Category: Careers

Lucatero Uses Position at Microsoft to Give Back

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Arturo Lucatero recalls the day his world suddenly changed – when a session with his counselor at Tigard High School altered the direction of his life.

A recent emigrant from Mexico, Lucatero had long dreamed of working in the computer industry, specifically with Microsoft. The initial plan was to continue working at his fast food job, graduate from high school and attend community college part time before transferring to a four-year institution.

It was then that his counselor suggested he look into scholarships. “I’d never heard of George Fox at that point,” he says. “But I was told about this Act Six program they had, and I thought, ‘Why not apply?’ I had nothing to lose.”
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Herrera Discovers Passion for Bringing Stories to the Stage

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By Emily Lund, Class of 2015

Cambria Herrera sits back in her chair. Listening, thinking. Her arms and legs are crossed as she watches the scene in front of her unfold, pauses and all. Her eyes move from actor to actor, then stare out into the rehearsal room. Every once in a while, a slight smile appears on her face, then fades before reappearing.

It’s five weeks into rehearsals for David Auburn’s Proof, last fall’s production at Valley Repertory Theatre in Newberg, Ore. Tonight is the first night the four actors are off-book – no scripts in hand – and such a transition inevitably means some pauses, some “ummmms,” some exasperated laughs and calls for “line.”

The scene reaches its end. Herrera stretches her arms out to the ceiling. “Great!” she says, and sits up straight. “How did you guys feel about it?”

They answer, laughing, groaning. Herrera nods in agreement, leans forward in her chair and asks questions. “How did that go for you guys? The last bit?” “Did you feel good sitting there for that long?”

They’re good questions, and the actors know it. “She’s never dismissive, never impatient,” says Nicole Greene, one of the four actors Herrera directed in Proof. “She’s creative, she’s highly intelligent, and most of all, she’s deeply talented.”

She’s also 20 years old.
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George Fox Student Coauthors Engineering Book

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Junior engineering major Dieter Mueller with his new book, Atlas of the Four-Bar Linkage.
Junior engineering major Dieter Mueller with his new book, Atlas of the Four-Bar Linkage.
By Sean Patterson

While strolling through an American Society of Mechanical Engineering expo in Montreal recently, George Fox engineering dean Bob Harder chanced upon a book that caught his eye – not so much because of the title, but because of the author’s familiar name.

The book, Atlas of the Four-Bar Linkage, was coauthored by Dieter Mueller, which just so happened to be the name of one of Harder’s engineering students. “I thought, ‘What a coincidence. He must be some German guru on kinematics who happens to have the exact same name as one of our computer engineering students,’” Harder reasoned.

Upon closer inspection, however, Harder noticed the display booth showcasing the book was from Saltire Software of Tigard, Ore., whose president, Phillip Todd, had attended George Fox’s Engineering Expo and Reverse Career Fair in December of 2013. Todd attended the event seeking an intern for the following summer – an intern who ended up being Dieter Mueller.
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Student Success Story: Brooke Nolte

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IMG_4166-2After graduating in December, Nolte will join the core advocacy team at Micah Challenge USA

As Brooke Nolte, a senior sociology major puts it, “It’s one thing to sit in class and learn about the injustices in the world; it’s another to actively engage in addressing those issues.”

As a grassroots advocacy intern with Micah Challenge USA, an organization that pursues justice on behalf of the world’s poor, Brooke reaches out to colleges, churches and individuals to encourage them to join the fight against global poverty. Micah Challenge USA organizes campaigns and events that educate, bring awareness and foster action for the cause. It’s a pursuit Brooke will continue upon graduating from George Fox in December, as she’s been offered a paid position on the organization’s core advocacy team.

Recently we sat down with Brooke to ask about her passion for the world’s poor and to reflect on her George Fox experience.
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The Value of Real World Experience

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FullSizeRender (1)-2By Jared Larson, senior psychology major

Since the beginning of the school year, I’ve been working at Newberg High School in the Counseling Office. I have been serving under school counselor Troy Monson. I’ve known him since my sophomore year of high school when he started working at my school in St. Helens, Ore. I always knew that I wanted to serve others, but wasn’t sure how I wanted to do that.

Then, during my junior year of high school, I realized that school counseling is a field I could potentially see myself go into. After my father passed away before my senior year, I knew I wanted to pursue the field. School has always been a place where I felt comfortable enough to disclose what was going on in my home life. I came to the conclusion that I wanted to be that person for someone else. At the beginning of my senior year, Troy encouraged me to work in the counseling office because he knew that I was passionate about helping others and was interested in the field. So I did. That was one of the best experiences I ever had. I learned so much about myself and my peers. Read More

Internships: The key to connecting students to the world of work

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Deb Mumm-Hill-2By Deb Mumm-Hill, Director of Student Success

So, what is the employment outlook for young adults? The good news for college students is economic forecasts indicate 66 percent of jobs in 2018 will require a post-secondary degree. The tough news is industry needs specific skills to go along with the diploma, so a degree with no industry experience makes it difficult to land a job within a specific degree area.

In the 1980s, industry hired large groups of recent college graduates with very little work experience and invested in three- to six-month training programs that prepared young hires to hit the ground running. In return for this investment, the expectation was that employees would stay with the organization 10 to 20 years as they aspired to climb the corporate ladder. Times have changed in an era with tight corporate budgets. Managers now realize it is not a wise investment of resources to train a millennial employee who only stays 18 to 36 months before moving on to a new company. So how can colleges and industry more wisely prepare the millennial for the world of work?
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Student Success Story: Arturo Lucatero

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IMG_7678Senior computer science major Arturo Lucatero won’t graduate from George Fox University until May, but that didn’t stop him from lining up his dream job with one of the most recognized companies in the world: Microsoft.

This summer, Lucatero, an Act Six scholarship recipient, will begin work as a program manager at the company’s world headquarters in Redmond, Wash., where his duties will include testing consumer products to ensure a user-friendly experience. “One of my favorite parts of my job is that I become the face of the customer,” he says.

Recently we sat down with Lucatero to learn more about his new job and his time at George Fox.

Q: I understand you’ve already got a job lined up after college. Tell me what the position is and how it came about?
A: I will be working for Microsoft as a program manager on their business intelligence team. Growing up, it was my dream to work at Microsoft. After arriving at Fox, I pursued an internship with [the company], and though it didn’t initially work out, I managed to land an internship with Intel. Still, my dream was to be a Microsoft intern. One of the things I learned was that Microsoft prefers computer science majors as interns, so I switched from information systems to a computer science major. Thanks to that, I was able to be a Microsoft Explorer intern last summer [2013]. It really helped me decide what I wanted to do, which is program management, so this summer I went back as a program manager intern working on a self-service business intelligence project.
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