Coming from a small town of 3,500 people in Oregon, Susan Smith Kuczmarski was thrilled to experience a life rich with different languages, people, cultures, and traditions in Vienna. In addition to living with a local family, Susan did everything she could to become an “insider” in Vienna. This fascination with culture has permeated her career and inspired her training as a cultural anthropologist. Today, Susan focuses her research and writing on values-based leadership and family bonding and has authored five (soon to be six) books on these subjects. In addition to consulting and public speaking, Susan teaches an executive leadership course at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Read on to find out how the lessons and values learned abroad continue to impact Susan’s work today.

IES Abroad: As a student at Colorado College, why did you choose to study abroad in Vienna?

Susan Smith Kuczmarski: I was attracted to the field of international relations when I arrived at Colorado College in 1969. My advisor at Colorado College was Fred Sondermann. He had a huge personal and academic impact on me. As a 13-year-old, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1939. Fred was a scholar as well as a great teacher. He co-authored a well-known textbook, Theory and Practice of International Relations. He was legendary for being a great raconteur. He possessed a seemingly inexhaustible supply of funny and interesting stories, and he loved telling jokes. I had taken a foreign policy class from Fred as well as German 101. The IES Abroad Vienna program let students approach language study via their own fluency point, and this ideally met my needs. I could read but not speak German well, and the Vienna program challenged and changed all this. I was also interested in traveling in Western Europe, Eastern European Soviet bloc countries, and Russia. Vienna had an ideal central European geographic location for these travel adventures. It seemed like a perfect fit. It spoke to me on all these levels.

IES Abroad: What are one or two influential memories from your year in Vienna?

SSK: I stayed with an older couple, Frau and Herr Strachwitz, who had fled Hungary in the mid-1950s before the Soviet occupation of Budapest. Most students in the Vienna program had this type of living arrangement (with a hausfrau and hausherr), but mine was an exacting personal connection. Dina von Strachwitz, who frequently gave me blank journals as a gift, foreshadowing my writing interest, wrote the travel articles for a Vienna newspaper—and Mr. Strachwitz had a day job but spent evenings clipping news about art and artists, his true love, in their library. In the morning, after zwei semmel mit aprikosenmarmelad (two rolls with apricot jam), I spoke several hours with Frau Strachwitz in German, which improved my speaking abilities immeasurably. And to this day, I love art, love reading about artists and their work, and have invested in it when possible.

Vienna was a completely different and rich learning experience, filled with new occurrences, palaces, people, cultures, music, theater, geographies, galleries, and languages. I had grown up in a small town (Stayton, aka, the Green Bean capital of the world!) of 3,500 people in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Vienna offered an unending cultural panorama, and I soaked it up every day.

IES Abroad: How did studying in Vienna influence your decision to train as a cultural anthropologist and your career today?

SSK: Looking back, the year in Vienna had a huge impact on my professional passion, career path, creativity, and global perspective. The theme of understanding “culture” permeates my professional career. I currently teach “How Values and Norms Impact Culture and Leadership” in the executive course, “Creating and Leading a Culture of Innovation," at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, I have done extensive research on how leadership skills are learned. I teach seminars to corporate, non-profit, and education groups on the characteristics of successful leadership. My leadership training courses champion six leadership qualities: humility, transparency, compassion, inclusiveness, collaboration, and values-based decisiveness. I encourage students to nurture a leader’s skill set, which to me includes serving others, knowing self, finding common ground, letting creativity reign, and rooting for others.  

There are many links to Vienna. My year abroad was marked by travel and exploration, including trips to the Balkan countries, Turkey, and most every Western and Eastern European country, with the exception of Albania, where no visas were allowed because of the U.S. aggression in Vietnam, (so we were told). Sponsored by IES Abroad, and led by the knowledgeable Dr. Balakian, I took side trips to Russia, Poland, East Berlin, and Finland – all affording first-hand cultural observation and interaction with their respective people, cultural patterns, and differences. In my current teaching at Kellogg, I encourage students to define culture as “how we do things in a particular place.” Culture is a human product. It is in our heads and our hearts. It arises from shared knowledge. It is self-reinforcing and difficult to change. It is a powerful, invisible force.

IES Abroad: You have authored five award-winning books on values-based leadership and family bonding. What inspired your interest in these two seemingly different areas of expertise?

SSK: There is a French word, portmanteau. It is a large trunk or suitcase, typically made of stiff leather and opening into two equal parts. It means that two separable aspects or qualities exist, best pictured side-by-side by opening the suitcase. Applied to my two different areas of expertise, I have a professional portmanteau composed of values-based leadership and family bonding. Unexpectedly, they fit together! There are a number of similarities. First, my research uncovered someone called the “caretaker” or champion of the soul of the family. The family soul is the “sticky glue” or that feeling of energy that bonds a group. A caretaker connects members, brings everyone closer, steps in during change and conflict, manages traditions and holiday events, and serves as a role model. Companies too have senior leaders, who serve as caretakers in remarkably similar ways. Second, I define the contemporary family more broadly. It is an all-inclusive group of evolving, loving connections, not just family members, but in-laws, special friends, co-workers, mentors, maybe a soul friend, and let’s not forget our beloved pets; similarly, companies have broadened their focus to include connections to the community, planet, and less-fortunate. And third, both families and companies require strengtheners or vitamins to fortify their group or organization. My research discovered six secrets to strengthen groups—humor, emotion, acceptance, renewal, togetherness, and struggle.

I have written five books, two on leadership and three on families. (I am currently working on a sixth book, “Praise: The Power of Recognition.”) Writing has always been a way for me to translate observations into learning, and my year abroad started this intellectual “habit”! As to what inspired these two professional themes, I had the good fortune of living with a close, complex family in Vienna. Also, when I traveled in Eastern Europe, I often stayed with a family instead of at a hostel or hotel. There was a two-way (i.e. host and visitor) excitement and celebratory tone to this arrangement. And while each family served a meal and simple accommodations, the value was in seeing how they lived and being included in their daily family life for a short while. As to leadership, I have always observed groups and how they are led – and Vienna and my travel during the year offered a constant data source. Finally, my interest in comparative and international education was most certainly nurtured in Vienna.

IES Abroad: What is one thing you learned while abroad that remains a constant in your life today?

SSK: If you look at the topics covered below in my leadership courses, you can see how my study abroad year in Vienna influenced my teaching, both content and style. The same core values of the IES Abroad program—awareness, self-discovery, community, culture, and service—are constant in my life, then and now, and include:

• Awareness—Who am I? What are my needs, strengths and weaknesses, and professional passions?
• Self-discovery—What are my personal values? How do I build a set of group values? What is my unique leadership style?

• Community—As leader, how do I build an effective team and create a sense of community?
• Culture—How do I facilitate cultural fit, retention and loyalty at work?
• Serving Others—How do I inspire others to bring out their core strengths and talents?

I believe that everyone has an "inner leader" if they want to discover and develop it. In my teaching, I hope to empower individuals and their teams to do great work and build leadership styles that build a sense of trust and community.

IES Abroad: You interact with many of today’s college students on a regular basis. What advice do you have for students considering studying abroad?

SSK: When I teach college students I spend time on how we get our values and what shapes them. There are four sources: family and childhood experiences, relationships with significant individuals, major life changes and learning experiences, and conflict and self-discovery. The IES Abroad experience feeds into each of these factors or sources—and experiences abroad have the potential to be life changing.

Sign-up for a study adventure in another country! Don’t hesitate. It will broaden your horizons. It will expose you to diversity. It will give you a global perspective. It will teach you many lessons about life, struggle, service, time, and deep listening. You will grow to be a more observant, transparent, inclusive, and giving person. Vienna spoke to me profoundly and at every level! Oh, I haven’t mentioned that I fell in love with four things that I find appealing today—its coffee houses, pastry shops, cafés, and wine cellars. “Prosit” (Cheers)!

David Narrow became a biomedical engineer because he wanted to put his creativity and technical skills toward making a difference in people’s lives. Studying abroad in Sydney forced him to meet new people, made him more perceptive, and taught him empathy – all essential management skills he applies every day as CEO of Sonavex and MonoMano Cycling. After graduating from University of Rochester, earning his Masters from Johns Hopkins University, and honing his business skills as a healthcare consultant, he launched not one but two medical device companies that are on their way to improving millions of lives. Looking back on his time in Sydney, David admits that engineers aren’t always naturally-inclined to put themselves out there and connect with other people. That’s why he feels studying abroad is so important for STEM students who might have technical prowess but need to develop their interpersonal skills in order to connect to collaborators to help realize and maximize the impact of their work.

IES Abroad: As a student majoring in biomedical engineering, why did you choose to study abroad and why Sydney?

DN: One of the things I really want to commend IES Abroad for is making study abroad a possibility for me – something that was not feasible via many other programs. Older students had described how great and rewarding their experiences were, but as a biomedical engineering student, it was more challenging for me to satisfy my academic requirements for my major to stay on track. By pursuing the opportunity of study abroad earlier – I participated sophomore year with a couple of friends – we were able to get internal approvals at the University of Rochester, and IES Abroad was incredibly helpful in ensuring that we could meet the course requirements in Australia. Sydney was always particularly attractive to me because I’m a surfer, and I had always dreamt of surfing in Sydney. So, that was a big draw, and IES Abroad made this dream reality. This is something I am really grateful for and was unique to IES Abroad. The three friends that I went with were the only other engineering students in the entire cohort.

IES Abroad: What are some of the most influential memories from your time in Sydney?

DN: It really helped give a very worldly perspective on not only cultural perspectives but things like politics and career. For people who, at first glance, seemed to be just like any of my friends back home – who spoke the same language, enjoyed the same extracurricular activities (surfing) – there were a lot of subtle differences. Becoming close with a few of my Australian friends really changed my outlook on the world and made me more perceptive. I was really impressed with the outgoing culture and how welcoming everyone was that I met in such a short period of time and how lasting those friendships were. That is one of the things I look back on, just how quickly I was able to establish incredible friendships with Australians. We started playing touch “footie,” which is the slang for rugby, and it was me and my two friends from Rochester and everyone else was Australian. One of my Australian friends, who I am still in great touch with, said, “Listen, you guys are big. You should come play in my real rugby league.” I had never played real rugby before. We were welcomed in immediately, even though we were definitely slowing the game down. I was surprised at how willingly these folks accepted us. It was in a matter of weeks I could integrate into the local culture and not feel like I was an outsider or seen as just another American coming to Australia to party.

IES Abroad: You speak Spanish, and you also did a fellowship in Berlin. How has your foreign language and international education background informed your work as an engineer, consultant, and now as a CEO? 

DN: These international experiences have helped enormously, especially now in my current role where I have had to manage and recruit people. Everyone that we have brought in has been someone we’ve had to bring in on a visa. Understanding both what it feels like to be in a country that’s not home – for empathy and for making sure the transition is smooth is incredibly important – but also my curiosity for learning about other people’s backgrounds really stems from my travel. That has made what would have been a pretty tough transition for a lot of these folks, I think, much easier and much more enjoyable on a personal level, and it deepens the relationships, which helps the work itself.

IES Abroad: How did you get involved with Sonavex?

DN: Sort of serendipitously, to be honest. I met a surgeon while I was in graduate school for biomedical engineering. Together, we came up with a device concept to meet one of the major needs that he would experience on a regular basis in his field of surgery. While we were at Johns Hopkins, we came up with an early prototype, which was by no means sufficient for getting the data we ultimately needed, but enough to show that this could work. A long story short, we had to keep the project going as a virtual company where we would get a little bit of grant money here and there and hire post-docs as needed to do some algorithm development before we really knew this was going to be a viable technology and company. Then, ultimately, we got to a point of technical de-risking, while I was in Boston doing consulting work. It was time to pursue this opportunity properly. The surgeon wasn’t excited about the prospect of quitting his job, so I stepped up to do it. I took a leap of faith and went several months without any pay, which admittedly was a bit stressful. Ultimately, we got to a point where we had more financial stability and were able to run the company properly.

IES Abroad: What was your path to becoming CEO, particularly at such a young age?

DN: We originally thought, “Yeah, I’m only 25. No one is going to trust me as a CEO,” because medical device companies typically require several millions of dollars to get off the ground. Objectively, I would see that a lot of investors would want to trust somebody who has done this a handful of times and probably has gray hair/no hair and has been around the block. Then, we realized nobody was knocking at our door to run our company, so by default, I stepped up. Fortunately, after successes like Facebook, investors are warming up to the idea of putting their faith into young entrepreneurs – so, it didn’t end up being as big of a barrier as I thought. It’s pretty astonishing to think back to just a year and a half ago to when I left my job in consulting. There was no office space, no money in the company. It was a half-baked prototype that we weren’t really sure was going to work, and we have been able to put the pieces together so far. There is still a long ways to go. Medical technologies typically have a long development cycle, regulatory cycle, and then ultimately, adoption cycle. There is a lot of work that still needs to be done, but we have put in the pieces to establish that base and the infrastructure so that we will succeed.

IES Abroad: In addition to leading Sonavex, you also co-founded and are the CEO of MonoMano Cycling. Tell us about your work on this project and your vision for the company?

DN: My first exposure to entrepreneurship was through a project at University of Rochester as an undergrad with some other engineering students. We worked on this project with the goal of enabling stroke survivors to return to the sport of cycling. The project was not particularly high-tech, but we realized that the impact was much more enormous than we would have ever assumed on the surface. Beyond just getting you exercise and improving the quality of life for patients, we found that rehab specialists saw this as a tool for significantly improving patients’ time to recovery after a stroke. Then, we saw its applicability for amputees and people with traumatic brain injury or multiple sclerosis. We saw that there was so much potential and wanted to ensure that people who wanted to get their hands on a trike could. We were originally thinking about putting a recipe of how to design and manufacture one online but then realized that most customers who would want the trike wouldn’t have the ability or the resources to do the handy work themselves. So, we said, “Alright, we’re going to get a little bit of money and build some initial product and see if it starts selling.”

Back when I had a little more bandwidth, I was doing online sales and marketing, and that was very effective in finding customers. Now, people find us. If they are interested in the trike, we ship it off to them and ensure there is somebody nearby who can assemble it for them. This is more of an altruistic venture. The reason I do it is not because I see large financial returns but rather the impact that most of our riders see and communicate in their incredible testimonials. Eventually, I want to build it into a greater operation and expand its reach to more people who could benefit. It has not yet received the same amount of support and resources as Sonavex; hopefully, that will change in the coming years.

IES Abroad: What has been one of your most satisfying accomplishments to date?

DN: I think my work with MonoMano Cycling was really the most satisfying. The reason why I went into biomedical engineering, and why I think a lot of people go into the field, is because the goal is to use your quantitative skills and creativity to improve the quality of life for people. It’s not so frequent that you see the impact of your work directly. Yeah, it was awesome to make a product. Yeah, it was awesome to have a first customer and test it out and see if people really liked it. But when you get those emails… I had this one guy send me an email. He is a veteran. He had his arm amputated, and he sent me this picture of him riding his trike in Florida after a 22-mile ride. He sent me a picture after his ride and he looked happy as can be. Those moments are really satisfying. I can’t even tell you the last time I’ve ridden a bike for 22 miles, let alone someone who has had to overcome such physical adversities. Those are really the accomplishments that I think are most impactful. What I look forward to is making a similar type of impact with Sonavex, but due to the nature of FDA-regulated technologies, we still have a little bit of time ahead before we will be able to realize that goal.

IES Abroad: Why is it particularly important for engineering students to study abroad?

DN: Engineers typically have the somewhat true stereotype of not being the most outgoing, social, and extroverted type. One of the things that I’ve realized is that you can be the best technical performer in the world, but you are severely limited by your ability to make a big impact if you are not able to connect with the right people. One of the things that study abroad forces you to do is to really get out of your shell and out of your comfort zone. It is good boot camp training for your career, but it is done in a more fun and less demanding and stressful manner. You end up building some of those skills that you may not pay much attention to on your own. Study abroad ensures that not only are you continuing your technical education, but you are really meeting new people and forcing yourself to really get out there and tell people what you do, what you’re good at, what you like to do, and potentially meet some people who you will ultimately work with. That just sets a good precedent for how, in my opinion, you end up having the most success in your career. You can be the best technical talent but if nobody knows about you, that match may not be made. The fact that study abroad sets that precedent is really helpful, especially for science and technical, engineering-focused individuals.

From a quaint upbringing in Alabama to becoming a U.S. Ambassador, Adrienne S. O’Neal left U.S. soil for the first time when she studied abroad in Madrid, aiming to develop her Spanish language skills. What she discovered was the start of a life-long wanderlust and commitment to study foreign languages that would lead her to spend 33 years as a career diplomat. From postings in Europe, Africa, Latin America and the United States, she has helped former communist and socialist nations transition to democracy, worked to curb drug trafficking in various regions, served as Counsel General in Rio de Janeiro and Deputy Chief of Mission in Lisbon, and much more – all leading up to her appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Cabo Verde in 2011. Having recently retired from the Foreign Service, Ambassador O’Neal shares her story and how her experience with IES Abroad “changed her life.”

IES Abroad: As a student at Spelman College, how did you hear about IES Abroad and what motivated you to study abroad in Madrid?

Ambassador O’Neal: In the 1970s, study abroad was much less pursued than it is today. But when I decided to major in Spanish Language and Literature, I knew I needed to have a study abroad experience. I went to the Spanish Department Chair and asked her how I might achieve this. She very nonchalantly opened her drawer and pulled out an IES Abroad brochure. Spelman must have already had a close relationship with IES Abroad. Madrid was the best option for me, since at that time I had been interested in and studied primarily Spanish Literature.   

IES Abroad: What are some of the most influential memories from your time in Madrid?

AO: I discovered the relevance of European history. I traveled to ancient and historic places, and became aware of a context I could not have discovered from Atlanta, or from Alabama where I grew up. I remember imagining when I visited Avila what it must have been like to live inside walls for protection. Another place that made a deep impression on me was the Alhambra Palace in Granada. The influence of Islamic Culture in Europe was something that I previously had no knowledge about. So, this was something that compelled me to study more. Many things I learned about while in Madrid and throughout my travels in Spain and Europe when I was a student remained pertinent to my activities and attitudes throughout my career as a diplomat. My time in Madrid was a very poignant political moment in Spain. The imminent death of the dictator spawned a palpable political unrest. It was an experience I could not have imagined and it helped me understand my country’s relative political stability. There were a lot of youth who protested calling for changes. The situation was quite politically volatile. I was a wide-eyed observer.

IES Abroad: How did you change the most during your time in Madrid? Did the experience shape your thinking in a profound way?

AO: Studying abroad made me strikingly aware of how much I didn’t know. It sparked in me a realization that the context in which I had grown up and lived so far was a very small one. There was so much more to be discovered, so many new possibilities of how I would or could lead my life. It was an opening to the world. This wasn’t the time of globalization, not like it is today, but I was able to perceive that my mentality was very provincial. Going abroad made me realize how much more there was to experience. I became particularly intrigued with the idea of speaking other languages and to understand them – even if I couldn’t speak them. The importance of speaking and understanding a local language was very forcefully revealed to me during my time in Madrid.

IES Abroad: You were enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Spanish and Portuguese Literature when you decided to change course and pursue a career in the U.S. Foreign Service. What led you to that decision?

AO: In my Ph.D. program, I was introduced to Portuguese. It was a requirement of the program that encompassed the literature of both languages, the Diaspora communities, and so forth. I was finding myself in the carrels of the library a lot. I was always doing something that was quiet and isolated. I felt very strongly that I wanted to use what I was doing to do something more than teach and conduct research. I had a strong urge to explore more. So, when the opportunity came to join the Foreign Service, I was compelled to pursue it.  I was close to finishing my Ph.D., and my parents and friends urged me to hold off and finish first. They were probably right. My only regret is that I had not been further along by then, but I have no regrets whatsoever for taking the leap when I did.    

IES Abroad: Were there lessons learned as a student in Madrid that helped you in the early days of your career as a diplomat?

AO: To sum it up, it was the discovery of active listening. It was the way that taking an interest in another’s point of view helps you to understand what is going on around you, and also helps you understand yourself. The value of perceiving the underlying motive, the reasons why people do what they do – this was something I took with me into my diplomatic career. Not all of my colleagues had learned that lesson, and I think they were less effective because of it. I learned that it is critically important to value another’s point of view and how that can lead to agreement and/or consensus.

IES Abroad: Leading up to your ambassadorial appointment, what was the most fulfilling assignment, project, or issue you worked on?

AO: All of my assignments were overwhelmingly fulfilling, but there are two that stand out. The first is my experience working with NGOs in Brazil. (1998-2001) Anthropologists say that NGOs came into being in Brazil. The U.S. Consulate worked with many of them, and one of the projects entailed bringing computers to the favelas, or slums. This opened a whole new world to impoverished children. Of course, the younger they were, the more adept they were. We were providing technology they would have otherwise have experienced much later. We believed this enhancement to their education directly addressed the culture of poverty in a positive way. My time in Mozambique (1996-98), a nation in Southern Africa, was another standout. We did a lot of work to promote women’s issues and women’s rights there. This was very well received by local women who, despite cultural and political repression demonstrated amazing intellect, entrepreneurial savvy and creativity. We took every opportunity to stand up on their behalf when they were not comfortable doing so on their own. For example, we selected women to undertake professional exchanges in the U.S. We organized visits allowing them to make professional contacts and gather expertise in their areas of interest. We understood that U.S. interlocutors could also learn from them—something that gave them an added source of pride. When they returned and shared their experiences with others, it elevated their social and professional status. We also provided grants to women’s organizations to allow them to participate more strongly in the political and economic landscape of the country.

IES Abroad: Just prior to your ambassadorial appointment, you were a Diplomat-in-Residence at the University of Michigan. What were your responsibilities – did you teach?

AO: At the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy of the University of Michigan, a former U.S. Ambassador, my own Ambassador from my time in Brazil, was already there lecturing.  So, in addition to informal lecturing opportunities at Ohio State and University of Ohio, I focused instead on visiting as many colleges and universities I could to talk to students about pursuing careers in Foreign Affairs. I focused primarily on Foreign and Civil Service opportunities. A lot of students believed the selection process was too daunting to even try. I encouraged them to take the free exam, the first step in the process, to get a sense of what it entailed. They were surprised to learn that they could take the exam once a year at no cost while they made up their minds. Many students and local professionals who passed the test attended preparatory sessions with me to orient them to the remaining stages of the process. I will admit that selection into the Foreign Service is a lengthy and often slow process, but if one really wants to serve their country in this way, it is well worth the effort. Nearly half are not successful on the first try, so persistence can be rewarding. For a recent college graduate, the experience of the process is valuable in itself. The Department of State would like to have more good recruits, especially from the Midwest – the majority comes from East and West Coasts. I hoped that my efforts helped to awaken the idea of a career in Foreign Affairs to those who might not have considered it otherwise.

IES Abroad: What did it mean to you to become the U.S. Ambassador to Cabo Verde?

AO: I was very well positioned at that time for the opportunity. I had fluent Portuguese and a lot of experience in Lusophone countries. Even so, I was extremely honored and I recognized the privilege imparted to me with the position. In many other countries it is almost a given that diplomats who perform well become Ambassadors. But with 30% of U.S. Ambassadorships allotted to political appointments, this is not so for American diplomats. As the primary representative of my country in Cabo Verde, I took the responsibility seriously and I was pleased to represent American women and African Americans in the ranks of the diplomatic corps.

IES Abroad: What do you want to convey to Americans about Cabo Verdeans and vice versa?

AO: The Embassy offices and myself always tried to make Americans more aware of Cabo Verde. There are more Cabo Verdeans in the U.S. from the Diaspora than there are in the islands. Cabo Verde is a marvelous tourist destination. So, we actively supported American tourism. The Embassy strongly promoted U.S. investment in Cabo Verde and vice-versa. We recognized that big export companies looking for high revenues would have little interest in a place so small. But we envisioned opportunities for small businesses and experimental technology more likely. Of course, the language barrier could be a tremendous obstacle. We encouraged Cabo Verdeans to learn English and looked for ways to take advantage of Portuguese language teaching in the U.S. Higher education posed another opportunity for cross-cultural experiences. One of the best ways to be introduced to American culture and values is the experience of higher education in the U.S. The Embassy conducted educational advising with the goal of getting more Cabo Verdeans to apply to U.S. colleges and universities. We believed this would incite more and better political and economic partnerships.

IES Abroad: When you think back over your 30+ year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, what are you most proud of?

AO: I am very proud to have engaged in a profession that I believe truly matters. It is rewarding to have had the opportunity to learn from others and to give of myself personally and professionally. For me, it was the best career choice I could have made.

IES Abroad: Is there anything further you would like to tell us about any lasting impact of your time as a student in Madrid?

AO: I can honestly say that my year with IES Abroad changed the course of my life. From there, I was stricken with wanderlust, committed to study foreign languages, and I became far more comfortable with who I am in the world.

Growing up on a farm in downstate Illinois, Richard O. Ryan always had a passion for music. When the opportunity to study abroad arose, Rich chose Vienna due to its rich musical heritage. He was not disappointed. In addition to enjoying operas and symphonies, Rich made life-long friends and developed a self-confidence in his ability to deal with ambiguity – a skill that contributed to his success in the agribusiness industry working with both international and domestic business partners. Now retired as President and COO of DEKALB Genetics, Rich remains active in the world of music and opera at home and abroad. Thanks to Rich’s generosity, IES Abroad Vienna was able to finalize its state-of the-art-recording studio for students in our Music Program.

IES Abroad: Growing up on a farm and attending Quincy College, a small private college in downstate Illinois, what was your motivation to study abroad and how did you choose Vienna? 

Rich Ryan: I learned of the possibility during the first semester of my junior year from a classmate. Even going to college was unusual for a farm boy in those days, but studying abroad was rare, indeed. But I liked the idea and was encouraged by friends and family. Vienna was only one of three IES Abroad locations overseas at the time, and it was an obvious choice because of its musical heritage, already known to me. The classmate who originally made me aware of IES was also accepted in the program and we both came to Vienna.

IES Abroad: What are some of your greatest memories from your time as a student in Vienna? 

RR: There are so many memories! An important one was meeting my new IES classmates in New York City that February, 1963 and bonding together during our Atlantic crossing. Traveling through England, Belgium, France, Germany and finally to Vienna opened my eyes to a whole new world! On my arrival the first evening, and after meeting my assigned hausfrau and apartment, I enjoyed my first taste of the “new wine” at the famous Zwölf Apostelkeller. There were many other experiences I will never forget including classes with most engaging professors, walking from classroom to library to cafeteria spread about Vienna’s central district, and enjoying fun evenings with classmates in suburban Grinzing for “heuriger” wine tasting.

And then there were the weekend trips to such places as Budapest, Berlin, Graz, the Bodensee with classmates and of course, our exceptional Easter break tour in Italy. High on my “memory list” was seeing my first operas and symphony performances in Vienna. Because of my limited budget, it was almost always standing room (Stehplätze) but I saw and heard renowned performers and conductors (like Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Herbert von Karajan). This first taste of operatic and symphonic music has carried on in my life to the fullest. But perhaps the best remaining memories involve my IES classmates as we explored a new life together in a new world. Many of us traveled back to Vienna for our 50^th class reunion there in 2013. Yes, we have become lifelong friends.

IES Abroad: After graduating, you earned your MBA from the University of Chicago and then were appointed as an Officer in the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam. How did your time in Vienna impact your ability to navigate and manage your early career?

RR: My time in Vienna literally changed my life by opening my eyes to the world and providing me enhanced self-confidence in my ability to successfully deal with unknowns and manage in new environments. Learning that I could “compete” both in the classroom and socially with many talented IES classmates from large, well-known universities encouraged me to apply to the University of Chicago for a post-graduate degree and that led me to receiving a “direct commission” into the U.S. Army. My MBA from the University of Chicago was a great post-army “ticket” for career entry and career success.

IES Abroad: You also worked for meatpacking company, Armour & Co., as well as the Chicago Board of Trade before joining DEKALB Genetics, and you earned an additional graduate degree from Stanford University’s Food Research Institute as you were joining DEKALB. What inspired you to work in the agribusiness industry that ultimately led to your business success? 

RR: Growing up on a farm, I felt comfortable in agribusiness with customers and business associates, both domestic and international. Now retired, I remain active on a non-profit organization involved with leadership training of promising younger agribusiness professionals.

IES Abroad: As you look back on your career in international agribusiness, what are you most proud of?

RR: Successful outcomes, due in part to good relationships with international associates, a result of understanding their culture. This was an added benefit from my early time in Austria and Europe. With that background, I am better able to mentor other young folks who are starting their careers in agribusiness or in other aspects of international work.

IES Abroad: Nearly 55 years after studying abroad and living in Vienna you remain an avid traveler and opera enthusiast. Tell us about your pursuits of these interests today. 

RR: I remain active in the world of music and opera attending performances around the world, including the Salzburg Music Festival annually and performances in Vienna and Venice, in addition to the Lyric Opera in Chicago. I am also on the board of the Ryan Opera Center, the training ground for promising opera singers at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

IES Abroad: We are very grateful to you for your generous support that has enabled IES Abroad Vienna us to finalize our state-of-the-art recording studio in Vienna. What motivated you to make this  significant gift?  

RR: My desire to “give back” to IES Abroad following the exceptional benefit to my life from my Vienna experience in 1963—and my appreciation of the important role that the Music Program now plays in the program under the direction of Dr. Morten Solvik.

IES Abroad: What is one thing you learned while abroad that remains a constant in your life today?  

RR: I learned that the world is a much bigger place than where I grew up, and knowing and exploring this world offers greater and greater benefits.

Watch Rich play "Wien, Wien, nur du allein" on the piano that he and his fellow classmates donated to IES Abroad Vienna at the opening of the new Music Practice Facility on September 1, 2014.

Coming from a family with several generations rooted in the South, CC Conner was drawn in by the music and rich cultural life Vienna had to offer. He loved it so much, he stayed on as a student assistant for the following year. Upon his return, CC attended Columbia Law School and practiced law on Wall Street for several years before quitting to manage a small modern dance company. Throughout his career – from lawyer to overseeing the Joffrey Ballet’s move to Chicago to becoming Managing Director of the Houston Ballet – CC has expertly blended his passions for the arts and the law. Read on to learn how study abroad impacted CC’s career path and how the love of opera he developed in Vienna remains a constant in his life today.

IES Abroad: Why did you choose to go to Vienna?

CC: I was a serious musician and planned to become a professional musician growing up. I was accepted at the Eastman School of Music and was a flute player. My family said that was fine, but “Are you sure that you can make a living as a musician?” I wanted to be the first flute player in one of the top five orchestras in the country. But when I looked at the number of students who graduate in flute each year from just Eastman, Curtis, Julliard, and Peabody, there were four times as many flute players than you have in the top five orchestras put together, much less the first chair. Statistically, my parents were right. I decided not to do it and went to college and spent the spring of my junior year and all of my senior year in Vienna. Music was the prime motivator. Also, being in Vienna where I could start learning German from scratch worked wonderfully. I had met a student at the University of North Carolina who had studied with IES Abroad the year before in Vienna. She spoke very highly of the program. It was an easy choice!

IES Abroad: What are some of your greatest memories from your time in Vienna?

CC: So many of the fabulous memories were traveling around Europe with my friends from IES Abroad: hitchhiking to Zurich for the weekend and taking the trains through Yugoslavia and Greece for the February break. During those days we had several organized trips, including Italy at Easter. During the spring of 1963, I went to Prague for May Day and watched the communist parades during the Cold War. At the lake on the Hungarian border, we’d play this game to see how close we could get to the guard towers before they would start screaming at us to back off. It was all of sudden realizing that we are in a Cold War and this was it! We went through Checkpoint Charlie. It woke us up to the geopolitical conflict and what was really going on, as opposed to simply seeing it on the news in the United States.

One of the most painful experiences was that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while we were in Vienna. We went to a coffee house because that was the only place where you could find a television set. A lot of sympathy came our way. Europeans loved Americans in those days. We were the people who had saved them in the Second World War. We could hitchhike anywhere. We would set down our suitcase emblazoned with an American flag at the side of the road, and we’d be picked up immediately. I remember an occasion when a couple from Hanover picked me up, took me to their house, fed me dinner, and had me stay the night. In the morning, they drove me to the Autobahn to the checkpoint to East Germany. We had not become the “ugly Americans” at that point. It was rewarding to see what we as a country had done and how it was appreciated.

IES Abroad: In what ways did study abroad impact or change the way you think?

CC: The biggest impact was in realizing that I had grown up in the very sheltered South. It took studying abroad in Vienna for me to realize that everyone I knew in the South virtually came from many generations of Southerners. Between the Civil War and the Second World War, no immigrant groups moved into the South. It wasn’t until after the Second World War with military bases around the country and then companies becoming more national in scope that people started moving around the country with newcomers to the South. In the boat going over to Vienna, half of the kids in my class were excited because they were going to see where their grandparents came from. They would all ask me where my grandparents came from. I could go back ten generations, and all of my family came from the South. It was an eye opener about how sheltered we were. Then, of course, living in Europe for a year-and-a-half with all of the cultural resources there, which was always my passion, I thought I couldn’t go back to the South. I realized that I had to live in a big city, so I applied to Columbia Law School. New York City from the 20^th Century on has been the main arts capital of the world in many respects.

IES Abroad: You have had an extraordinary career blending your passion for the arts with your acumen for business and law. How did this come about? 

CC Conner: While I was very immersed in the performing arts growing up, opera was not something that you had Greensboro, North Carolina. After my stay in Vienna, I decided that what I really wanted to do was to manage the Metropolitan Opera someday. However, I went to law school and practiced law. Pretty early in my career in New York, I became involved with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, which was one of the first of those type of organizations in the 1960s. I joined the board probably in ‘69 or ‘70 and become very involved with the arts scene in New York and got involved in dance.

There was so much dance going on in New York, and after a year and a half in Vienna, three years of law school in New York, and the beginning of my working career in New York, I thought, “Ok, I have seen every opera that there was to see several times.” I decided that maybe it was time for me to see what else there is. I took ballet and tap for one year as a six or seven year old, and as a twelve or thirteen year old, I was the Junior State Arthur Murry Dance Champion in North Carolina! So, I did have some dance training. In my age group in the South, when you were a young teenager, you went to ballroom dancing school to learn how to be proper ladies and gentlemen in the South. So, I did have some dancing talent. 

IES Abroad: You went on to become the Executive Director of the Joffrey Ballet and Managing Director of the Houston Ballet. What led you to transition from law to working full-time in the arts?

CC: After nine years working on Wall Street, I quit and ran a small modern dance company. I was the business manager, the associate artistic director, stage crew, booking agent, and fundraiser. I was everything! After about five years, I had to earn a living again and practiced law once more in New York. I practiced law in New York for about 25 years in total. In the early 1990s, The Joffrey Ballet and American Ballet Theatre were both in terrible financial condition, being effectively bankrupt. The Joffrey was looking for a new executive director. At that point, anybody who had a job outside the dance field would not leave their position to save a bankrupt company, and people in the dance field who didn’t have jobs were questioned about why they didn’t have jobs. As someone who had run a little dance company ten years earlier, I was hired by The Joffrey. I ran the strategic plan that basically saved The Joffrey, and moved it to Chicago in 1995.

While we were in the process of moving Joffrey, Houston Ballet was looking for a new director. I interviewed and got the job. While I loved the Joffrey and was thrilled that I had put together a plan to save it, after three stressful years of struggle to keep it alive, I felt that I needed a stable company instead of the struggle of establishing Joffrey in Chicago. So, I moved to Houston in 1995 and was the director here for 17 years, retiring in 2012. We had a million dollar deficit when I got here. In all my years, we had a surplus and built a $47 million office and rehearsal facility, which is the largest of any professional dance company in the United States. So, that is how I went from law to the arts, back and forth, frankly. A lot of the negotiating skills that I developed as a corporate securities and transactional lawyer are useful in running a large organization. Of course, in my generation, the courses and programs about arts management didn’t exist. So, none of us came with a college degree in arts administration. It was on-the-job training.

IES Abroad: How important has an international perspective been for you in your roles as the leader of the ballet or as a lawyer?

CC: It certainly did as a lawyer. After my time on Wall Street and then running the small dance company, the work of the firm that I then joined was for European family-owned or closely-owned companies that were doing business in the United States. Clients included the Italian National Petroleum Chemical Company, which had operations all over the Unites States; Ringier, which was the largest Swiss publishing company; Bahlsen, the German cookie maker; and Omega, the Swiss watchmaker. After I came back from Vienna, I wanted to go back and work in Europe, but I never actively pursued it, as life was busy simply going on. I traveled constantly, going back and forth to Europe to work with our European clients. Certainly, IES Abroad gave me the confidence to feel quite at home in Europe.  

IES Abroad: How has study abroad impacted you personally?

CC: Studying abroad was when I really grew. It was when I really matured. I saw the world in a whole different way. It broadened my appreciation for people and for people of different backgrounds. Of course, when I was in Vienna, it was during the time of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. It helped me to simply open my eyes and realize that no one type or group of people is better than any other. In my family, we traveled. We went to New York every year or every other year; but we didn’t have personal relationships with people who weren’t like us. Vienna changed my view of people and the world and opened my eyes to so much culture! As IES Abroad students, we traveled all over Europe and were really exposed to history and culture and how it impacts everyday life.

IES Abroad: What is one thing you learned while abroad that remains a constant in your life today?

CC: Opera! It was Vienna that really opened my eyes to opera. As a matter of fact, what stands out was standing all night in the State Opera standing room ticket line! One of my most vivid memories was being an Ethiopian slave in Aida in Vienna. I’ve lived in Houston for twenty years, and I still have my subscription to the Metropolitan Opera. Vienna moved me into a great lover of opera. Studying abroad in Vienna also gave me a huge amount of confidence. In Vienna, I fit in perfectly! In Europe, I became much more my inner self and comfortable in my own skin.

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for students today who are considering studying abroad?

CC: My answer would be go, go, go, go, go!! Study abroad is one of the most broadening experiences a person can have. Everyone should do it! I cannot say enough positive things about it. It really was a life-changer. And I know that when I read all of the things from IES Abroad, that everyone says this. It really is!

Mark Loughridge (Nantes 1975-76) spent his entire career with IBM Corporation, most recently serving as Chief Financial Officer from May 2004 until his retirement in December 2013. As an engineering student at Stanford University in the 1970s, Mark was an unlikely candidate to study abroad for an entire year in France. That experience, however, would plant the seeds of cross-cultural understanding and problem solving success that he drew upon throughout his career managing a large multinational business.

IES Abroad: As a student at Stanford University, how did you choose the IES Abroad Nantes program?

Mark Loughridge: As an engineering student, it was difficult just getting through the requirements for the major. So, generally, people would go to an English-speaking science and engineering school if they studied abroad. Nantes was listed as an alternative, and I thought, “I'm only going to be a kid once. I should do something like this.” I never studied French, so I went into crash course mode and enrolled in a course d'etranger in Montpelier that was primarily for the immigrant population. It was six hours a day, and I lived alone behind this little tailor shop. My friends were all from the University there. In Nantes, I studied at the École National Supérieure de Mécanique. The head of the school was very nice and said, "I want our students to have the opportunity to learn English from a technical standpoint.” So, they gave me a job teaching English in the language lab, and that turned out to be a great way to meet everybody. 

IES Abroad: What the biggest challenge you faced studying abroad and how did you overcome it?

ML: I felt quite confident in my engineering and scientific basis of knowledge. I thought my challenge was going to be French. My French was fine. My challenge was math. If I had known this, I would have been studying more math. The French kids spent a lot more time on advanced math before they applied it to engineering. My ‘ah ha’ moment came in a class on advanced mechanics. We were using problem solving techniques that I wasn't familiar with so I couldn't get the work done. I was using these French textbooks, and I could not figure it out. The French terminology that I was trying to understand was called the vecteur propre. In the textbook, there was a footnote in German. So, I had to get the German textbook, and in that book it said the eigenwert. From there, I went back to English, and it was an eigenvalue, or eigenvector. This was enormous! Once I completed that loop, I knew I had to refresh all my studies on matrix mathematics and then get back to French! Now, I understood what the base techniques were and how to attack that knowledge base. This was critical for me. I needed these credits back at Stanford, and I had to stay on pace and maintain my GPA. I had to learn how to learn that subject matter much more comprehensively than I originally had thought.

IES Abroad: Was there a ‘cultural moment’ while in Nantes that has left an impression on you?

ML: One of the funny stories that happened in Nantes was when I taught this course in English. I was teaching the French students the same things that I needed to know in French, but in English. I needed to know that a vecteur propre was an eigenvector. They needed to know that same cultural translation. So, we worked on scientific terminology. We had a language lab that we did with headphones and tapes once or twice a week. My boss would come in and sit in on the classes. As a break, I found this old Arlo Guthrie tape and put it on instead of playing the educational tape, and the students loved this. I was in the front of the class with my headphones on, and in walks my boss and I thought, “Oh man, I'm going to lose this job!" But every one of these kids started going into their work as if they were listening to a language tape and practicing phrases even though they were listening to Arlo Guthrie. They totally covered for me! And the guy never had any inkling that we weren't doing the English language lesson. The minute he left the room, they were all going, “yaaaa!”

IES Abroad: What skills did you take away from studying abroad that have impacted your career?

ML: If there is a skill that I rely on a lot, it is collaborative problem solving and having a comprehensive view of the problem. That is where I made my mark in my career, and I think I picked a fair amount of that up from my time studying abroad in Nantes. It was the challenge of learning subject matter that was a lot broader and more complex than I had anticipated. Although I worked diligently to prepare myself, I had to be adaptive and flexible. Initially, I didn't know the other students and didn’t have any friends. I couldn't go to them and say, “How do you do this?” They're looking at me like, "Who's this guy, the American?" The professors thought I should know this already, but I didn't know the terminology and the wiring diagrams. I didn’t know how you fit the stuff together. I can't tell you how impressed I was with French education and the student body. They were terrific. That immersive challenge involved backing the truck up to take a larger perspective on the problem and trying to figure out where your real deficiencies were and how to put those in a broader context. How do you find out the elements you are missing? Nobody knows everything. You've got to figure out where your limitations are. Often times, in problem solving, the fundamental challenge to begin with is figuring out where those deficiencies and limitations are and how to isolate them in order to solve them in a broader perspective.

IES Abroad: Does any particular situation come to mind that came along in your career where you used the same strategy?

ML: There are an enormous number of times in international business situations in my career at IBM where I had to look at broad collections of problems in many different countries and languages. That approach and technique of broader problem solving was quite valuable – looking at a problem statement and trying to figure out where you were not as equipped as you needed to be, and pulling people into those teams with the diverse perspectives and embracing that diversity of thought. Sometimes people look at diversity of thought and say, “Well, it would be good to be more inclusive.” More accurately, I would say, is if you don't have that diversity of thought, you are going to miss something. You're not going to have that skill group and ability to completely study and comprehensively analyze an issue. That's going to be the ultimate flaw.

IES Abroad: How important has having an international perspective been for you in your role at IBM? Can you share any specific examples?

ML: I had quite a big responsibility for a manufacturing site in Japan. It was an IBM plant, but it was a joint venture between a Japanese corporation and IBM at the time. To run through these meetings was pretty challenging for both sides of the table. Challenging for me because I’m trying to understand how the program is advancing and performing as well as trying to figure out how these two cultures are getting along and dealing with each other. They're trying to understand me and how I'm perceiving the progress and what my objectives are. Both sides had to take a step back and take a broader view of the objectives, and we had to not get trapped in literal translations of the language. I had a translator and they had a translator. Translators won't pick up the real intent. It was a similar kind of a challenge.

In the context that the big international global companies are working in today, you have to be able to see the other cultural perspective and viewpoints at the table. Having had the experience of being the foreigner at the table and grappling with that improves your ability to understand and collaborate with groups. You are better able to put yourself in their shoes. You may think you are communicating well, but you probably are not expressing yourself as broadly as you need to. It takes a really broad-based collaborative perspective at the table to work through these situations and maintain a level of trust and confidence so that everybody is understanding the true meaning underneath the discussion.

I do think those skills you get early on in your education process play an important role as you go through your career. You learn to better understand those challenges in those cultural perspectives. I don't think I ever would have appreciated how difficult it was to go to a foreign country and study at a university in a different language had I not faced that challenge myself. It’s not so easy. There are a lot of challenges within that context that you don't anticipate and expect. And some of those things can be huge roadblocks. If you get to that point where, “What does a vecteur propre mean?” You're done! You’re going to fail the class!

IES Abroad: What advice would you give today's college student about study abroad?

ML: I often feel that students in the U.S. are in that mindset that we have the best university system. And we do have a great university system here. But going to a university system in another country has tremendous value, as you will see things that you would not have seen if you just stayed within the U.S. structure. You are selling yourself short if you don't find some avenue to experience that. For the student in the U.S. that has that experience abroad, it is easy to say you gain a global appreciation, but it’s a lot deeper than that. Look at how they systematically manage that – how they acquire skills, how they collaborate across their cultures, how they interface with different cultures. And it’s not just the language, it’s a lot deeper than the language – there are many layers behind that. The language is kind of the door that you have to go through, but you really have to work the other layers. It’s of huge value!

From a small town in Pennsylvania to Beijing in 1993, then with a population of nearly 12 million, Christy Rupert Shibata studied abroad to learn Mandarin Chinese, high adventure, and something about her family heritage. After graduating from Bucknell University with a degree in Computer Science, Christy went on to work for General Electric where she spent five years in Tokyo as CFO of GE Healthcare. Now, as CFO of Cable Entertainment at NBCUniversal, her career aspirations have remained razor focused, and the skills she took away from study abroad have impacted her personal and professional life all along the way.

IES Abroad: Why did you choose to study abroad in Beijing?

Christy Rupert Shibata: I was born in Hong Kong and my family moved to the United States when I was a toddler. I wanted to learn more about my Chinese heritage and decided originally to study in Hong Kong. But at the urging of my East Asian Studies professor at Bucknell University, I decided to study in Beijing so that I could learn language skills that would reach a broader audience. My mother, who had never been to mainland China, was horrified that I decided to study in Beijing and told me I would have to wash my own clothes on a riverbank! That did not turn out to be true, but I was shocked when I came face to face with the biggest cockroach I’d ever seen in my life while making my first phone call home from the shared phone booth in the foreign student dorm. 

IES Abroad: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced?

CRS: I had never studied Chinese and my mother had spoken very little to me, so I arrived six weeks early to take an intensive Chinese language class. Beijing was a quaint and somewhat primitive city back then, and the university campus resembled nothing of my cozy liberal arts university in Pennsylvania. I was homesick and miserable for the first month, and then I came down with food poisoning and was in the hospital for a week. It was later on when I visited students in the Chinese dormitories (separate and apart from where the foreign students lived) that was my wake up call to how good we had it! Chinese students were packed six to a dorm room in half space I shared with one roommate.

IES Abroad: What are some of your most influential memories from your time in Beijing?

CRS:  My most influential memories were from times spent with other foreign students in Beijing. Not only did I befriend American and Chinese students, but Beijing was filled at that time with students from Japan, Korea, Europe, and even Africa. I learned about all of these cultures and made friendships that will last a lifetime. In fact, I met my husband, who was a Japanese student, in Beijing, and that’s the most influential relationship from my study abroad experience!

IES Abroad: In what ways did study abroad impact your career path?

CRS: Beijing showed me how to become adaptable and find ways to fit in. It taught me to persevere through adversity, play to my strengths, and come out stronger on the other side. In order to advance, I’ve moved a lot in my career, living all around the world and moving across companies and industries. In addition to my career, I’ve helped my entrepreneurial husband create and grow a number of new businesses. The skills I gained in Beijing have helped me to successfully adapt to change in my career and my marriage.

IES Abroad: How did you get started in your career and what led you to join General Electric at the outset?

CRS:  I was lucky to graduate college at a time when the job market was really hot, and I was recruited into one of General Electric’s entry-level training programs. GE attracted me because of its global presence, and I knew that one day I wanted to work abroad. I was given that opportunity on multiple occasions, working with GE in locations throughout Asia and Europe.

IES Abroad: After 10 years at GE, you joined NBCUniversal where you now serve as CFO of Cable Entertainment. What motivated you to change industries and what you love most about your job?

CRS:  When I joined NBCUniversal over 10 years ago, the company was actually owned by GE at the time. While the media industry is vastly different from most of GE’s other businesses, I was still part of the same company, and the transition was seamless. Five years ago, GE sold NBCUniversal to its current owner, Comcast. Despite that ownership change, the heart of the business remains the same, and I’ve continued to love being part of an industry that is so dynamic and engaging. It’s fulfilling when I hear a friend or family member talk about one of our TV networks or shows and to know that I had some part in bringing it to life.

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for students seeking to study or intern abroad today?

CRS: Just go for it! I remember ruminating for so long about my decision to study abroad – wondering if I could afford it, wondering if it would detract from my studies. In retrospect, my study abroad experience was a very short period of time in my life, but it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I did have to manage my savings account more closely, and I did have to study a little harder when I returned home, but I’ve never regretted it.

On his study abroad application, Sam McQuade explained his top two motivations for going: to purchase a Porsche at the factory in Germany and to attend the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. But studying abroad in Nantes proved far deeper than cars – it was a truly life-changing adventure. What he came back with was a French fiancée, a 3.9 GPA, and a Porsche 912 – experiences detailed in his memoir, There is a Road in North Dakota. After graduating, Sam fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming an English professor, but left soon after to join Xerox. When tragedy struck at home, Sam returned to North Dakota to help his father with the family beer distributorship. Now retired as President of McQuade Distributing Co. Inc, Sam reflects on his experiences and shares the inspiration behind his creation of an endowed scholarship for IES Abroad students in Nantes.

IES Abroad: How did you hear about IES Abroad and what motivated you to study in Nantes?

Sam McQuade: I am sorry to say that I never heard of IES Abroad or Nantes before studying there in 1967-68. It was during my sophomore year at St. John’s University, an all-male college connected to a Benedictine Abbey in central Minnesota where my mother insisted that I spend my college years, that I decided to study in Europe my junior year. The school had hired an old life-long bachelorette to oversee the French department and the study abroad program. She took an instant disliking to me when I submitted my study abroad application. Her first question: “State two reasons why you want to study in Europe.” I wrote: 1) Purchase a Porsche at the factory in Stuttgart, Germany; 2) Attend the 24 Hours of Le Mans. She insisted those were not valid reasons, but she couldn’t stop me because I had the requisite GPA and the letters of recommendation. She told me the only way she would sign off on my application was if I agreed to attend IES Abroad in Nantes, so I wouldn’t waste the two years I had already spent studying French. I thought, “What the heck? The 24 Hours of Le Mans is in France.” The rest is history. A year later, I returned with a French fiancée, a 3.9 GPA in French studies, and a Porsche 912 that I purchased at the factory for $4,125 USD.

IES Abroad: How did you change most during your time in Nantes?

SM: Quite simply: I grew up. Intellectually; socially; practically (as in how to make my way on my own); in maturity (I was engaged to a beautiful French girl). The hardest part in spending a year in Europe, mostly France, was the return to complete my final year at St. John’s University where my buddies only cared about watching the sports teams and getting drunk on weekends. I wanted better because I had known better and had lived more.

IES Abroad: After graduating, you taught English and Humanities at the collegiate level and worked for Xerox before embarking on a career with McQuade Distributing Co Inc., the beer distribution company started by your father. Why did you decide to join the family company?

SM: I am the eldest of seven. Two of my brothers were killed in separate car accidents, the first in 1966 when I was a sophomore in college, the second in 1975 when I was working at Xerox Corp in Denver. My father asked me to return to Bismarck, North Dakota, where I was born and raised, to learn the family business and eventually take it over.

Throughout late grade school, high school, and college, all I ever aspired to be was a college English professor. After three years of being an English professor, I decided I didn’t much like fellow professors, who struck me as sheep. I left my dream job to work for Xerox, where in one year I tripled my salary.

IES Abroad: Were there skills developed in Nantes that helped you to step into your role at McQuade Distributing Co., Inc. and grow the business?

SM: I have always been self-motivated, but in Nantes, I found I was completely on my own to make the very best out of my year abroad, which I was determined to do, and feel I succeeded quite well.

IES Abroad: You have had a successful career that culminated in transferring leadership of McQuade Distributing Co., Inc. to the next generation. As you look back on your career, what are you most proud of?

SM: I am very proud of what I accomplished with my education, which included my year at IES Abroad in Nantes, which was the very best, most influential year of my life. I am proud of my family and our two daughters, who are motivated, successful businesswomen. I am proud of how I transformed the business I inherited from my father to what it is today, now being managed by our older daughter.

IES Abroad: You have written and published five books, three of which detail your experiences traveling both abroad and throughout the U.S. What has writing about travel done to help you more fully understand the impact of those experiences?

SM: More than anything, travel has broadened my understanding of the many cultures I have encountered and their positive differences. We hear so much these days about “American Exceptionalism.” But we can learn a lot from other countries and how their citizens view the world. And we should. Everything is globalized. The sooner Americans accept the truth that we need to get along with others in a globalized world, the better off we all will be.

IES Abroad: We are grateful to you and your wife, Maryvonne, for your generous support in creating The Sam McQuade Nantes Endowed Scholarship in Memory of Mme Suzanne Hugues, that enables IES Abroad students to study in Nantes. What motivated you to establish this fund?

SM: My year with IES Abroad in Nantes, 1967-68, was the defining year of my life. Although I left education for our family business, education remains one of the most important things in my life. I am still studying and reading voraciously, mostly history now. I consider the Nantes scholarship to be my life’s legacy. I hope it will enable students to have the opportunity to live even a little of what I lived during that defining year.

IES Abroad: What is the one thing you learned while studying abroad in Nantes that remains a constant in your life?

SM: Be as open-minded as possible. Consider before deciding.

Sam’s books are available on amazon.com and Kindle. All proceeds go to a local summer camp for people with special needs.

Upon graduating from California State University, Beverly O’Neill studied abroad with her husband, Bill O’Neill, who was working on his Ph.D. For the young newlyweds, their first trip outside of the U.S. – to post-WWII Allied-occupied Vienna – was eye-opening and expanded their worldview immensely. After a 31-year career at Long Beach City College, Beverly went on to become the only three-term, city-wide elected mayor of Long Beach, California from 1994-2006, leading the city successfully through economically turbulent times created by the closing of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in 1997. In our interview, Beverly fondly remembers her year-long experience in Vienna, including a short hospital stay where her brightly colored bathrobe made quite an impression.

IES Abroad: How did you choose to live and study in Vienna?  

Beverly O’Neill: My husband, Bill, had returned from the Korean War and was working on his doctorate at the University of Southern California. At that time, one of the requirements was that you had to know a foreign language well enough to speak, read, and write it. We chose Vienna and were able to attend through the GI Bill.

IES Abroad: What are the special memories you hold from that time? 

BO: Bill and I were both from Long Beach, California, and had never seen a coal stove before. Our house Frau in Vienna thought we were so dumb. Also, our shoes were not nearly heavy nor warm enough. But through it all, it was the most marvelous experience, and it solidified our marriage. We had only been married about two years, and it was the first time either one of us had left the U.S. My family questioned why we were even doing this, but it expanded our world and opened our eyes together. Every school vacation, we traveled together. We explored Greece, France, and England. Once back in California, Bill got his Ph.D. and he was a professor at the University of Southern California for 32 years. He was recognized as having had the most outstanding dissertation that year among his peers.

IES Abroad: What do you remember about Vienna in the mid-1950s?  

BO: It wasn’t too long after the war, and Vienna was still very poor. We lived out in the 19^th district near Grinzing, the grape growing region. The place where our group met to eat was nearby, and we walked to it. But we took the trolley down to our classes located in the Ring. At that time, Vienna was occupied by four different countries – France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S. Every month, it changed to a different country with oversight. So, every month there was a changing of the guard and the flags and bands playing by the outgoing country and the incoming one. When the Soviets were in control and the Americans were coming in, the Soviets often played very strong, pompous music as they left. When the Americans came in, they played a much lighter, jazzy piece. The difference between the two was striking. The center of the city was open to everyone; however, we were barred from going into districts occupied by Great Britain, the French, and the Russians. We stayed in the U.S.-controlled area.

IES Abroad: What were some of the challenges you faced?

BO: Neither Bill nor I had studied German before arriving in Austria. Living outside of the Ring, very few people spoke English there, and so that made it difficult for us in the beginning as we were learning German. I learned the basics for being able to shop and get around very quickly. Thankfully, most people were very patient with me! At one point during the year, I was hospitalized for three nights. It wasn’t anything serious, but what I remember is that everyone was fascinated with the bathrobe I wore. It was brightly colored and no one had seen one like that. They all wanted to model it!

IES Abroad: In what ways did study abroad change the way you think? 

BO: For me, the art history and appreciation classes I took were eye opening. I remember distinctly one incident while examining a large work of art at one of the museums in Vienna with my class. One of our fellow classmates commented to the professor that he thought the painting was too dark. I thought the professor was going to faint. He was clearly shocked that a student would say that out loud. I realized in that moment that we Americans came across as boorish, coarse, and plain rude. The professor definitely did not appreciate that kind of openness while examining a masterpiece. I also remember a lot about one of our professors, Dr. Wächtler. He lived with his mother and from time to time we would bring them a piece of Sachertorte and visit with her. A prior IES Abroad student from Texas had sent Dr. Wächtler a live Texas Horned Toad (lizard). He kept it in a glass enclosure, and because it was nocturnal, he turned on a small light bulb at night for it. This was special since electricity was very expensive. Our time abroad gave me a broader background and appreciation for the different cultures of the countries we lived in and visited. Overall, the scope of the world came alive for Bill and me. Without the kind of media presence we all now take for granted, our world previously was limited to the town Bill and I grew up in. The vision of the world and the knowledge we gained studying and living abroad impacted us enormously. So much has changed in 60 years!

IES Abroad: In what ways did study abroad impact your career path upon returning to the U.S.?

BO: I had a much better understanding of the world – people have the same needs.

IES Abroad: After a 31-year career at Long Beach City College, what prompted you to run for mayor of Long Beach, California?

BO: I was born in Long Beach and had an opportunity to lead us through many positive changes.

IES Abroad: What are you most proud of from your time as mayor?

BO: Transferring Long Beach from a Navy town to a town with a glowing future with pride.

As a competitive ski racer, Dexter Paine had been to Europe before but had never explored further afield than the ski venues where he was competing. Coming from a small town in New Hampshire, and attending college in a small town in Massachusetts, studying abroad in London was the first time Dexter set foot in a big city. From finding his own housing to traveling independently, Dexter became adept at navigating life abroad and grew comfortable interacting with people from different countries with new perspectives – a skill that has proven valuable in his career as Chairman and CEO of Paine & Partners, which invests in agricultural companies worldwide. Dexter also serves as Chairman of the U.S. Ski Association and Vice President and Council Member of the International Ski Federation (FIS). Read on to find out how an injury became an opportunity and why he believes study abroad is an essential component for all college students today.

IES Abroad: As a student at Williams College, what led to study abroad in London?

Dexter Paine: I spent all of my years growing up in a small town in New Hampshire and went to college in a small town in Massachusetts. I had never seen a big city, let alone lived in one. Living in a large, multicultural city like London opened my eyes to so many new things. I had to figure out where to live, who my roommates would be, where to buy food, and where to eat. As a competitive ski racer, I had been to Europe before for competitions, but I never got out of the skiing venues. We were in and out of locations without really having experienced them in any sort of immersive way.

Like many small liberal arts colleges, Williams encourages all of their students to study abroad. It was assumed that everyone would study abroad sometime during college. As a competitive ski racer, I didn’t think I would be able to study abroad for a semester. But then I tore a muscle in my leg and my ski racing days were over. It was then that I realized I could spend a semester in London. As an economics major, the IES Abroad program was a perfect fit.

IES Abroad: What are some of your greatest memories from your time in London?

DP: Having to find housing and figure out how eat were two new experiences for me. Of course, there was no internet, so we had to get the newspaper, circle listings for flats, call them up, and go see them. The flat we rented was heated through a system by which you had to feed it tokens for the heat to turn on. I had never seen that before! There was no food service or cafeteria as part of the program, so I had to figure out how to feed myself, too. We wound up at the pub down the street quite a bit; we were regulars!

IES Abroad: How did you change the most during your time in London? Did the experience shape the way you think in a profound way today?

DP: While I don’t see a linear connection between what I experienced in London and what I am doing professionally today, my experience studying abroad certainly opened my eyes to a much bigger world I never could have imagined if I had just spent four years in Williamstown, Massachusetts. London opened up for me what could be and what was out there potentially. The area of London I lived in had a large Muslim population even back then. Coming from a small town in New Hampshire, I don’t think I’d ever met someone who wasn’t of Judeo-Christian heritage. After all of the travel I did during my study abroad in London, I was comfortable traveling internationally and professionally working with people from different countries who have different perspectives. Our company invests in companies worldwide, and I can't imagine what it would have been like to create this company without the foothold I got that began in London.

IES Abroad: You have had a remarkable career as an investor in agricultural-related businesses worldwide, co-founding the first of two companies dedicated to this in 1997. What inspired you to become an international agricultural investor?

DP: I was very fortunate to have a wonderful mentor during my first job out of college at Bankers Trust.  She gave me the opportunity to get involved in investment banking out in California, and I have never looked back. From there, I found a partner and we started a private equity firm. Back then, everyone was a generalist, but I realized early on that it made sense to specialize. Agriculture and food are of special interest to me, and that is the shape and direction our company took.

IES Abroad: Were there lessons learned in London that helped you in the early days of your career?

DP: The skills of living and assimilating to big city life have been critical for me. I had never lived in a city before living in London, and since college graduation I have ONLY lived in big cities including San Francisco, New York, and Geneva, Switzerland. This has had a huge impact on me personally and professionally as well as on my family. Our family had an extraordinary opportunity to live in Switzerland for four years, and we all enjoy traveling all over the world.

IES Abroad: The global food industry is changing remarkably fast, with food preferences shifting as people are exposed to foods from other geographies, focusing more on healthy food, reacting to the benefits and concerns of genetically modified foods, and other forces. How do you and your colleagues anticipate these changes?

DP: Our company is primarily focused on investing in companies that feed people all over the world – companies that are focused on ensuring a stable, global food supply to those who need it. For example, our companies are involved with seed production, drip irrigation systems, and pest control. Here in the U.S., our food interests are dramatically different from most of the rest of world where the concern is having enough food to eat. I’m pleased to be able to play a role in ensuring that millions around the world have safe food to eat through research, technology, and sustainable practices in the agricultural sector.

IES Abroad: You also serve as Board Chair of the U.S. Ski Association and are Vice President and Council Member of the International Ski Federation. Tell us about your roles with these two organizations.

DP: As an athlete and former competitive ski racer, it is a real privilege to serve as Chairman of the U.S. Ski Association and as a member of the International Ski Federation, two organizations that are close to my heart. Skiing has been a lifelong passion for me.

IES Abroad: What advice do you have for students who are considering studying or interning abroad?

DP: Study abroad is an essential component of getting a college education today. I encourage every student, to the extent they can, to study abroad, get outside of the United States, and see our country the way people see it from other countries. The perspective that today’s students can gain from study abroad is a requirement to compete in today’s global job market. I can’t think of anyone who works at our company who does not enjoy and have a passion for traveling internationally, as well as understanding people from other cultures and backgrounds. That is essential for anyone who works here.