In honor of National Women’s History Month, FYI Online profiles three women, each of whom makes a unique contribution to UMUC.

Lorraine Suzuki: Twenty-four Years in the Land of the Rising Sun

Lorraine Suzuki in Tokyo.

By Alita Byrd
Special to FYI Online

Lorraine R. Suzuki never thought she would live in Japan. And certainly not for 24 years! But things don’t always happen the way we plan them, and Suzuki has come a long way from her home in Detroit, Michigan, to settle in Tokyo, Japan, where she is now associate dean of UMUC–Asia.

At first she thought it would just be for a year. She had a tenured position at the University of Michigan, but her husband had traveled to Japan for a one-year assignment to do a marketing survey. So Suzuki took a sabbatical leave from Michigan and went to join her husband—whom she had met at the University of Chicago where he was her statistics tutor—for the year in Tokyo. She met Joe Arden and soon began teaching for UMUC. Besides courses at Yokota, she co-taught the first course in the Master of General Administration (MGA) program at Zama Army Base.

Even more importantly, the first week she was in Japan, Suzuki became pregnant. That made things a little more complicated. She didn’t really like Japan.

“It definitely was not a place for professional women with their own careers,” Suzuki says. But her husband was now working to set up a joint venture company, and he could not leave Japan after a year as originally planned. So after her year of sabbatical was up, Suzuki took leave without pay from her Michigan job and rented out her house in Ann Arbor. She figured she would be gone for one more year.

But it didn’t work out that way. Suzuki’s husband—who is Japanese, though born in Brazil—still couldn’t leave Japan and she wanted her son to be with both of his parents. So after four years in Japan, she gave up her tenured position at Michigan and settled into the land of the ‘Rising Sun.’

Suzuki’s first full-time position with UMUC was as graduate resident professor for the newly-launched Asian MGA program in 1979. After the program was phased out in 1985, she assumed the position of academic director for business, management, and economics. In 1990, Suzuki moved to working in administration full-time, eventually becoming the director of institutional research and coordinating the work of other academic directors.

In 2000, Suzuki was named associate dean for UMUC–Asia. The position involves a lot of hats, and Suzuki wears them all with grace.

“Generally, my major responsibility is to oversee the academic program,” Suzuki says. “I love the challenge of new experiences, and UMUC–Asia has given me so many,” she says.

Louise VanDerBeek (left) takes a turn on the frottior during a zydeco performance at UMUC.

Louise VanDerBeek: Feeling the Rhythm of Zydeco

By Nikki Case
Special to FYI Online

As the accordion starts to pick up, feet start to move, scraping against the hard wood floor in time with the lively rhythm. Louise VanDerBeek, an instructional designer at UMUC, joins the dance, giving in to the tempo and sway of zydeco. VanDerBeek has been immersed in zydeco dancing for several years now. She first became involved in the culture after attending a dance, where she was captivated by the rhythm and movement. Today, VanDerBeek books zydeco bands for the Baltimore–Washington area, maintains the Bon Temps Relay Zydeco Club Web site, and frequently hosts the visiting bands in her Victorian home. Recently, she was instrumental in bringing Roy Carrier to UMUC for a special performance, part of the University’s diversity awareness initiatives.

Zydeco evolved from music of the Creoles in Louisiana and had many similarities to Cajun music. After World War II, zydeco adopted some of the sounds of blues and rock and roll and most recently has been influenced by hard rock, rap, reggae, and hip hop. Zydeco is usually performed with accordion, electric guitar, bass, drums, saxophone, and a corrugated metal rub board called a frottior. The Bon Temps Relay Zydeco Club brings zydeco and Cajun music to the Baltimore/Washington area on a regular basis, sponsoring dances at various venues in the area. The club formed through a fundraising effort for the community hall in Relay, Maryland. VanDerBeek and others sponsored a zydeco dance to raise money for the hall; the group soon began regularly holding dances and booking zydeco bands from Louisiana.

For VanDerBeek, zydeco has been a life-changing experience.

“The community of zydeco in the Baltimore–Washington area is inspiring and fun,” says VanDerBeek. “The musicians are all very down to earth and you can talk to them on a personal level. Zydeco is really a growing community and that is what we want—to see it grow even more.”

Monika Zwink: Bringing Educational Opportunities to the World

Monika Zwink

By Alita Byrd
Special to FYI Online

Military personnel deployed to the Balkans can continue their college education, thanks to education systems like UMUC and people like Monika Zwink. Nearly 5,000 students at seven military camps in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in the Kosovo Province are enrolled in various classes taught by UMUC. As area director, Zwink is responsible for making sure their academic experience is a successful one.

Students in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo are very appreciative of the opportunity to take courses, Zwink said.

Zwink, originally from Germany but educated in the United States, is UMUC’s area director for the Balkans, Hungary, and Italy. In addition to the seven centers in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, she is responsible for managing programs at eight military installations in Italy, where 3,453 students are enrolled. (The program in Hungary is currently dormant.)

Zwink's "total dedication to what UMUC does and stands for overseas would have to be at the foundation of everything else," said John Golembe, associate dean for UMUC–Europe, who has known Zwink for more than 20 years. "With her fluency in German and wonderful sense of protocol, she has often been UMUC's official representative with the German community." And this is just one of Zwink's many contributions, Golembe added.

Zwink began her career at UMUC when she applied for a teaching position with UMUC’s overseas program in 1978. “My assignment was with what was at that time called the ‘Far East Division,’” Zwink says. “I never thought I’d be staying with UMUC for so many years.”

She first taught full-time for UMUC–Asia. The following academic year, she joined the administration as assistant director for administration and publications, while still teaching part-time. In 1981, Zwink transferred to Europe as the assistant director for administration and finance. In the mid-1980s she was named area director of South Germany, and she has continued as area director at different locations ever since. She said that this job—a position she now has almost 20 years of experience at—is the one she has enjoyed the most. Technology has helped.

“Before the advent of email, when communication mostly was via phone or snail mail, it was frustrating when all of a sudden the telephone lines went out,” Zwink said, “especially when it happened during registration and decisions needed to be made.”

Though Zwink has spent most of her professional life with UMUC, she still boasts a varied résumé. Before she joined UMUC she worked as a potter and painted alpine-style furniture in Denver, Colorado.

Zwink likes her job and plans to stay for as long as she can be of service to UMUC. “I believe in our mission to offer academic programs to the members of the U.S. military communities,” Zwink says. “I feel good about what we are doing. It makes me proud to be working with UMUC.”