College
of Business Administration
Outstanding
graduate - Aleksandar Stanojevic
By
Akiko Sugimori
On-line Forty-Niner
Aleksandar
Stanojevic, the most outstanding graduate
of the College of Business Administration
this year, was part of a project that examined
post-Sept. 11 financial issues in commercial
aviation this semester.
“His accomplishments represent a testimony
to the quality of our business students,”
said Luis Calingo, dean of the College of
Business Administration.
Stanojevic, a finance major, has also been
on the Cal State Long Beach President’s
List for six semesters and is also an honors
member of the National Financial Management
Association.
He was born in Serbia, part of the former
Yugoslavia, in 1975. After high school,
he enrolled in the Belgrade University School
of Law. He left the country in 1998 only
six months before he would have earned a
law degree, and moved to the United States
in the same year because of the political
unrest in Serbia.
He worked for a year and a half at American
Honda Finance in Torrance before continuing
his education. He decided to continue his
schooling at CSULB in spring 2000, and he
almost had to start over again because only
six units could be transferred from the
University of Belgrade, where he earned
100 units.
“I was always successful in school, and
finance is something I enjoy studying. In
spring 2000, my simple ambition was to get
out of CSULB as soon as possible, and get
a job,” Stanojevic said. “However, I realized
that I really had a chance to earn a really
good GPA and, as time went by, my ambitions
changed somewhat.”
Stanojevic will definitely be recognized
at commencement and awards banquets, Calingo
said.
“He has been identified as our top awardee
after a rigorous selection process that
involved our faculty and that looked into
his academic performance, demonstrated leadership,
and community service.”
In the last three and a half years, Stanojevic
was a full-time student at CSULB and working
for a small telecommunications company located
in Marina Del Rey as an account executive.
He also has been married for five years
and has a 3-year-old son.
“All this taken into account, yes, I had
to work pretty hard, but I never had a problem
with that,” Stanojevic said. “Once you organize
your time properly, you have time for everything.”
He is now seeking a financial analyst position
in investment banking after graduation,
and planning to start a master’s program
sometime next year, probably by fall 2004.
“The time spent at CSULB I enjoyed very
much. I met some great people, both students
and the faculty members, and even though
I lived in the United States for a couple
of years before enrolling in this school,
this was really my first big encounter with
the American system of education,” Stanojevic
said. “I found it to be practical and refreshingly
different. This country has some of the
greatest, oldest universities in the world,
and its tradition in higher education is
respected everywhere.”
“Aleksandar is a wonderful example of the
many highly motivated and intelligent students
that have overcome difficulties and still
achieved academic excellence at CSULB,”
said CSULB President Robert Maxson. “He
is a role model for all of us.”
Stanojevic said he would like to thank certain
professors in the college.
“Professor Tom Rhoads, my most valuable
professor, who was not only a great lecturer,
but a friend whose advice I always took
with respect; professor Philip Thames; and
a very inspiring young professor, Peter
Ammermann, ... just to name a few.”
|
