Summary: Calvin College has chosen a new vice president for enrollment management. Russ Bloem brings both a concern for diversity and a depth of international experience to his new position.
See full story: http://www.calvin.edu/news/2009-10/russ-bloem
Russ Bloem '75 is Calvin's new vice president for enrollment management.
"As I read the job description for this position, it seemed like a pretty good fit," said Bloem. "By the end of the [interview] process, I felt like I'd been called to this place at this point in life."
Bloem's experience spans continents and industries. Since graduating from Calvin in 1975 as a bio-chemistry major, Bloem went on to earn both a masters degree in medicinal chemistry and a masters of business from the University of Michigan.
Bloem spent 30 years working in the pharmaceutical industry. The first five were spent in drug research. The latter 25 years - with Bristol-Myers (now Bristol-Myers Squibb) - were spent on the business side of things.
His career took him all over the world, from New York to Tokyo to Singapore and finally back to the east coast. Bloem helped start up the first HIV/AIDS unit in an American pharmaceutical company and worked as the director of operations for Bristol-Myers in Tokyo.
While the family lived overseas, all three of Bloem's sons came to west Michigan to attend Calvin, majoring, variously, in electrical engineering and economics, European history and English, and business communications and Asian Studies.
"Their student experience was quite different than the one I had, and I had a vicarious experience through them," said Bloem. "I feel that I can talk confidently about all the different areas Calvin offers because I see how well-prepared they were," he added.
Bloem begins his new career as Calvin enters its second year of dipping enrollment. But, he remains hopefully optimistic that by recruiting a wider Calvin community to the admissions effort that the college will be able to increase enrollment.
"If we have that many ambassadors out there looking and encouraging, we can do it," said Bloem.
-end-
Received on Mon Nov 9 09:31:50 2009
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Mon Nov 09 2009 - 09:31:50 EST