Wednesdayr June 4, 1997 - The Michigan Daily,- 3
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* Summer jobs provide
necessary experience
* for students.
y Stephanie Hepburn
For the Daily
For many, summer break is a time to
elax and sit in the sun.
But for ambitious students looking
or success in their potential job mar-
ets, summer employment ranges from
DNA synthesis to serving up cappucci-
nos, providing them with essential
hands-on experience.
gany students are finding that, in
addition to the textbook education of
the schoolyear, hands-on experience
during the summer is critical for devel-
opment in their fields of interest.
Hands-on experience is available to
students in almost any field, ranging
from the world of science to the eclectic
atmosphere of Ann Arbor coffee shops.
Nursing sopho-
more Laura
Oman is spend- tma
ing her summer
dedicating hours think
to research geneti-
cally obese rats want to
because of her
interest in pedi- Iifes
atric oncology.
Dorman said
she feeds the rats University re
and watches them
a ey swim in a
tt of water in order to "measure the
effects of diet and exercise on the body
weight and cardiovascular function."
Lia Florey, a research assistant for a
plant. biology experiment that tests
whether the Autumn Olive is an inva-
sive species, said her summer employ-
ment is helping her explore future
options.
'U' doctors travel to
Russia, aid
By Peter Myers
Daily Staff Reporter
Russia is in the midst of a cardiovas-
cular epidemic. Last week, three
University physicians went to St.
Petersburg Russia to help.
The expedition was organized by the
nonprofit group AmeriCares, an inter-
national aid organization that special-
izes in transporting medical supplies
and assistance to areas around the
world.
"Cardiovascular care in Russia is a
disaster" said Director of Cardiology
Preventative Research and Education
Lori Mosca, one of the three volunteer-
ing physicians.
"You've got a country that has
recently received political freedom ...
but the reality is that most of them
don't enjoy the basics of life that they
used to," she said.
Rates of cardiovascular disease have
risen incredibly since the fall of the
Soviet Union, Mosca said.
The expedition was primarily educa-
tional, with the American doctors
instructing their Russian colleagues in
cardiac surgery and disease prevention.
Steven Werns, internal medicine
associate professor, was one of the
University cardiologists to make the
trip. His particular responsibility was
to demonstrate coronary angioplasty, a
surgical procedure that involves insert-
ing a balloon on a catheter up through
a vein in the leg and into the heart.
Russian surgeons, Werns said, are
often behind in their knowledge of the
latest procedures. Unlike American
doctors, they lack the financial
resources to travel and stay updated on
the newest, most effective treatments.
In many ways, Russian hospitals are
colleagues
financially crippled. "They reuse
everything," Werns said. Common sur-
gical implements such as catheters,
which are used once and thrown away
in the United States, are sterilized and
reused repeatedly in Russia.
Sterilization is often imperfect, Werns
said, and catheters tend to break when
reused.
The Russian facilities have other
shortcomings.
"They're not very clean, they're
poorly lighted," Sterns said. Medical
equipment such as x-ray machines are
severely out of date. "They're using
equipment that we probably abandoned
10 to 15 years ago."
Wide-ranging public-health condi-
tions that are well known in the United
States are often not taken seriously. The
Russian medical establishment seems
to ignore precautions against high cho-
lesterol and smoking.
"It's like practicing medicine in
another world," Werns said. "You walk
into an operating room and all the doc-
tors are smoking."
Mosca estimates that about 60 per-
cent of the Russian population smokes,
and considers it the primary cause of the
cardiovascular "epidemic" in Russia.
Mosca has plans to develop a coop-
erative program between the
University's Medical School and the St.
Petersburg Medical School that would
follow 150 students from each univer-
sity and hopefully augment their
knowledge of cardiology.
Mosca says the solution to the
Russian problem lies in education, but
also notes that, "the (Russian) physi-
cians are very skilled, but their hands
are completely tied because of lack of
resources"
ROB GILMORE/Datly
LSA senior Dan Levine cooks food on an open grill in front of an audience at The
Mongolian Barbecue. LSA graduate Breman Grow displays his co-worker's talents.
is
"Many of the people I'm working
with were in the School of Natural
Resources and know what cool classes
are out there. They also know profes-
sors and have
exposed me to
the options out
there in the
ether you fields of biolo-
gy.
do this for "It makes
you thitnk
whether you
want to do this
-Lia Florey for your life,"
Search assistant Florey said.
"But it gives
you a lot of
practical knowledge."
Some student said that aside from
actual work experience, summer jobs
give them the chance to meet other stu-
dents on campus.
LSA senior Elena Bonsignore said
the experience of working at Espresso
Royale Caffe has taught her how to deal
with breakdowns in communication.
"Working with people improves your
ability to talk to people," Bonsignore
said. "Communication is an important
skill to have no matter what your're
going into."
Bonsignore's fellow worker, LSA
senior Heather Bowden, said she will
leave for Cortez, Colo. in two weeks to
participate in a field-study class at the
American Institute of Archeology.
"The field school is where you learn
basic archeological techniques,"
Bowden said. "I'm going to spend 12
hours a day for two weeks working on
the (Native American artifact) dig."
At Main Street's Mongolian
Barbecue, workers enjoy each other's
company so much that after the restau-
rant closes on some evenings, the work-
ers have open- microphone night and
nights when people share their poetry
and sing songs.
On other occasions, they have creat-
ed theme parties, such as a recent
Lounge Lizard party, where staff
dressed like the lounge lizards of the
'60s.
MARKET
Continued from Page 2
features of a strong job market are pre-
sent, but there is no telling how long the
market's strength will last.
"The reason the job market is strong
is because of the usual economic rea-
sons," Shapiro said. "We are experienc-
ing the lowest unemployment in 30
years, and the economy is balanced and
seems to be moving in a positive direc-
ti .
"We are in a recovery that begun in
the early 1990s and there is nothing in
the current outlook that says things will
change drastically, but it is almost
impossible to foresee dramatic events
which will radically affect the economy
and the job market," Shapiro said.
Surveys have found that companies
are especially eager to hire engineers,
computer scientists and students famil-
ilvith an array of information and
operating systems.
But some who have experienced the
market first hand said students looking
for jobs in specialized fields may have
a hard time finding work in their ideal
careers.
"I didn't look too hard, I just applied
for some jobs in chemistry in town and
was offered a salary and benefits I
could not turn down - I'm not unhap-
py, but I'm not working in my field,"
said Matt Bolang, who graduated in
May 1996 with a degree from the
School of Natural Resources.
"There are jobs out there and those
jobs are easier for college graduates
to get, but the work won't always be
in the students' ideal field," Bolang
said.
Some students, on the other hand,
have made plans for life after college
that have nothing to do with job avail-
ability or economic trends.
"I'm not really worried about look-
ing for a job because I'm going to teach
for AmeriCorps when I get done here,'
said Engineering senior Antwan
Edison, who will graduate in August. "I
haven't thought about the job market
too much."
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