The University of Idaho Argonaut

Michele O'Neill taught entrepreneurship at a private university in Skopje, Macedonia this past fall semester. O'Neill observed from her time there that "students are the same the world over." Perry Hanson/Argonaut

When associate professor Michele O’Neill decided to study finance, it was simply a matter of wanting to be more responsible with money.
“I was drawn to it, I was drawn to the bigger picture … so I decided to just go the whole nine yards and become an academic,” she said.
What O’Neill didn’t expect was to find herself teaching entrepreneurship and business management in Macedonia.
A recipient of the Fulbright scholarship, O’Neill was able to spend five months last fall in Skopje, Macedonia teaching entrepreneurial skills.

“The economy over there needs help,” she said. “After they separated from the Soviet Union they had to develop an economy of their own, and for the most part they haven’t been exposed to the concepts and processes you need to start your own business.”
Macedonia is a country the size of Vermont and, like most governments, the process of change is slow. The university where O’Neill taught was started by the faculty and funded through private donors. This allows the school to teach a wider range of courses and introduce the western style of teaching.
“In the schools it’s normal for you to come to class, the teacher stands in front of you, reads from a book and then he leaves,” she said. “Now, they’re integrating the American style of teaching.”
O’Neill taught second year students who had at least one year of exposure to the new teaching style, but she still thinks her students had to adjust to her style.
O’Neill has traveled internationally since she was 16, but this was her first trip to Eastern Europe. She said it took her six weeks to overcome the culture shock.

“At six weeks I started falling in love with the place — you adapt and then embrace the cultural differences. I wasn’t ready to come back,” O’Neill said.
For her, the hardest parts about living in Macedonia were the “insanity of the traffic” and the cigarette smoke.
“Everyone smoked everywhere, they saw no problem with just blowing the smoke in your face” she said. “I bought my first pack of cigarettes, as a thank you gift, at 41-years old and it felt sinful.”
Since 90 percent of the Macedonian population speaks English, language wasn’t a big problem for O’Neill. But she found when coming across the other 10 percent, the people were patient and willing to help her to communicate.
“They’re used to having a lot of foreigners, but in all the places I’ve traveled, I find that when people want to communicate, they’ll find a way,” she said.
While teaching international finance, O’Neill tries to use her experience in Macedonia to help in her classes. She refers to her experience as one that adjusted her view on life.
“What we think are problems, they’re not problems,” she said. “They don’t know if they’ll exist as a country five years from now — that’s a problem.”

Experience has also made her more mindful of America’s wealth and abundance of “stuff.”
“A week after I returned I went to the Costco in Lewiston and I literally started crying,” she said. “I could immediately think of friends in Macedonia with no way to take in so much stuff. It makes you grateful and a little sad.”