Brenau University Assistant Professor of Business Greg Chase became the institution’s second faculty member in two years to receive a prestigious Fulbright Scholar appointment for teaching abroad.

Starting in January Chase will spend five months in the Republic of Moldova teaching classes at an English-speaking university in its capital, Chişinău, and doing research into the emerging economy of the land-locked eastern European nation of about four million people.

“This is a great opportunity for Brenau University, our students and for me personally,” said Chase, who is already one of the university’s best-travelled faculty members. “Anything that we can do to expose Brenau University to more of the world and help our students understand life in other parts of the world is good for all concerned.”

Detroit native Chase, who studied the German language in high school and college, has lived in Japan and travelled in China, most recently this past summer when he escorted a Brenau group on a language-learning tour, and this term he is teaching several students Chinese as independent studies. Had there been any handicappers’ watching Chase’s aspirations for Fulbright scholarship, they probably would not have picked Moldova as a place he would likely go. 

The country was once part of part of Romania. It is situated between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south. It won its independence in 1991 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. 

However, the country has suffered sometimes-violent political unrest similar to that in nearby Georgia. The Transnistria region along the Ukrainian border, which is populated primarily by native Russian and Ukrainians, has declared itself a republic and has attempted to break away from Moldova. One of the poorest countries in the world with a per capita income of less than $2,000 a year, Moldova’s international image suffers because of repeated reports that rampant sex slave trading, much of which involves kidnapping children, and trafficking in human organs originates there.

Since Moldova has no major manufacturing and few mineral deposits, it has to import petroleum, coal, natural gas and other necessary resources – mostly from Russia. But the country enjoys a favorable climate, good farmland and what at least one popular German magazine declared to be “the cleanest air in the world.”  Agriculture remains Moldova’s major industry, worth about $800 million a year to the economy and employing more than a third of the people.

From the perspective of a researcher interested in emerging and transitioning economies around the world, that makes Moldova a rich laboratory for future study, Chase said. His academic specialty and principal research interest is economic growth and factors that stimulate it. 

Chase, who will teach at the Academy of Economics in Chişinău, is one of about 1,100 U.S. university faculty and professionals who will travel abroad during the current academic year as Fulbright U.S. scholars. The Fulbright program, named for the late U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, is the American government's flagship initiative in international educational exchange. As a freshman senator in 1945, Fulbright authored the legislation creating a much-needed vehicle at the end of World War II for promoting "mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries."

“In today’s global society it is extremely important to ‘internationalize’ campuses to prepare students for success in the world,” said Helen Ray, Brenau provost and vice president of academic affairs. “Dr. Chase knows this better than most, and I can think of no one who will pass on the benefits of his international experience more than Greg Chase.”

In addition to his being a well-travelled faculty member, Chase also enjoys one of the most eclectic, non-traditional backgrounds. He is in his sixth year at Brenau, having spent the two previous years on faculty at the Maine Maritime Academy, a science, engineering and business college for those interested in maritime careers. Previously, he taught at Kent State University, where he earned his Ph.D. 

A business graduate of Eastern Michigan University, he was a manager of a disco in Michigan in the late 1970s. With unemployment in his native state in the 20 percent range, he moved to Florida, working in the construction industry while earning an M.B.A. from the University of Central Florida. He also lived in Japan for five years, teaching English to Japanese businessmen, working in the international section of a Japanese firm and studying the Japanese language. He obtained a full-time teaching position in China at the University of International Business and Economics, but was unable to obtain a visa for that position. However, he subsequently twice taught classes at the Shanghai University of Science and Technology. And, after beginning his affiliation with Brenau, he has been involved in travel, teaching and study with Brenau’s sister institutions. 

Chase is the second Fulbright Scholar from Brenau in the past two academic years. Special Education Professor Mickie Yamamori Mathes won a nine-month consulting and teaching fellowship to the State of Qatar. However, once the fellowship ended, Mathes elected to remain on the faculty of the Qatar University in Doha. There is, however, something of a balance: Gnimbin Ouattara, Brenau professor of political science and international relations, came to the United States on a Fulbright with plans to return to his native Ivory Coast. However, political upheaval in the radical socialist republic forced him to seek and win political asylum in the United States. 

“When I applied for the Fulbright, Dr. Ray was very adamant that I have to come back after it’s over,” said Chase. “I will be back in May.”