features

By Melissa Hoyos

Senior Communications Specialist, City University of Seattle

Rain showers and overcast skies didn’t keep thousands from visiting Key Arena to celebrate City University of Seattle’s 35th commencement ceremony recently.

University President Lee Gorsuch kicked off the June 18 event in downtown Seattle with a poignant tribute to the Class of 2010 for their dedication in a challenging economy and job market.

“The sacrifice and discipline you have shown over the past few years to invest in your education will serve you and your loved ones well in the long run,” Gorsuch said from the podium.

Provost Steven Olswang and CityU of Seattle’s two Deans, Judy Hinrichs of the Albright School of Education and Division of Arts and Sciences and Kurt Kirstein of the School of Management, awarded more than 500 degrees during the ceremony.

Among the distinguished speakers were Tom Clevinger, CityU alumnus, keynote speaker and former board member, and Reid Stell, student speaker and new Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology alumnus. CityU Board of Governors Chair Randy Aliment also recognized retiring board members Vi Tasler and John Mack for their longtime service.

Clevinger shared with graduates how his CityU experiences with teachers and classmates continues to help him in his current position as Navistar’s global parts senior vice president and general manager. The Fortune 250 multi-national company manufactures international branded trucks, diesel engines and school buses worldwide.

“So if you remember the importance of the people around you, literally and metaphorically they are the ones who helped you be successful,” said the Class of 1998 alumnus who earned his leadership and management degree. “And for those who are kinesthetic learners and need to learn by doing, I would like all of you turn to whoever is sitting next to you and say thank you.”

Prior to joining CityU, student speaker Stell lived out a promising career as a filmmaker, publisher and advertising professional. Then, the married father of two decided to pursue a lifelong calling to become a counselor.

Stell credits his success in the Counseling Psychology program to his classmates - a group he made sure to recognize during his speech.

“What I want to acknowledge here today is that you - and me along with you - are graduating not with a piece of paper but with a whole new reinvented self,” he said. “One that allows you to reach for and even attain anything you want.”

Other honored guests included CETYS Universidad Rector Fernando Leon Garcia, CityU’s former International Division Chancellor, and many international-based students who traveled to Seattle from Canada, Mexico, China, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Greece and Czech Republic.

Since the Key Arena graduation, Gorsuch has traveled abroad to visit three CityU commencement ceremonies in Bratislava, Slovakia; Pravetz, Bulgaria and Athens, Greece. For more information and picture of his travels, visit Gorsuch’s official commencement blog.

For more graduation photos and news from our commencement ceremonies around the world, visit the official CityU blog.

By Genoa Sibold-Cohn

Velocity Contributor

Lynne Griffith knows the importance of a college education.

It’s helped the City University of Seattle alumna and chief executive officer of Pierce Transit lead Washington state’s second largest transit agency of more than 1,000 employees.

Still, it wasn’t until recently that Griffith added college graduate to her title.

“As a single mom supporting two boys through college, I had to set aside my aspirations of completing my degree,” Griffith says. “I wanted to finish what I started and gain academic credibility that matched my position as a CEO with a public transportation provider.”

In 2007, Griffith earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from CityU of Seattle. Her education inspired her to pursue a Master in Public Administration from the University of Washington in 2009. She also graduated this month from UW’s Executive MPA program.

Griffith’s degrees have been key to her success in government, which she says require individuals to be “flexible, adapt to change quickly, (be) financially savvy and incredibly open and straight forward.”

She is among the several CityU alumni Velocity profiled this month who are working in elected, appointed or key staff positions in government around the world. They’re proof graduates are making crucial decisions in communities where they live using skills they learned at CityU.

Like Griffith, a focus on education came after CityU alumnus Larry Campbell had already spent years in the workforce. He had been a laborer, hand riveter, Royal Canadian Mounted Police member, coroner and chief coroner for the Province of British Columbia.

Then Campbell made his big career move to mayor of Vancouver, B.C. where he served from 2002 to 2005. Now Campbell is serving by appointment as a Canadian senator - a role he’s held since 2005. Campbell, who has a Bachelor of Science in Administration and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from CityU, credits his education with helping him succeed in the political arena.

“CityU gave me the basic knowledge with my undergraduate course to pursue opportunities that would have been denied to me had I not graduated,” Campbell says. “The MBA took me a step further and gave me intensive skills that have proven time and time again to be invaluable. In addition, my CityU education gave me the confidence to take on challenges that I would not have considered previously.”

CityU alum Brian D. Gardner knows experience and education have been key to his successful, 30-year career in law enforcement as an employee of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Last year Gardner was elected sheriff - five years after earning his Master of Public Administration degree in Criminal Justice from CityU.

“I am a lifelong resident of Linn County and have worked for the sheriff’s office my entire adulthood,” Gardner says. ”It is literally the only job that I have known. Coupled with my education, all of those things helped prepare me for this position.”

Gardner applied to CityU after speaking with Seattle police officers who attended the university.

“I liked what I saw and applied for admission,” Gardner says. He valued CityU’s distance learning courses because they allowed him to work full-time and keep varying, nontraditional work hours, all while getting an advanced degree.

Gardner’s term as Linn County Sheriff started just seven months after the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids crested at 31.1 feet, devastating the city and numerous facilities. The sheriff’s office and correctional center were among the buildings that were heavily damaged in the disaster dubbed the Thousand Year Flood.

At the time, Gardner was a patrol division commander and played an active role in the flood evacuation in the Palo community and assisted with evacuation and relocation efforts for the sheriff’s office and jail. Since taking office in January 2009, Gardner has been directing the flood recovery process.

“Although all of my formal education has helped me in my career, I found the education that I received from CityU to be most beneficial,” Gardner says. ”My CityU education provided me with the depth, detail, and background that I need to perform successfully as a law enforcement chief executive.”

Lyle Kee also is using an advanced CityU degree to serve in law enforcement. Kee is the chief of the Yates Center Police Department in Yates Center, Kansas. In 1992, Kee earned a Master of Public Administration with a specialty in criminal justice.

“I have used the knowledge from my City University of Seattle degree to write grants, prepare budgets, conduct research and (have) the credentials required to teach as an adjunct professor at a local college, Kee says.

Kee feels his CityU degree has been vital to his role in government, which is constantly evolving and changing.

“Successful governments, as well as successful government employees, must be able to adapt to current changes, trends, emergencies, disasters, terrorism, war, and peace,” Kee notes.

CityU alum David Hambelton is serving an important role in Snohomish County, Wash. as the chairman of the Snohomish County Planning Commission. He’s serving his second appointed term that began in March 2008. His first term ran from 1982 to 1993.

Hambelton earned a Master of Science in Project Management degree from CityU in 1999.

“I feel it is important for citizens to be involved in our representative form of government,” says Hambelton, who was reappointed to the commission recently for an additional four years. “It is very interesting to review the information policy packets we receive to prepare for meetings. We hold public hearing and obtain the opinion of the citizens. We then make a recommendation to the Snohomish

County Executive and County Council. It is one of the most basic forms of government utilizing citizen input.”

Hambelton believes his CityU education has helped him in his leadership role.

“In receiving my degree at CityU, I learned how to lead and what makes great leaders, operate within our legal parameters, work with and lead teams, negotiate and compromise,” he says. ”All of these skills have served me well as a member and chairman of the commission.”

Across the globe in Indonesia, Syafrizal Syaiful is a staff expert for the budget commission in the country’s House of Representatives.

“The education from CityU really helped me a lot to support my job at the House of Representatives…they did not only teach me theoretically but also practically what happened in the (U.S.) market,” explains Syaiful, who earned a MBA with an Financial Management emphasis in 1999.

Adds Syaiful, “At the end if I have enough information regarding those issues then I can serve better the public in Indonesia by giving enough and good information to the elected official in the parliament in making policy.”

This group of volunteers, staffers and high-ranking officials demonstrate the value of a CityU education and how they are changing the world.

A message from Pat Templeman and Lori Randall of AlumniWine

Dear CityU friends,

AlumniWine is most proud to be a sponsor of City University of Seattle and its many academic programs. For those who are unfamiliar with our business, we are a custom wine distributor that helps universities raise money for scholarship programs through wine sales.

After Pat (AlumniWine’s founder) received her Master of Business Administration degree from CityU it only seemed fitting to invite the university to be the inaugural AlumniWine partner.

Since then, AlumniWine has released three, custom-labeled CityU wine products supporting student scholarships. With every purchase of CityU of Seattle’s signature President’s Reserve, President’s Select or Signature White, AlumniWine generously donates 20 percent of the sale price to the university’s General Scholarship Fund.

The custom CityU branded wines are priced between $15- $22, making it easy to be charitable by purchasing premium Washington state wine as a way to support your school.

Orders may be placed through our Web site and wine is available by the case, bottle or you may join the Alumni Barrel Boosters Wine Enthusiast Program. Just visit http://www.alumniwine.com/universities/cityu.

Thank you for supporting AlumniWine and CityU.

Sincerely,
Pat and Lori
www.alumniwine.com

CityU SIFE Team

Team competes in national competition in Minneapolis

The CityU Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team competed for the national title at the organization’s annual competition in Minneapolis last month. Although they didn’t win, the team was one of 169 student groups that ventured to the area to claim the coveted award.

At the competition, the CityU SIFE team proudly presented their projects completed over the past year and recovered valiantly after experiencing technical difficulties with their video presentation, according to Corrine Holden, CityU’s SIFE team advisor.

Following the video, the judges allowed the group an opportunity to further explain their projects, which included a canned food drive and fundraiser for a girls school in Rwanda, Africa.

Although the team didn’t advance to the next round, they stayed to watch the final competition where Belmont University (Nashville, Tennessee) earned the first place award. Information on the winners can be found by visiting http://www.sife.org/usacompetitions/expoResults.asp

Holden said the CityU team celebrated their success with a night on the town and appeared focused on their overall achievement of reaching SIFE’s national stage inside the city’s convention center.

“The energy in this place is unbelievable,” said Holden as she waited for the final results of the competition last month. “They’ve (team members) certainly made us proud across the board.”

University’s program to launch in fall 2010 on community college campus

City University of Seattle has formed a partnership with Lower Columbia College (LCC) in Longview, Wash. that will allow students seeking a Bachelor of Arts in Education degree to take classes on the community college campus. Students who have earned or are finishing an associate degree may apply to the two-year program immediately. They will form the college’s first CityU of Seattle cohort and begin classes in the fall quarter of 2010.

“I’m delighted to announce this new option for Longview area students who have dreams of becoming teachers, and making meaningful contributions to young lives. Together, CityU and Lower Columbia College offer a flexible program with variety that gives future teachers the opportunity to develop their skills in specialty areas,” said Judy Hinrichs, CityU’s dean of the Albright School of Education (ASOE).

Detailed information on CityU Bachelor of Arts in Education program at LCC is available at lowercolumbia.edu/cityu. Along with this degree, LCC students also have the unique opportunity to qualify for a teacher certification with an emphasis in Special Education, Elementary Education, Math, English Language Learners (ELL) or Reading and Literacy. Both single and dual endorsements are available in these emphasis areas, which are listed on CityU’s Bachelor of Arts in Education Web page.

“This will be a wonderful opportunity for our students and the community,” said Laura Brener, LCC vice president of instruction. “The CityU of Seattle partnership allows us to grow our own future educators by offering classes and student teaching experiences right here in local district schools.”

The ASOE was the state’s fourth largest provider of teacher certificates during the 2008-09 academic year, according to the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). The university also was the largest and top provider of graduates with principal and program administrator certification and school counselor certification. For more information on CityU’s education programs, please visit www.cityu.edu/teacher.

“Students who enroll in our Bachelor of Arts in Education program should expect a rigorous program as we prepare them for the real world, or in their case, the classroom,” said Craig Schieber, associate dean for the ASOE, who oversees the teacher certification program. “That said, we find many of our teachers remember our program model and look to us when they’re ready to start a graduate degree or certificate in education.”

The dual endorsement options offered with the CityU Bachelor of Arts in Education program at LCC will meet the needs of local schools in Cowlitz County.

“Even in light of recent budget cuts, the two areas in which local school districts have had difficulty finding sufficient highly qualified candidates are math and special education,” according to Ann Williamson, LCC education instructor. “About 15 special education teachers in the Longview district are eligible to retire within the next two years and Kelso School District has another seven special education positions open at this time.”

An information session on CityU’s Bachelor of Arts in Education program at LCC will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 2 at the LCC Student Center in Conference Room A. For additional details, please contact Paul Dehnert, CityU program coordinator at LCC, at 360-442-2945 or pdehnert@cityu.edu or contact Williamson at 360-442-2892 or awilliamson@lowercolumbia.edu.

By Genoa Sibold-Cohn

Velocity Contributor

If you’re looking online for classmate Alison Ferguson, you’ll find her on three social networks: Facebook, LinkedIn and City University of Seattle’s official Alumni Online Community.

Ferguson is one of nearly 4,000 CityU of Seattle graduates plugged into the institution’s online community. Think Facebook or LinkedIn but exclusively for CityU alumni.

Like these social networking sites, alumni can query the online community and discover what classmates have been doing since graduation. It’s the perfect way to network if you’re job hunting or want to reconnect with old friends.

Velocity recently asked our Alumni Online Community members to update their profiles in order to put together some interesting fast facts about alumni. These facts include the top 10 companies and top five school districts where community members hold positions, the top five graduating classes with online community memberships, the top five states where community members live and the top five countries represented by members.

Velocity then contacted a handful of alumni in these categories and asked them to reflect on their time at CityU and how they’d recommend improving the student experience.

Ferguson, a 2002 CityU graduate who earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a Marketing emphasis, valued being able to work in her field of choice while working on her degree.

“It gave me knowledge to take back directly to my employer and incorporate into daily practice,” says Ferguson, who lives in Port Moody, British Columbia. Canada ranks second, behind the United States, where Alumni Online Community members reside.

Kyle McLeod is one of 200 CityU alumni who are registered with the online community and have identified themselves as working for a Washington state school district. He has two degrees from CityU - a Bachelor of Science in Computer Systems with a Networking/Telecommunications emphasis and a Master of Science in Project Management - along with a Graduate Certificate in Project Management. He holds a position in the Bellevue School District as an IT / capital construction project manager.

“Overall, I really enjoyed the CityU experience,” McLeod says. “The ability to interact with students and staff who are practicing professionals in many diverse fields offered fresh insights and approaches in all of my classes.”

Janka Belanova, a 2005 graduate working for IBM Slovakia, praises CityU for creating family-like relationships for students and instructors. The class of 2005 has 508 registered members in the CityU Alumni Online Community.

“Given that to my knowledge there are two schools in Slovakia (one in Bratislava and one in Trencin), it was a great mood at school…everyone knew everyone, networking worked 100 percent,” Belanova says.

Nine years after Washington State Rep. Larry Haler (R-WA) graduated from CityU with a MBA, he still values the relationships he formed with students and his instructors.

“We valued our friendships and valued being able to share our work experiences and being able to grow from what other people were going through,” Haler says.

His instructors - who came from various business backgrounds - taught him skills, such as how to read a budget and do a break-even analysis.

“I’ve been able to apply that in my political position,” Haler says. “All these other things have helped me be a successful state legislator.”

To help improve the student experience, Haler encourages CityU to counsel students interested in Ph.D. programs.

Ralph Boy is among the 224 alumni registered with the Alumni Online Community who work for Boeing - the leading employer for CityU graduates in the online community. Boy, who earned a MBA with a Project Management emphasis, appreciated CityU’s evening classes for a full-degree graduate program. He also valued the real world skills he learned from instructors. To improve the student experience, Boy recommends more out-of-the-classroom education.

“I would recommend having field trips where the students have the opportunity to go into other companies or other situations that have a real world application of what is being taught,” Boy says.

Have you joined the online community? If not, visit alumni.cityu.edu and get started on a membership. Remember to keep your profile updated so it reflects your current contact information and job details. You can try an advanced search by name, keyword, location and country or perform a basic search.

Learn more about the Alumni Online Community! Just visit alumni.cityu.edu.

Alumni Online Community Membership - By the numbers

Top five graduating classes with online community memberships

2005: 508

2006: 344

2007: 311

2004: 263

2008: 251

Top five states where alumni live

Washington: 2,204

Oregon: 83

California: 135

Texas: 70

Florida: 57

Top five countries where alumni live

United States: 3,121

Canada: 187

China: 79

Slovak Republic: 57

Egypt: 51

Top 10 companies where community members hold positions

Boeing: 224

Microsoft: 39

U.S. Navy: 26

State of Washington: 23

Paccar: 13

United States Air Force: 13

Weyerhaeuser: 10

Honeywell: 6

Washington Mutual Bank: 5

Starbucks: 4

Top school districts in Washington state where community members hold positions

Seattle: 15

Puyallup: 9

Vancouver: 9

Bellevue: 9

Kent: 8

Lake Washington: 8

Evergreen: 8

Top five professions

Education - 682

Management - 297

Business - 234

Computers - 228

Engineering - 163

CityU students take on retooled marketing for the new economy

By Anna King

Velocity Contributor

Leah Schedin lost her job last year. With 20 years management experience in Northwest marketing firms, Schedin, 45, of Snohomish, Wash. expected to land a new gig without trouble.

Unfortunately, she didn’t anticipate the drastic change in the industry - Facebook now replaced newspaper and television marketing - and it hurt her career search. With so much marketing being done in the social media space, Schedin was faced with a steep learning curve.

“When I started marketing, we were using scissors and glue and putting together art,” Schedin says.

She also learned employers now put a stronger emphasis on hiring college graduates. Just having years of experience wasn’t enough and Schedin didn’t have a bachelor’s degree. Three months later and still jobless she needed a very different plan.

“I was being screened out of positions because of my lack of a degree,” she says. “When I would call back on jobs I lost, they [employers] told me that they were getting 300 to 400 resumes.”

Today, Schedin is gaining her competitive edge as a student in City University of Seattle’s new Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing. The program allows people to sharpen their career focus and jump to the industry forefront. They learn from expert faculty members how to take advantage of the latest online tools and social networking strategies to compete in this new economy.

“I’ve had some fabulous CityU instructors that have a wealth of experience in real life situations,” Schedin says.

For many years, students sought out CityU of Seattle for its business degree program with a marketing emphasis. However, because of recent public demand, the university created this new program specifically focused on marketing principles. Busy students also can get their marketing degree by completing classes online. Some of the 10 marketing courses include: Advertising and Sales Promotion, Understanding Consumer Behavior and Brand Development and Management.

According to Corrine Holden, CityU’s marketing program director, today’s online marketing is mainstream and messages have to be sharply attuned to intended audiences. She says CityU teaches students essential skills to break through the din and be effective.

“It’s about having an effective message that people can hear,” she says. “There is a lot of noise out there and people tune it out.”

Holden says nearly all CityU marketing courses integrate the latest technology and strategies in new media. Courses include: E-Marketing, Principles of Marketing and Integrated Marketing. Faculty adjust each class to the students in that course, their experience and what they are most interested in learning.

“One of our cornerstones is using practitioner faculty, or people in the field, to teach courses,” Holden says. “It means that someone that is teaching marketing classes is working in the field all day long. They are seeing what’s out there every day.”

But most importantly, CityU gives students the fundamentals to be successful in the dynamic and demanding field of marketing, Holden says.

“The wiz-bang stuff isn’t going to help,” she says. “It’s the fundamental building blocks of a good marketing program that will help your business succeed.”

Still, many students worry their new degree won’t help them in this radically tightened job market. However, according to Audra Jackley, a Seattle-based professional marketing account director, marketing firms have plenty of room for fresh minds and hard workers.

“If you are a new grad entering this place and knowing that this economy is all wonky, you just need to keep going and not get discouraged,” says Jackley of TMP Worldwide Advertising and Communications. “Things will get better. Be willing to work hard. You need to show that you’re willing to get your hands dirty.”

Specifically, Jackley says marketing firms are looking for people who have some work experience and understand new media and online marketing. That’s where many businesses are focusing their dollars and energy, she adds.

Instead of radio and newspaper ads, Jackley says her clients almost exclusively use social media sites, particularly Facebook. Clients also favor Web tools, such as meta tags - keywords assigned to information (ex. bookmarks, images or files) in a Web page by the site’s creator that can be located through browsing or searching.

They also launch advertising campaigns on online search engines like Google and Bing.

“I think the Web is only going to get bigger,” Jackley says. “[Consumers] no longer want to seek out content, they want it to come to them.”

Jackley says the most rewarding thing about being a successful marketing professional is identifying a problem, implementing a plan and then seeing the results roll in. Most recently, she helped increase online visibility for a friend’s lawnmower business.

“I was able to show them how to get a higher ranking on Google on the cheap and they recruited more business,” she says. “When you get to help businesses accomplish a goal, that’s really warm and fuzzy.”

Schedin says her CityU experience has helped her develop a different set of skills for a changed world.

“It’s exciting to be on the crest of this [digital marketing] wave,” she says.

For more information about the Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing, please visit the program overview page.

By Tara Ballenger
Velocity Contributor

In his two tours of duty in the Iraq war, Army helicopter pilot James Yelverton has been in some stressful situations. Once, he recalls, he tried to land near the Syrian border when his aircraft was attacked by enemy fire. As his copilot sent out communication about the attack, Yelverton flew the helicopter to safety.

“I was in shock,” Yelverton says. “I had to fly the craft and avoid the fire all while trying to figure out where the fire was coming from.”

Now Yelverton wants to use his stress management skills to fight a different enemy: illness. He plans to become a pediatrician and has been taking general education courses at City University of Seattle since 2004. After this quarter he plans to transfer to the University of Washington for medical school.

Fortunately for Yelverton, he’ll receive extra help on his journey from the cockpit to the classroom. The Post-9/11 GI Bill, passed by Congress in 2008, went into effect Aug. 1, 2009. The Bill provides tuition assistance and a housing allowance for veterans who serve in the military for at least 90 days after September 10, 2001.

Yelverton, 28, says the housing allowance ensures he can concentrate on his studies without worrying about debt or how to pay his rent.

In many cases, veterans receive full tuition assistance in addition to a monthly housing stipend, which typically runs about $1,400 for Bellevue, said Brian Burgess, CityU of Seattle veterans affairs officer. About 50 new veterans enrolled at CityU during the 2009 fall quarter.

“It was an impressive response,” Burgess says.

For Shawna Haag, the assistance allows her to realize her educational dreams as she juggles motherhood and a full-time job.

“Being in the military, moving a lot and bringing up two little girls, money is tight,” Haag says. “It would be really hard for me to get through this without the tuition assistance.”

Haag served in the Air Force from 1997 until 2009 - including two, two-year stints in Japan and Germany - as an information systems security officer.

“Basically, I protected the computer systems of top secret facilities” from hackers, Haag says.

After hearing about the new GI Bill while still in the military, Haag decided to enroll at CityU as soon as she became a civilian. She began working on her Master of Science degree in Information Security and Information Systems in October.

“CityU offered my degree specialty, and unlike other schools, it keeps up with all the changes in the field,” says Haag. “Other schools can be five years behind in the technology but every class I take at CityU is right on.”

To further support students like Yelverton and Haag, CityU has signed up for the Yellow Ribbon Program. The optional partnership between universities and the government provides students help with educational expenses that may not be covered by the GI Bill.

To qualify for the Post 9/11 GI Bill benefit at 100 percent eligibility, students must have served at least 36 months in the military since Sept. 10, 2001. Through a scholarship, CityU pays 50 percent of any credit hour amount over the in-state maximum (currently $380 per credit hour). The government pays the balance for the first 40 eligible students per academic year.

Together, the Post-9/11 GI Bill and the Yellow Ribbon Program provide the most comprehensive assistance for veterans to date, Burgess said.

“This will enable veterans to fulfill their educational goals,” he says. “It’s exciting.”

After six years and two Gulf deployments in the Navy as a supply core officer, Rosalie Ferrara, 30, is pursuing her Master of Business Administration at CityU.

“I use my experience in the military a lot in my classes. You can use the approaches that corporate America has, like business operations and process improvement, and apply them to the government in ways that I hadn’t thought of before,” she says.

For Ferrara, the GI Bill means she can further her education without going into debt.

“We’re very blessed,” she says. “For the commitment we make, they (the government) take good care of us.”

For more information about the GI Bill, please contact Brian Burgess at bburgess@cityu.edu.

By Tara Ballenger

Velocity Contributor

When searching for a university in her home country of Bulgaria, Veselina Doncheva investigated schools offering an international experience. Still, the 22-year-old wasn’t ready to study abroad. When Doncheva learned of City University of Seattle in Bulgaria — a global university with English-speaking instructors right in her backyard — she found the perfect fit.

“I was a little bit afraid to study abroad, so when I saw a City University of Seattle advertisement, I knew this would be my university,” says Doncheva, who spent a few semesters in Bulgaria before she made a decision to visit the U.S.

Today, she’s one of seven Bulgarian business students enrolled in CityU’s Mobility Program - an opportunity for those from global sites to study for one quarter at the Bellevue site. As an incentive, students pay the tuition rate of their home country. For European students, that’s about 70 percent less when compared to the U.S. standard rate. U.S. students also are welcome to participate in the program if they choose to study abroad.

Since its spring quarter start in 2006, the Mobility Program has brought about 60 students to the U.S. Many are business majors from Bulgaria and Slovakia but some originate from other countries, including Greece and the Czech Republic, says International Student Office Director Sabine Saway.

Following their recent arrival to Bellevue, the Bulgarian students have used free time to explore Seattle and its environs.

Pavel Tsonev, a 21-year-old general management major, described his first impressions of Bellevue and Seattle as “peaceful and clean.” Without the program’s reduced tuition rate, Tsonev says study abroad wasn’t an option.

“It is quite expensive to come and study in the U.S.,” Tsonev says. “It was the Mobility Program that made it possible for me to come and experience a different culture.”

For European students - many of whom attend CityU full-time - the classroom experience is a huge draw.

“The professors in the U.S. expect a lot of participation and interaction and there are a lot of a questions,” Saway says. “The students are really involved in the learning process.”

Students this quarter also say they’re here in the U.S. to improve their English and meet people.

“I enrolled because I wanted to gain some international experience,” says Vassil Georgiev, a 21-year-old general management major. “It is exciting to travel around the world and study.”

Adds Doncheva, “This is my first time here and I am really impressed by the huge buildings and people who are smiling all the time.”

While the International Student Office does not provide housing for incoming students, Saway helps steer them to affordable Bellevue apartments. Many mobility students become roommates to reduce expenses. CityU also holds an orientation on cultural differences and challenges and take mobility students on a Seattle field trip.

For some students, the experience of studying business in the U.S. has left them with a lot to consider as they continue with their careers.

“If I have the opportunity to come and work in the U.S. in the future, I will most likely accept the offer,” Tsonev says.

Georgiev also isn’t closing the door on relocating to the U.S. He hopes to use his CityU education to start a business someday.

“I consider it a possibility,” he says. “And I still have plenty of time to decide.”

For more information about the Mobility Program, please contact Sabine Saway at 425-709-5308.