Student Success Comes First
When Yambrach arrived at San José State in 2006, he was put in charge of rebuilding the packaging program, part of the College of Health and Human Sciences.
At the time, there were only five students enrolled and just four courses. Yambrach developed 10 courses, including packaging for medical devices, pharmaceuticals and food processing. The curriculum draws directly from his industry experience at ICI Pharmaceuticals, Chrysler and Baxter. There are now 70 students in the program.
“I created course content I believed was useful to a working professional in the field,” Yambrach says. “Packaging is simply problem solving. I’ll give [students] relationships between items and then see how they put it together and make creative extensions.”
SJSU is one of only five schools nationwide to offer a bachelor’s degree in packaging. Yambrach says it provides students with a unique set of skills in a
$100-billion-plus-a-year industry.
His proudest accomplishment at SJSU so far was establishing an internship program [for students] at leading companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Amgen. “When they graduate, they will be sought-after,” Yambrach says with confidence. “They will never want for a job for the rest of their lives.”
Inspiring the Next Generation
Slowly but surely, the Fritz Water Vest is gaining recognition. In 2017, it was awarded the
DuPont Diamond Award for Packaging Innovation. Together with other experts in the field, Yambrach created Solutions Inc., a nonprofit that aspires to use “packaging technology…to improve the quality of life for all people in the world.”
To scale up distribution and give the vests away at no cost, the company needs a significant donor. “We’re looking for a champion who thinks it’s a good idea,” he says.
In the meantime, Yambrach has certainly impressed one group: his students. And he’s hoping his desire to give back serves as an inspiration. “They’re really proud of me,” he says.
“The idea is to expose them so they start thinking about what they can do to help. At some point in their careers, they’ll say, ‘We saw Fritz do this, so we can do it, too.’”