Catherine (Badrak) Douglas

Catherine (Badrak) Douglas (2003)

Catherine (Badrak) Douglas

Graduated May 2003
B.S. International Business
Newberg, Oregon

After graduating from Ferris with a degree in International Business, I had the opportunity to spend a year working and living in France. It was there that I was exposed to the exciting challenges of the wine industry. After France, life took me to New Zealand where I earned my Postgraduate Diploma in Wine Business as an external student at the University of Adelaide in Australia. While studying part-time, I also worked as Sales and Marketing Manager for Rockburn Wines. My degree from Ferris gave me a very strong background in subjects like accounting, consumer behavior, and global markets, which was truly a blessing in these endeavors. After four years in New Zealand, I returned to the States and settled in Oregon’s Willamette Valley with my husband, son, and Springer Spaniel. I work as the Manager of Export Sales, Marketing & Communications for Adelsheim Vineyard, one of the oldest wineries in the Valley. I manage relationships with our importers in seven international markets, and also manage the overall promotional strategy for the winery both in the U.S. and internationally.

Being part of the Honors Program at Ferris gave me the opportunity to live in Helen Ferris and become not only friends, but family with those who lived there with me. They supported me and pushed me in my academic endeavors, but were also there for me personally. We are – a decade later – still an incredibly tight-knit group. I couldn’t imagine what life would be like without them. Even though we are spread out around the country, they are my very best friends!

Aside from the Honors program community, the Honors program staff at that time – Maude and Tammy – were always a great support. Most notably, they allowed me to study abroad in France my sophomore year by providing me with a much-needed scholarship. The cultural events that we attended on campus throughout the years were very enlightening as well. Not to mention the Honors Balls each year, the many clubs and organizations we were a part of, the excellent living arrangements, volunteer opportunities, and the other infinite opportunities for learning beyond the classroom. I will forever appreciate the opportunity to have been a part of it.

Leave a Reply

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s