Teacher, Mentor & Friend “Project of Love” leads to Medal of Friendship
T
-birds find adventure in faraway places, that’s a fact. Whether it’s something that’s already in their DNA, or an infu-
sion that occurs through their Thunderbird experience, doesn’t really matter. Once bitten, forever a carrier. Nancy Napier ’75 is a
case study. Her work and her curiosity took her from Boise, Idaho to Southeast Asia. To appreciate her impact, all you need to know is that Napier recently was awarded, the Vietnam Medal of Friendship, approved by Vietnam’s president.
IT ALL BEGAN WITH AN EMAIL Nearly 20 years after graduating from Thunderbird, Napier began working in Vietnam. It started as a 12-week training workshop with the Hanoibased National Economic University (NEU) to “train the trainers” It was a program was funded by a Swedish government agency to help the country move toward a marketoriented economy, under a Vietnamese government initiative called “Doi Moi,” while maintaining its dominant socialist government.
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A JOB MADE FOR A T-BIRD Napier’s first visit evolved into a nine-year, $8.5 million capacitybuilding project managed by Boise State University, where she now serves as a Distinguished Professor. The program trained Vietnamese university educators and business people, many of whom had been trained in Soviet-bloc countries, in market economics and western style business skills and practices. “I was curious, I wanted to try something new and Vietnam had an appeal,” said Napier. “Once the project manager and I hit it off and she asked us to take over their MBA program, it became a project of love.” Participants in three cohorts spent several months on campus in Boise and interned at winter 2018