Because of my international business experience and the time that I spent in Chile and South America, I think that’s However, memories of the 1999 NATO bombing can sometimes create a potential emotional minefield for Americans doing business in Serbia. Zdravkovic advised Letourneau to also bear that in mind. Letourneau is in Serbia as an international graduate trainee for the Delhaize Group, the Belgium-based multinational corporation that operates supermarkets in the United States, Indonesia, and Eastern Europe. One of only a handful of Americans selected from among 750 applicants for the position, he was hired after he studied in Chile, traveled in South America and was certified as a Global Business Professional by NASBITE , formerly North American Small Business International Trade Educators, an organization that administers an exam to measure competence in global trade. Letourneau says it was thanks to Professor Annavarjula, his study abroad and the International Business program that he was hired by the Delhaize Group. “Because of my international business experience and the time that I spent in Chile and South America, I think that’s the reason I did make the cut.” It took longer for the benefits of an International Business degree to kick in for Emily Panasowich ’08, who was in
the reason I did make the cut. Ryan Letourneau ’11, Belgium-based Delhaize Group
the first class of International Business graduates. It wasn’t until a couple of years after graduation, when she was teaching English as a second language in Gimcheon, a small farming community in South Korea, that she received word of a job opening at Destination ImagiNation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to teach problem-solving, creativity and teamwork to students by sponsoring competitions all over the world. “Here I am halfway around the world reading about my dream job, and I’m like, I have to apply to this because of all the skills that I learned at Bryant,” she recalls. Panasowich had concentrated in marketing and minored in French at Bryant, but she hadn’t found a job that made use of her international business skills. Destination ImagiNation, which sponsored some of the extracurricular activities she took part in as a middle school student in Robbinsville, NJ, was seeking an international coordinator.
I joined the company in spring 2009 to help launch American Eagle Outfitters’ international division. Lily Himmelsbach ’09
Suddenly she had an opportunity to put what she learned at Bryant to work. “The job description said, ‘Prefer somebody with an international business degree.’ Right there you cut off so many people,” says Panasowich. “The second requirement was knowledge of a foreign language. Well, here I am with a French minor, and now I have basic knowledge of Korean because I’ve lived here,” she says. The job description also called for work or study experience in other countries. By then, Panasowich had worked and studied in countries on four continents, among them Africa, where she took part in a South Africa wildlife management program, sponsored by the University of Pretoria, to fulfill Bryant’s science requirement during her senior year. It didn’t hurt that she was an alumna of the nonprofit educational program, says Panasowich, who is now director of Asian operations as well as international coordinator at Destination ImagiNation. But equally important, she says, were the courses she took, and the world travel she did, as an International Business major. “All that stuff I took away from Bryant — I know that differentiated me from everybody else.” Another International Business graduate, Lily Himmelsbach ’09, is now director of operations for Let’s Gift It (www.letsgiftit.com), a New York-based social gifting company that provides retailers with technology for social commerce and gifting. But for more than two years — from her graduation in May 2009 until [ Continued on page 43 ]
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