedIn and SmealConnect, the college’s social networking site;
• Invitation to the annual Real Estate Tailgate, organized in conjunction with the Real Estate Advisory Board on a fall football weekend;
• Invitations to regional Real Estate Society events featuring Smeal faculty members and other guest speakers. The first regional networking event will be held Thursday, Nov. 10, in New York City (more details will be forthcoming and posted on the IRES website);
• Access via podcasts to the department’s speakers on timely and relevant real estate issues;
• Mentoring opportunities with current students;
• Subscription to the Smeal Real Estate Society newsletter.

All gifts to Penn State in a given academic year count toward membership in Penn State’s President’s Club, which honors donors for their annual giving to the University. Total contributions of $2,500 per year (or $1,500 per year for alumni age 35 or younger) or more will qualify the donor for membership. So, gifts to RES can either qualify the donor for President’s Club membership outright or add to a donor’s cumulative total for the year.

“The time has come to form a venue that brings together a wide range of alumni who are practicing in the various real estate disciplines in a way that benefits them and supports today’s students,” said Brent Ambrose, Smeal Professor of Real Estate and IRES director. “By creating networking opportunities and providing tangible professional resources, and by promoting philanthropic giving in support of our programs, our hope is to make the Real Estate Society valuable for alumni and students.”

For more information about the Real Estate Society, contact Richard Button, assistant director of the Institute for Real Estate Studies, at rjb366@psu.edu or 814-865-5670.

The Department of Dermatology at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center was struggling to enroll participants in outpatient clinical trials and compete with more nimble competitors in the private sector. A team of MBAs from the Smeal College of Business helped to streamline the Penn State process and win a greater share of the important pharmaceutical company sponsored clinical trial business.

In spring 2010, Smeal second-year students Joshua V. Barr, Jatinder Jassal, Tieming Lang, Peter Levinson, and Yvonne Moyer were teamed up and assigned to address the clinical trial issue as part of the MBA Applied Professional Experience (APEX). A capstone component of the Smeal MBA Program, APEX links teams of students in their final semesters with companies and organizations looking to address specific business challenges.

With the Department of Dermatology as its client and Dr. Jeffrey J. Miller as the lead, the Smeal MBAs spent hundreds of hours investigating the clinical trial process, drafting recommendations for improvement, and outlining a staged implementation plan. At the core of the team’s final proposal were steps designed to eliminate or diminish many of the internal hurdles that were causing significant delays.

“Using their blueprint and having business data behind it allowed us to effectively create change within a bureaucracy,” says Miller, vice chair of education and patient care in the Department of Dermatology and professor of dermatology with the Penn State College of Medicine.

By streamlining its processes, the Department of Dermatolgy at Penn State Hershey has been able to enroll more patients in clinical trials in less time. In a business where revenue depends on efficiency, this has been critical.

“Without their analyses we wouldn’t be where we are today,” adds Miller. “Now we have a process that mirrors the competition and is designed to make things move more quickly.”

The APEX partnership with Penn State Hershey is one of more than 40 projects that have been completed by Smeal MBAs since the launch of the program in 2009. More than 25 organizations including Accuweather, Dell, Office Depot, Sears Holdings, and Verizon have worked with APEX teams on a range of cross-functional projects.

“These teams add real value for clients and provide a unique opportunity for students to apply the skills they’ve gained in the MBA program to real business issues,” says APEX Program Director David Lenze. “APEX provides a challenging and rewarding conclusion to the Smeal MBA experience and helps businesses improve in the process.”

Her longtime involvement with the Smeal Alumni Society Board has had a significant impact on her life, influencing who she is today. “If it wasn’t for Smeal and the Alumni Society Board, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Eggers said. “Through the networking opportunities and the friendships I’ve established, the board has really given back to me well more than I could have ever imagined. It has also really kept me connected, especially since I live nearly 1,000 miles away from campus. I still keep in touch with the members who were on the board when I was a student. I feel a very strong attachment to the board, and I very much see the board as my home.”

Eggers is the president and founder of LeaderShift Authentic Insights, Inc., a niche consulting firm specializing in leadership and organization development. A specialist in building and developing high performing teams, Eggers’ career focus has been on executive leadership and organization development.

Eggers has served as an at-large director on the Smeal Alumni Society Board since the spring of 1997, and volunteered with the Smeal Alumni Society Board since she was a student ex-officio member in 1991.

“I have had so many phenomenal experiences with the board, even when I was a student,” Eggers said. “One of the board members helped me to land my first internship and another board member helped me to land my first consulting job. Over the years, members of the board have really served as my ‘personal board of directors’ when I’ve faced critical decision points.”

After graduating from Penn State, Eggers took a few years off from the board, and then returned as a volunteer, actively engaged in expanding the board’s mentoring efforts beyond that of only serving MBA students. “I worked very hard to move the board’s mentoring efforts to include serving undergraduate students, and I am particularly proud that we are now able to help even more students,” said Eggers. Also, she was integral in facilitating the establishment of the vision for the board. “It was a big deal for the board. We moved from a less ‘academic-type’ board, to a more programmatic and hands-on board.”

Now, as the president of the board, Eggers is looking forward to building upon the organization’s mission of enhancing Penn State and Smeal’s value and reputation by cultivating a community of active, engaged alumni; building and maintaining forums for student and alumni interaction; and providing a meaningful connection between the college and alumni. “The board is a significant resource for the college that can be leveraged to provide guest speakers to Smeal faculty, offer insights into corporate America, mentor current students, recruit Smeal talent, and more,” Eggers said.

During her presidency, Eggers is planning to focus her efforts on five primary areas. “In the next two years, we will work together to clarify the board’s purpose and the value we add to the college and the alumni relations program; transition to supporting a new dean; support the rejuvenation of the Hammond Society (a means of keeping tenured board members involved beyond their maximum board terms); increase the effectiveness and productivity of our meetings; and clarify the role and involvement of ex-officio members,” she said.

In addition to her commitment to the future of the board, Eggers recognizes that the board represents the greater Smeal Alumni Society and the need to garner new volunteers to support all of the college’s goals and priorities. She encourages all Smeal alumni to consider getting involved with the college, in a program or initiative that is of interest.

“For every alum not involved in the life of the college, we are losing great ideas and talent and input,” Eggers said. “I encourage all of our alumni to consider getting involved, as we will all get better by the number of people who reconnect with the college and give of their time. Alumni volunteers will find that they will be touched by their involvement in the college, in ways that they cannot even anticipate!”

For more information about how to get involved, please visit the Alumni Relations Web site.