Posts tagged University Memorial Center
CU hosts aerospace geek event
Oct 24th
‘SPACEVISION’ CONFERENCE OCT. 27-30,
FEATURING BILL NYE, INDUSTRY LEADERS
Aerospace engineering students at the University of Colorado Boulder will host the annual Students for the Exploration and Development of Space conference, SpaceVision 2011, in Boulder Oct. 27-30.
Bill Nye, who serves as executive director of The Planetary Society and is well known for his “Bill Nye the Science Guy” TV series, will open the conference with a keynote talk Thursday night starting at 7:30 p.m. at the University Memorial Center’s Glenn Miller Ballroom. Nye’s presentation is open to the general public; tickets can be purchased for $10 each on the conference website at http://www.spacevision2011.com.
The conference, which will continue Friday through Sunday at the Millennium Hotel in Boulder, is the largest student-organized space conference in the nation. More than 300 students from around the country are expected to attend sessions exploring the future of aerospace engineering, entrepreneurship and government policy.
Other high-profile speakers will include Col. Chris Crawford, commander of the 21st Space Wing at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado; Simon “Pete” Worden (Brig. Gen., retired), director of NASA Ames Research Center; and George Nield, associate administrator for the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration.
Representatives of Virgin Galactic, Google, SpaceX and Southwest Research Institute also will participate in addition to primary conference sponsors Sierra Nevada Corp., Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance, The Space Foundation and the CU-Boulder Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences.
The general public also is invited to participate in the conference. Online registration, which starts at $50 for students (any grade) will continue through Wednesday. For more information go to http://www.spacevision2011.com.
CU Boulder Jobs up 23% for grads
Sep 27th
For the second year in a row, the University of Colorado Boulder saw an increase in companies seeking to hire CU-Boulder graduates with full-time job postings on campus jumping 23 percent for the 2010-11 school year, compared with 2009-10.
The number of interviews companies conducted on campus also saw an uptick, increasing 9.6 percent during the same period, a testament to the quality of a CU degree even in a weak job market, according to Lisa Severy, director of CU-Boulder’s Career Services office.
“Our recent graduates are having a lot of success in the job search, especially people who are prepared and engaged in their job search,” Severy said. “The best ways to be engaged while you are a student is to take advantage of campus career fairs and information sessions, use the campus job posting tools and network outside of school.”
In terms of sheer volume of job listings, technical skills are in high demand, Severy said. For example, graduates with degrees in computer science and electrical engineering are always in high demand. A relatively new trend in the job market is companies seeking social media specialists, she said.
“This is a niche many graduates can fill, because companies don’t have this expertise yet,” Severy said. “Graduates of any major who are knowledgeable about social media and enjoy working with it should have a lot of opportunities right now.”With so many applicants for every job, one would think it would make recruiters’ jobs easier, but that is not necessarily the case, according to Severy.
“We hear from recruiters that they are avoiding the mass marketing of jobs because they get way too many applicants,” Severy said. “Instead, they target small, quality pools of candidates that they can trust, which includes our system that is open only to CU-Boulder students and graduates.”
Since 2009, CU-Boulder has offered job search assistance to alumni, free of charge. Services such as the university’s online job-posting tool can be a real benefit because only alumni can access the system, she said.
The increase in recruiting activities also is impacting the upcoming fall career and internship fair on campus. While the event usually is held in the University Memorial Center’s Glenn Miller Ballroom, this year more space was required, Severy said.
“We’re sticking employers everywhere we can find space to provide as many opportunities to our students and graduates as possible,” she said.
The fall career and internship fair for CU-Boulder students and alumni will be held Oct. 5 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the UMC. The fair is open only to CU-Boulder students and alumni.
For more information about Career Services and the fall career and internship fair visit http://careerservices.colorado.edu/public/
DOZENS OF CU STUDENTS TO DISPLAY SERVICE LEARNING PROJECTS ON APRIL 25
Apr 22nd
Stone, a senior molecular, cellular and developmental biology major, is one of dozens of CU-Boulder students who will have booths at an event highlighting local service learning projects they completed this spring as part of the Program for Writing and Rhetoric’s “Writing Initiative for Service and Engagement” project.
The free, public event will be held Monday, April 25, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the University Memorial Center, room 235. Anne K. Heinz, associate vice-chancellor for outreach and engagement, will give the keynote address.
“During the semester, I helped students with biology papers who were explaining complicated processes, while also helping students who could barely speak English write simple essays,” Stone said. “Throughout this experience I gained a deeper appreciation of the education I have received. It also has motivated me to keep furthering myself and to keep giving back as well.”
Each semester about 350 CU-Boulder students participate in community-based writing courses through the Program for Writing and Rhetoric, contributing well over 5,000 hours of their time to local community and nonprofit organizations, according to CU-Boulder Senior Instructor Sally Green, who teaches a course that partners her students with Arapahoe Ridge High School and Boulder High School students.
“This experience gives students the opportunity to develop and apply their communication skills in authentic contexts,” Green said. “They complete valuable projects for their community partners and gain an understanding of social, environmental and economic issues which informs their entire college education.”
In Green’s service learning class, “Writing on Science and Society,” her students tutor Boulder at-risk high school students in math and science for a total of 15 hours throughout the semester.
“They bring their own recent experience as high school students and their expertise and enthusiasm about their subjects to the tutoring experience,” Green said.
Students who take Program for Writing and Rhetoric service-learning courses learn about a number of issues including sustainability, food, education, the elderly, poverty and hunger while gaining practical experience in grant writing and document design. They also work with an array of organizations: schools and afterschool programs, community gardens, homeless shelters, organic farms, food banks and Boulder Parks and Recreation.
“Through the coursework, we want students to gain an understanding of a social issue, community dynamics, problem solving and written advocacy,” Green said.
After graduation on May 6, Stone will work as a research technician in a campus laboratory. She then plans to apply for medical school, with the long-term goal of being a surgeon.
More than 13,000 CU-Boulder students participate in some form of community service each year, and more than 3,500 are engaged in academic service learning, a teaching strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction. For more information about CU-Boulder’s civic engagement efforts visit http://www.colorado.edu/news/reports/civicengagement/.
-CU-