June 6, 1997 EDITOR'S NOTE: The University of Oregon's 120th spring commencement for the Class of 1997 takes place at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 14, at Hayward Field, 1580 E. 15th Ave. Approximately 3,600 spring-term degree candidates and fall- and winter-term UO graduates are eligible to participate in the spring ceremonies. For more information on these news tips, call the numbers listed, or the UO Office of Communications, (541) 346-3134. JOB OUTLOOK GOOD FOR UO GRADS The employment picture looks bright for soon-to-be UO graduates. UO Career Center director Larry Smith says all the indicators point to a healthy job market and good prospects for UO graduates. "More recruiters visited campus this year than last, more than half of whom were looking for talent from any major," says Smith. "Consequently, we expect 1997 to be even better than `96 when 80 percent of June graduates were employed within six months." Smith says employers are looking for workers with analytical, communication and goal-setting skills, as well as internship experience. In addition to campus visits, employers used the UO resume search service and recruiting on the Internet increased significantly. "Direct Internet advertising of jobs to UO students is becoming routine practice, but old fashioned networking is still the best way to get a job," says Smith. Among last year's graduates, Smith says more than two-thirds secured jobs in Oregon and more than 83 percent of those were hired by Lane County and Portland metro area employers. "We expect the number of graduates employed in a geographical area to closely match the number of enrolled students from those areas," says Smith. Not all graduates are looking for work. Approximately 20 percent of UO graduates opt to continue their education and go on to graduate school--medicine, law and business are the most common areas cchosen graduate study. SOURCE: Larry Smith, UO Career Center director, (541) 346-6005; e-mail, larry@career.uoregon.edu UO GRAD REMAINS UPBEAT DESPITE BATTLE WITH CANCER Michele Victor-Edwards is upbeat about life--even when life handed her a cancer diagnosis just weeks before graduation. Victor-Edwards, a single mother who'll graduate this month with a bachelor's degree in psychology, discovered a breast lump in March. Since then, she's had two surgeries and is undergoing chemotherapy. To add to her challenges, Victor-Edwards lost her health insurance last year when the Oregon Health Plan discontinued coverage for full-time students. But ever the positive thinker, Victor-Edwards focuses on the fact that her friends have started a fund to help with her medical bills. "There are some real pluses in this experience," she maintains. "I've been very open about what's happening and it's brought me a lot of support from other cancer survivors and from my friends--both at the university and in the community." One such friend and supporter is graduate teaching fellow Bev Doyle, who shaved her own head so Victor-Edwards wouldn't feel conspicuous about losing her hair to the therapy. Victor-Edwards isn't letting her diagnosis get in the way of her long-range plans either--fall term she starts classes at the UO School of Law. To schedule an interview with Victor-Edwards, call Pauline Austin, (541) 346-3129, during office hours. GRADUATION DAY, UO STUDENT WILL SAY `I'M DONE, I DO, LET'S GO' Commencement day will be jam-packed and action-filled for Pam Lambert. The single mom and University of Oregon computer science major is not only graduating, she is also getting married and packing a moving van for her departure out of state. "Hectic schedules are really nothing new to me, so I thought why not end the year with a bang?" says Lambert. To help support herself and her six-year-old daughter, Lambert worked the graveyard shift as a weather observer and also held down a work-study job on campus. Lambert's bountiful graduation day activities include loading her moving van beginning at 7 a.m., attending the Computer and Information Science department graduation ceremony at 10 a.m., getting her hair done at 2 p.m. and posing for wedding pictures at 4:30 p.m. At 6:30 p.m., she'll marry Mike Eckardt, a 1996 UO graduate in computer science. Why so much in one day? "I scheduled the wedding on commencement day so my parents, who live out of state, could attend both ceremonies," says Lambert. As for the move, Lambert already has landed a job that starts at the end of June. She will be a product support analyst with the San Francisco-area Century Analysis Incorp. To schedule an interview with Lambert, call Pauline Austin, assistant director, UO Office of Communications, (541) 346-3129 during office hours. UO WOMEN BUCK TREND, FIND INSPIRATION, CHALLENGES IN SCIENCE * Four years ago, Elise Temple was a 26-year-old married mother of two with "a vague desire to return to school to find out if there were any parts of myself that were unrealized." While nationally surveys show young women are still uninspired or discouraged about science study, Temple found rich inspiration in the science challenge. After graduating from the University of Oregon this June with a double major in psychology and biology and a minor in chemistry, she will be entering Stanford University to pursue a doctorate in neuroscience. "I had no idea of what I wanted when I came back to school," she says. "Then I got turned on to psychology and biology. One of the things I really enjoyed was having professors who were doing research. They brought the world of research into my education through the excitement they demonstrated for their work." During her UO career, Temple won a Barry Goldwater Scholarship for Excellence--a prestigious national scholarship for individuals intending to pursue careers in mathematics or sciences--and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant for independent student research in psychology. Her research project examined the areas of the brain that children and adults use to process numbers. Temple presented the results of her research at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. "My work bridges the gaps between psychology and biology," she says. "I like looking at the mind from both perspectives. That's what I will do in my graduate studies at Stanford." SOURCE: Elise Temple, (541) 683-0979. * UO graduating senior Serina Rodrigues found her science inspiration early. "I always wanted to be in science," says Rodrigues. "But I was thrown in the direction of psychology by the exiting work going on in this area at the UO and elsewhere." Rodrigues will graduate in June with a double major in psychology and general science and a minor in chemistry. She wrote a psychology department honors thesis on what happens in the brain during everyday slips of attention. To study the question, she says, "I set up an experiment that bored the daylights out of people." During school vacations Rodrigues worked at a neuroscience laboratory associated with Oregon Health Sciences University monitoring hormonal cycles in the brain. After graduation she will head to New York University's Center for Neuroscience where she'll work with psychologists trying to pinpoint cognitive processes in the brain. "When I came to the UO," she says, "I wasn't aware of all the opportunities that are available here--research opportunities, exciting classes, great professors. My UO education allowed me to compete successfully with people from all over the country for a slot in a good graduate program." SOURCE: Serina Rodrigues, (541) 431-4430. -30- #T-4098/F-DAY