{"id":7394,"date":"2018-04-11T15:55:56","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T19:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2018\/04\/11\/undergraduate-evening-studies-alums-find-success-at-bmw\/"},"modified":"2022-11-06T20:04:54","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T01:04:54","slug":"undergraduate-evening-studies-alums-find-success-at-bmw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/undergraduate-evening-studies-alums-find-success-at-bmw\/","title":{"rendered":"Undergraduate Evening Studies alumni find success at BMW"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Phil Volino \u201916<\/p><\/div>\n

Phil Volino<\/strong><\/p>\n

Phil Volino has worked at BMW for 24 years, starting out as a maintenance technician on assembly conveyors. \u201cI was one of the first maintenance guys hired here in 1994,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After earning a bachelor\u2019s degree in business administration from Furman in August of 2016, he is now a senior equipment and controls planner. \u201cI\u2019m a project leader, and the last project I led was valued at $25 million,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His degree not only helped him earn the role, it also affects how he handles his day-to-day responsibilities. \u201cIt helped me know more about cash flow, international business and understanding how things work,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m better prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volino has steadily added to his educational credentials since graduating from high school in 1981. He joined the Navy and first trained to be an electrician on airplanes. He later joined Dow Chemical as an electrician, and when their Mauldin plant closed, he found the BMW job.<\/p>\n

Around the same time that he joined BMW, he completed his associate\u2019s degree in electronic engineering at Greenville Technical College and went on to complete another associate\u2019s degree in automotive technology from Spartanburg Community College in 1997. \u201cMy job kept growing faster, and I needed to keep up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The speed of growth at BMW offered many opportunities to advance, and he wanted to keep growing along with the company. As he took on more engineering projects and worked with different cultures, he came across Undergraduate Evening Studies at Furman and realized it would be the ideal next step. \u201cI could learn about business, culture and international business. I felt like, if I\u2019m going to put the time in, I wanted it to mean something, and Furman meant the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his seven years at Furman, he was struck by the quality of his fellow students \u201cand how much I learned from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his continuing quest for knowledge, Volino is currently completing his MBA at Clemson. \u201cThe bottom line is lifelong learning,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to keep my value high and have options for what I want to do. I might eventually teach or consult.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is grateful that Furman, BMW and his family offered him so much support along the way. \u201cIt was difficult, but I\u2019m glad to have taken the opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Paul Sinanian<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

Paul Sinanian \u201914<\/p><\/div>\n

Paul Sinanian \u201914, a manager of total vehicle validation at BMW, earned a bachelor\u2019s in accounting from Furman for a different reason than most. \u201cI did it to relax,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy learning, and I went back to school to shut my phone off and pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sinanian earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering straight out of high school before joining Bosch as a manufacturing and development engineer. He also earned an MBA from Clemson. After seven years, he joined BMW as a product validation engineer before moving into his managerial role.<\/p>\n

When he began at Furman, he had been in management for two years and wanted to learn additional managerial techniques. \u201cI looked at every teacher as a manager of the class,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Since his undergraduate degree was in engineering, he appreciated the liberal arts aspects of Furman. \u201cIt opened up different avenues to think about,\u201d he said. \u201cI enjoyed being in a collaborative environment that wasn\u2019t like work.\u201d<\/p>\n

He valued the diversity in his classes and group projects that allowed him to understand different perspectives. His favorite class was Strategic Management taught by John Meindl. \u201cIt really connected all the dots and transformed the way I manage and teach at work,\u201d he said. \u201cI use a teaching perspective more than a path-oriented managerial perspective. If you align vision, mission and strategy, you can build something that\u2019s not target-based or transaction-based, but transformational.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he continues to collect degrees, his next step is likely a master\u2019s degree in teaching, and his experience at Furman reconfirmed his desire to pursue the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a defender of people who go to school at night,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s impressive and quite motivating. There are some smart people in these classes working really hard. It\u2019s uplifting to see people working that hard, and seeing the rewards is quite nice as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elle Cohen<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

Elle Cohen \u201916<\/p><\/div>\n

Elle Cohen began at BMW working on the line as a production associate. After six years, she moved into a supervisory role, but what truly interested her was human resources. She had earned an associate\u2019s degree in business management at Greenville Tech, but when she checked job postings at BMW, every human resources job required a four-year degree. \u201cI was ineligible,\u201d she said. \u201cI knew if I wanted to further my career, I had to go back to school.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Furman is a private university, she was concerned about price but quickly saw that UES tuition was comparable to other schools in the Upstate. With BMW\u2019s tuition assistance, \u201cIt was very affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working toward her bachelor\u2019s degree in 2012 was a difficult decision. \u201cThat same year, we adopted a child,\u201d said Cohen, who already had four children ages 12 through 19 at the time. \u201cI took a semester off to get things situated with the new baby, but I was trying my best not to stop,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you take a break, it\u2019s hard to get motivated to go back. Furman staff were very supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n

She valued the way Furman offered help along the way, including a tutoring program that allowed students who excelled in certain areas to help other students who were struggling. \u201cI took advantage of that in several classes like probability and statistics, and I ended up making an A,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n

Another perk of the program was the staff, including an advisor who helped her when she became discouraged by all the years she waited before pursuing her dream. \u201cHe told me that right out of high school, I wasn\u2019t prepared mentally, but now I realized the importance of education and I\u2019m not wasting my money,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was one of the realest things anyone told me. A lot of people wait and have to mature first.\u201d<\/p>\n

She enjoyed meeting students from different walks of life and different industries, from an executive at Fluor to a gas station owner.<\/p>\n

One year after completing her degree, Cohen noticed a human resources position listed on BMW\u2019s website. This time, when she saw that the job, associate relations professional, required a bachelor\u2019s degree, she was proud to send in her application, and she got the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great fit,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I decide to take another position, I would want a higher position in human resources.\u201d Cohen says she daily applies the skill learned through her degree, particularly organizational behavior, management and communication. \u201cThat really resonates in the human resources role,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople are your number one resource, and to sustain the business, you have to make sure people feel gratified when they come to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more about how you can advance your career with Furman Undergraduate Evening Studies.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phil Volino Phil Volino has worked at BMW for 24 years, starting out as a maintenance technician on assembly conveyors. \u201cI was one of the first maintenance guys hired here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":17921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-undergraduate-evening-studies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}