Patrick and Margaret Stewart Persistence Award

Michael ‘’Mike" Stewart was born in Minneapolis in 1956. He graduated from Washburn High School in 1974, attended Metropolitan Community College for two years and graduated from the College of St. Thomas (now the University of St. Thomas) in 1982 with a BS in Business Administration. He attended Mankato State University (now Minnesota State University, Mankato) in 1985 and graduated from the MBA program in July 1987. After graduating with an MBA from Mankato State University in 1987, he decided that he wanted to work internationally. After having no success for a year, Mike sought advice from a friend who basically said," You don’t have a language and have never been overseas. Would you hire yourself?" The answer was no, so he joined the US Peace Corps. Mike was a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in the Dominican Republic (1989-1991) and Estonia (1992-1994). After this, he decided that he really enjoyed Peace Corps’ Mission and in April, 1995, he applied for and was offered the position of Associate Peace Corps Director {APCD) in Kazakhstan in charge of the Small Business Development program. In Kazakhstan, Mike was responsible for site assignments for 30 Small Business Development (SBD) PCVs and program management. This involved traveling to every major city in Kazakhstan, a former part of the Soviet Union and convincing people in those cities that this was not a US attempt at invasion or brainwashing, and that there was a great value to be gained from hosting a PCV for two years. In September, 1995, Chevron in Kazakhstan contacted Mike about starting Junior Achievement (JA) in Kazakhstan. With Peace Corps/Kazakhstan’ support, Mike completely revamped the Small Business Development (SBD) program to one that trained the SBD PCVs to become trainers for local teachers in JA. The training was provided by Chevron of Kazakhstan and the translated books were also provided by Chevron of Kazakhstan. Within four years, over 10,000 high school children had completed the program, and more than 1000 local teachers had been trained in the teaching of JA. In 2000, Mike was hired by the United States Agency for International Development/ Bosnia & Herzegovina (USAID/BiH) as a Project Coordinator in Brcko, Bosnia. Mike was then contracted by USAID/BiH in April, 2002, to work as the Deputy Executive Officer. In 2003, USAID opened competition for direct hire positions as Executive Officer. He was hired and signed on with USAID in August 2003. Mike served as an Executive Officer in Albania (2004-2007), Iraq (2007-2008, Pakistan (2008-2010 & 2012-2015) and Kosovo (2010-2012). He retired from USAID in November, 2015. The goal of this scholarship is to help those who need the most help. Mike’s parents, Patrick and Margaret, instilled in him a desire to help others and also a strong sense of persistence. His parents suffered setbacks in life, but they refused to let circumstances dictate when they gave up. They taught their kids that giving up is a decision and you affect that decision through your attitude. You’re not stopped until you decide to stop. It is Mike’s belief that a person who has made it to the point of being accepted in the MSU ~BA program can complete the MBA program and go on to do great things.