Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | spring 1999

SPRING 1999
Home

Cover Story:
The Bells of Iowa State

Feature:
Driving Dr. Carver

Departments:
Getting Started
Letters
On Campus
Alumni Profile
College Focus
Discovery
Association News
Giving
Sports

COLLEGE FOCUS: HOT JOBS

Veterinary Medicine
Brave new world of biotech
As biotechnology increasingly allows animals to help humans in new ways, biomedical researchers are highly valued by megacompanies that are blazing new paths. Transgenetic technology has become a multi-billion-dollar industry that will enable animals to produce drugs. Insulin genes, for example, which are inserted into a goat’s system, will result in the goat’s milk containing the highly valued drug used by people with diabetes. Transplanting organs from animals to humans is also an opportunity that requires highly skilled researchers.

The need for researchers is prompting both government and private organizations to fund more research programs, and ISU’s veterinary college is benefiting from the increased interest. When Perry Harms received his DVM in 1993, he had no intention of returning to ISU for graduate research. “But we knew differently,” says Prem Paul, associate dean of veterinary medicine. Harms had been one of eight students that year to participate in the Merck Veterinary Scholars Program, an initiative funded by the Merck Company Foundation to expose veterinary students to advanced research methods and “hook” them. “If students are exposed to research in the early years, then that’s in the back of their minds,” says Paul. “Perry had gotten excited about research, and after four years in practice, he was ready to come back.”

Design
Masters of the web
Wanted: Web designer. Must be proficient in Photoshop, Illustrator, image compression; html skills a plus. Must have a deep understanding of site architecture and navigation, browser/ platform issues and know all the tools of the trade. Wow us with your portfolio!

New graduates in graphic design or visual studies are discovering that skills in web design are transforming them into hot commodities. And new graduates are discovering that the field offers excellent opportunities for advancement. Brandon Cronk, a 1997 graphic design graduate, was promoted to art director and given a 30 percent salary increase only one year after he joined Court Avenue Network in Des Moines. Cronk says his job as art director of the award-winning web design spin-off, Red Five Interactive, is exciting and versatile. He and his team of five web designers use more than 50 software programs to design everything from animation to on-line games.

Like all professional communicators, webmasters must understand their medium, their message, and their audience. “The medium is so new,” says Cronk, “that it’s easy to make mistakes.” In contrast to the print medium, web users don’t access information in a linear way. “With all the links and entry points, we don’t know where our reader is going to join us. Knowing the technical stuff is important, sure. But understudying the audience is essential. More than anything, web users want information that is easy to use, rather than just visually stunning.”

Agriculture
Hot hort
How exclusive is the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga.? Well, let’s put it this way: As we go to press, Bill Gates is still waiting for membership approval.

So when three ISU horticulture students received offers for eight-month internships at the home of the Master’s Golf Tournament, they felt as if they’d won the lottery. Their expertise in turf grass management will allow them to trod sod with the likes of Jack Nicholas and Tiger Woods.

Horticulture is hot, says agriculture career services officer Mike Gaul, who lists two main reasons for the explosion in graduates and jobs. First, the game of golf is booming. “Tiger mania is everywhere,” he says. In the past seven years the number of horticulture majors at ISU has doubled – and 40 percent of the majors choose to go into turf management, which lands many of them on golf courses.

Second, health-conscious Americans are turning on to broccoli and brussels sprouts – grown in their own backyards. As gardening becomes one of the fastest-growing hobbies, graduates with skills in greenhouse production are being snapped up.

Business
Moving popsicles
You’ve got 100,000 frozen popsicles and you have to move them from point A to points B through Z. The economics, logistics, safety, management, and public policy of such a problem is the stuff of a career in Transportation and Logistics, and new graduates are finding themselves welcomed at such organizations as General Mills, Cargill, Pella Corporation, and Heartland Express Trucking.

ISU graduates are particularly valued because of the practical experience they have gained through internships. One student, for example, developed an incentive program for Pepsico Food Systems Division in Milwaukee – a distributor for Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. His program, which awarded points for truck drivers with perfect loads (nothing missing, nothing damaged) made a significant impact on Pepsico’s load compliance figures.

Liberal Arts and Sciences
Biological/pre-medical illustrating
ISU is one of only a handful of universities in the country that offers an undergraduate degree in biological and pre-medical illustrating (BPMI). The program is a seasoned one – it’s in its 18th year – and student enrollment has blossomed in the past few years. Although the 40 majors that the program boasts is relatively small compared to many other majors, coordinator Warren Dolphin wants to keep it that way to ensure individualized instruction.

The cross-disciplinary major instructs students in both art and science, preparing them for jobs with publishing companies, museums, and zoos. Graduates enter the work force with unique skills, says Dolphin. “They solve scientific problems visually. They communicate science through art. And they have to understand both disciplines.”

Many graduates will go on to receive an MS in medical illustrating – an educational background that will almost ensure employment, says John Dorn, ’90 BPMI, who is a medical illustrator with Engineering Animation in Ames, the country’s largest employer of medical illustrators. “Ninety-nine percent of medical illustrators will find a job,” he says, “and they’ll have a lot to choose from.”

Engineering
Cashing in on chips
The explosion of personal computers and wireless cell phones has resulted in an increased demand for engineers who design and manufacture circuits for computer chips and microelectronics. The demand cuts across a variety of engineering disciplines, including electrical, computer, industrial and manufacturing systems, and – increasingly – chemical engineering. In fact, according to College of Engineering director of career services, Larry Hanneman, last spring 40 percent of interview schedules for MS and PhD chemical engineering graduates came from computer chip companies.

New graduates with a BS in chemical engineering make an annual salary of about $50,000.

Education
Educational technology coordinators
Education graduates are discovering that supplementing their teaching certificates with a minor in instructional computing is making them more marketable. In some cases, new graduates who coordinate technology for a public school can make as much as 50 percent more than their counterparts who go into teaching.

Technology coordinators combine their teaching expertise and computational savvy to conduct workshops, teach model lessons in the classroom, and work individually with teachers. The position is a fairly new one for schools, and the number of ISU minors is now at more than 100, double what it was just a few years ago.

Family and Consumer Sciences
Clothes and more clothes
Graduates majoring in Apparel Merchandising, Design and Production are joining one of the most influential careers in the world of business. More than 10 percent of all world business is related to textiles and apparel. ISU’s 45 graduates this year will join a global marketplace. This year’s employers include Calvin Klein, Jockey, Brooks Brothers, J Crew, Herbergers, Gap, Limited, and Von Maur.

Although the discipline is still predominantly female, Beverly Kruempel, program manager, says that the number of men in the program is steadily increasing.