Global Connections
Pioneering Professor Delivers International Impact

By Al Miller

Judy Dwyer, of UW-Superior's Social Work faculty, recently gave the keynote address at Rotary International's 10-year anniversary observance of its Business Experience Sharing for Transition program, in Krakow, Poland. (UW-Superior)

When Judy Dwyer was working for the United Nations in Poland in the early 1990s, she saw how people there needed to gain experience in a free-market economy. That realization prompted her to work with the Rotary Clubs in Duluth, Minn., to create a program that brings young people from central and eastern Europe to Duluth to work as interns at local businesses.

Last October, the associate professor of social work at UW-Superior was honored for her role in starting the Rotary's International Business Internship Program. She was invited back to Krakow, Poland, to be the keynote speaker at the program's 10th anniversary conference.

"I was thrilled to again see so many of the people who had come to Duluth," Dwyer said. "They had incredible stories to tell."

Former interns in the program have gone on to become pioneers in modernizing their countries' economies. At the conference, 35 of them spoke about how their experiences in Duluth enabled them to assume positions in local and international companies in their homelands.

Dwyer worked in Poland from 1991 to 1993. She helped start business programs at two universities there and assisted in developing community resources after the end of the country's Communist government. She describes her efforts as "international social work."

For her work with the International Business Internship Program, Dwyer is highly regarded by local Rotarians.

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Judy," said Earl Rogers, a Duluth Rotarian who was instrumental in establishing the internship program. "For people to understand the free-market economy, they have to live that economy. They can't learn it from books. She realized that."

At UW-Superior, Dwyer continues to help undergraduate students gain experience in international settings. She is part of a faculty team teaching a course titled "War in Bosnia," which takes students to Bosnia to study first-hand the effects of the conflict there. She also is working to develop opportunities for UW-Superior students to study international social work in Costa Rica.