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Show vy he ly, ‘he ell ng ve on all ne tic Ne as Y : ih i ‘ ': Weber State College Alumni Association, December 1976 Isolates Bacterium ‘“‘Have you looked at the ingredients on a can of soda pop lately?’’ asked Dr. Lee Jackson, professor and chairman of the department of microbiology, in his office ‘‘at the top’’ of the campus. ‘You will find the ingredients list dextrose-fructose more and more instead of sugar or sucrose.”’ He explained that because of the sugar shortage and an increase in sugar prices more and more companies that use sugar are turning to dextrose-fructose, derived from corn starch. The past two summers has spent in the Center, Decatur, James F. Kelly feels students should plan their careers early in college, and he and his staff set out to aid them. Plan Ahead For Career Questions often asked the college student are ‘‘Why are you here? Are you here to get a good broad general education? Fine, as long as you know it. However, if you are here to prepare yourself for a specific career, you had better start planning now!”’ Alumni may not have been confronted with this challenge but hundreds of students attending many of Weber’s classes and organizational meetings are being presented with this challenge by members of the Career Planning, Cooperative Education, and Placement Center. Repeating the title alone is a challenge for the center’s receptionists. There is a point to the long winded title. WSC now has ‘“‘one-stop .shopping” for Career Development Services. We feel that any student or alumnus of Weber State facing decisions in Career Development can find assistance at the center. To better illustrate the comprehensive nature of the services offered, a fuller explanation of each of the three components in the title Career Planning, Co-operative Education, and Placement will be necessary. In this article, which is one of a two-part series, we’ll focus in on the Career Planning and Cooperative Education activities of the Center’s services. Career Planning is really a life-time process; but unfortunately, most people fail to consider any phase of it until they have graduated from either high school or college and want to schools, career trends, or the present job market. They can expect to get that information not only from the Center’s Counselors, but also from one of the Center’s most important resources — the Career Information Center. Contained within this Information Resource Center are hundreds of books on self-exploration approaches, specific careers with employer expectations, information on State, Federal, and Local Governments, and resource information on over 2,000 specific companies. After the student has come to the point of identifying a specific work environment, he-she wishes to pursue, and academic curriculum has advisement as to taken place, Research Ill., working the on the process of converting corn starch to fructose. Illinois grows billions of bushels of corn. They have been breaking down starch in corn with acid to dextrose and then converting it to fructose. “Sometimes when corn starch is treated with acid it will turn job market. Our objective at the Center is to begin helping the student to deal with the problems and decision making when he-she first enters the College. We find that most students have no idea why they are attending college other than that’s what their parents wanted or that was something to do after high school. To help students explore the world of work through counseling, testing, and teaching them self-exploration skills, while providing career information resources, is really what this component of the Center is all about. Through counseling, testing, seminars, or credit bearing modular classes, students are able to explore themselves and the world of work. In their search, students might find that they need information on graduate Dr. Jackson Staley brown; similar to carmelizing starch. Companies don’t like to buy brownish dextrose fructose because they are afraid it may not be pure or that it will alter the taste or color of their product,”’ he said. Dr. Jackson’s task was to isolate an enzyme from bacteria that would break down the starch to dextrose. Using an enzyme instead of the traditional acid will not carmelize the starch and gives a clear product. “I did discover a bacterium which produces an enzyme called amylase which is capable of breaking down the starch to dextrose and this is now under going evaluation by the scientists at Staley Research for possible use in their process,”’ said second component, Education, Cooperative is available. Through Cooperative Education, a student can get first-hand experience in his-her academically related field. The results of this experience can be two-fold. First, the student is allowed the opnrtunity to do some reality testi.ug. He-she can actually try on the work environment. This, we find helps in making long-term academic program and life-style decisions. Secondly, the experience each student gains in his-her chosen field increases his or her marketability. To help provide this type of educational experience, the Center works closely with the students academic department in designing Dr. Lee Jackson Dr. Jackson. “‘I feel good about that kind of contribution.” Essentially Dr. Jackson has completed the project. He now plans to pursue his interest in cancer research. “It has been shown that if you expose mice to cigarette smoke they will not necessarily develop tumors but following influenza and then exposure to cigarette smoke, tumors develop,”’ Dr. Jackson pointed out. “IT want to see if certain chemicals in our diet act with viruses that infect the large intestines of man to produce colon cancer, which is markedly on the increase in the United States. the educational objectives to be learned and the periodic evaluation of the student’s experience. Next, one of the Center’s job developers finds a work environment to meet these objectives. Finally, the student is placed on the job, either on a parttime or full-time alternating quarter basis. In this situation, the student is given pay equal to others in the same job and also receives academic credit at Weber State College. In the next issue, we'll pay-off component of the activities - Placement. cover the Center’s JAMES F. KELLY, Director Career Planning, Cooperative Education, and Placement Center |