Rutgers Business School Faculty Member Finds Reward as Lifelong Learner
Professor Rosa Oppenheim's degrees are fighting for space on her wall.
The B.S. (from Polytechnic University) in chemical engineering once sat alone on a white canvas. It was soon joined by an M.S. (Polytechnic) in operations research, and they coexisted peacefully until the operations research Ph.D. (Polytechnic) shoved them to the side. Then came the M.A. in English, soon to be squished by an M.A. in liberal studies, both from Rutgers University–Newark (RU–N).
It’s time for a new wall.
Oppenheim's May 2015 M.A. is the latest milestone in her journey of lifelong learning. In 1973, she joined RU–N as an assistant professor, shortly after earning her Ph.D. After a few years, she decided to continue her education.
"When I first got tenure at Rutgers back in 1980, I rewarded myself by starting a master's program in English. I have an engineering background and all of my undergraduate work was very technical, there was no room for electives in the arts and humanities,” she said. “I always had a great interest in those areas and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity here at Rutgers.”
Being a student again brought swift shocks as she adjusted to an immense workload. There were nights when she neglected her writing assignments because she had her own students’ papers to grade. Ever-present deadlines forced her to prioritize and reprioritize her to-do lists. She also faced the demands of family life with a husband and two young boys.
"I had to juggle a lot of things,” she said. “I have never gone away on a vacation without taking work with me, whether it was work associated with one of the courses I was taking, or with my role as a professor or as an administrator. I don't sleep a lot, but it all comes together."
A longtime resident of Ridgewood, N.J., Oppenheim credits her family's support as the driving force behind her perseverance. Instead of feeling pressure or guilt in her household, she was applauded and encouraged in her pursuits, and evenings became a little easier when her husband took up cooking as a serious hobby, said Oppenheim. However, she admits that the journey has been daunting.
"[Every semester] I asked myself a very simple question, 'why am I doing this?’ Sometimes the answer was that it will feel so good when I'm done, and sometimes the answer was that sitting in a classroom for three hours was occasionally the highlight of my week,” she said.
After earning her English M.A. from the Graduate School-Newark in 1985, the multiple award-winning professor’s career flourished over the years with a trajectory that moved away from teaching and into administrative roles, including positions as the first director of a newly created Teaching Excellence Center at RU–N, executive vice dean at the Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick (RBS), and two stints as acting dean of RBS.
In 2009, Oppenheim felt a familiar itch to return to the classroom, and resumed her faculty role at RBS, now serving as a professor and interim chair of the Department of Supply Chain Management. Simultaneously, she enrolled in the master’s program in liberal studies, attributing her decision to her love of learning, with a possible hint of masochism.
Partaking in a rich menu of courses, Oppenheim studied film theory, the literature of money, the history of immigration, science fiction, music theory, poetry, Hitchcock films, and economics, to name a few
“It was just a wonderful opportunity. The students in my classes were interesting, and it’s always fun to be with young people...it’s part of the reason I love teaching here so much, and the classes were always stimulating,” she said.
Professor Steven Diner, former RU–N chancellor, has known Oppenheim as a colleague since 1998, but recently witnessed her academic prowess in his “U.S. Immigration History” course. “Rosa contacted me last summer, alerting me that she had never taken a graduate history course. From day one, she articulated extraordinary insights into each book we discussed, and seemed like she had years of experience reading and critiquing historical scholarship.”
Diner recalls one of Oppenheim’s papers examining historical literature on an aspect of U.S. immigration. “Rosa wrote about President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policies regarding the admission of Jewish refugees seeking escape from the Nazis, a subject of personal interest to her,” Diner said. “Her essay showed extraordinary understanding of the changing perspectives of different historians on this important subject. If Rosa decides that she wants to get a PhD in history, I am confident she would be incredibly successful.”
Oppenheim emphasized that her time as a student, not only broadened her knowledge base, but broadened her perspective, allowing her to empathize with her students.
“The first time I heard the words, ‘Is this going to be on the exam?’ come out of my mouth, that was a real ‘aha’ moment,” Oppenheim chuckles.
She explained that her experience on “the other side of the desk,” helped her become more responsive to her students’ diverse needs as she began providing alternative ways of clarifying course material, and developed a greater understanding of their problems and pressures.
“My students work, they have families, financial obligations, and sometimes weaknesses in their academic backgrounds that they’re struggling to overcome,” she said. “They’re trying to do it all, not just in my course, but in four or five other courses, and I think it’s a good reminder for all of us that it’s tough to get everything done and meet every deadline. Every faculty member should have to take a course every few years, for all of those reasons.”
With a fourth graduate degree under her belt, Oppenheim plans to take a short break as she joins several RBS colleagues in completing a manuscript on supply chain management. She will then begin the Rutgers Senior Citizen Audit Program that will allow her to take free courses without the high stakes that accompany credits and grades.
Though her educational experiences could easily be defined by sleepless nights and painful lessons in time management, Oppenheim chooses to define them by the rewards and enrichment that they have brought to her life.
“I love it. I think I’m probably one of these perpetual students. I was always happy in school, I was always happy taking courses…I’m much better at Jeopardy than I ever was before, much better at crossword puzzles,” Oppenheim laughs. “For me, it’s been a personally rewarding experience.”