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Guillermo Ahtuzar, (far right), will graduate from Penn State's College Assistance Migrant Program this December. Here, he takes a break from his studies with fellow CAMP students. Seated in the front row, from the left, are Alberto Alvarez and Lilliam Santiago. Santiago also will graduate this year with a bachelor's degree in secondary education. In the back row, from the left, are Luis Garcia, Sandra Rodriguez and Ahtuzar.
By Karen I. Wagner
Public Information
When Guillermo Ahtuzar was in elementary school he carried the flag of Mexico in parades and other public ceremonies. This December, Guillermo will carry honors of another kind as one of the first graduates of the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) at Penn State.
Born in Mexico in 1975, Guillermo's family moved north to the United States in search of a better life. Guillermo, who was only 13 years old, worked long hours in Chambersburg, Pa., peach orchards. He wasn't admitted to high school. Instead, Guillermo and his brother attended an English as a second language program where students of various ages and ethnic backgrounds read books like The Little Engine that Could.
But Guillermo showed promise.
He spent the summer of 1989 picking sugar beets in Montana. When he returned, he entered the ninth grade and was placed in general classes. Within two weeks, he was transferred into pre-Algebra classes.
In the years that followed, Guillermo's family moved to Gettysburg, Pa., Atlanta, Ga., and Harrisonburg, Va. Although his high school grades and SAT scores were good, family finances were not. For Guillermo, attending college seemed an impossible dream.
After graduation, he went to work on a Mennonite farm near Gettysburg. It was 1993 -- the same year that CAMP got started at Penn State.
The program was launched at Penn State with a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to provide educational programs that would help migrant youths begin college careers. The grant was one of only six awarded in the nation and the only one on the East coast.
CAMP provides intense academic counseling, tutoring, cultural experiences, mentoring and financial aid for students like Guillermo as they make the transition from migrant or seasonal farm workers to college graduates. Under the direction of Howard E. Wray III, associate dean for undergraduate education, and Jeri R. Galaida, program director, CAMP students also attend workshops on study skills, college life and career planning. Currently, 35 students are enrolled from the eastern stream, which stretches from Maine to Florida.
Since the fall of 1993, CAMP has enrolled 103 students from migrant or seasonal farmworker families. So far, 80 percent have remained in college after their freshmen year -- an astounding retention rate given the fact that nationally, 60 percent of students from disadvantaged backgrounds drop out of high school and only 8 percent of incoming students from disadvantaged backgrounds even have a chance of completing college.
CAMP staff found Guillermo on a recruiting trip to Gettysburg. With encouragement from his family, Guillermo enrolled in Penn State's Division of Undergraduate Studies and earned a 3.02 grade point average his first semester.
Guillermo continued working to help support his family and worked for a Penn State faculty member in exchange for room and board. This faculty member in the College of Engineering was instrumental in helping Guillermo stay in school.
Along the way, he tutored fellow students in math.
On Sunday, Dec. 21 Guillermo will receive his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. He will be the first in his family to earn a college degree, and plans to continue his studies and conduct research in the area of fluids or thermodynamics.
Incoming CAMP students have the choice of attending Penn State at either its University Park or Altoona locations. CAMP students like Guillermo continue to enrich University life, sharing their cultures and contributing to annual Asian and Hispanic celebrations and events.
Just in time for Thanksgiving, R. Michael Hulet, associate
professor of poultry science, weighs this turkey at the Penn State Poultry
Education and Research Center on the University Park campus. This 35-pound
bird is one of the many cleaned, dressed, processed and sold by the Poultry
Science Club at this time of year.
Photo: Greg Grieco
By Barbara Hale
Public Information
Penn State's already formidable research enterprise -- the largest University-based research effort in Pennsylvania -- showed continued growth in fiscal 1997 as measured by expenditures on research activities.
Robert Killoren, director of sponsored programs, said that if
research spending from all sources of support are considered, including
federal and Commonwealth funding, private industry, foundations, University
infrastructure support and institutional cost sharing, total expenditures
for organized research at Penn State reached $353.4 million in fiscal 1997.
The comparable figure for fiscal year 1996 was $348.4 million.
"Penn State researchers are receiving international recognition for their work in many fields from the sciences and engineering to the humanities and arts," said Rodney A. Erickson, vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School. "We are grateful for the many organizations that support our research enterprise.
"Our research programs are crucial to the education of both graduate and undergraduate students who benefit from the expertise of faculty who are on the cutting edge of discovery, exploring the latest ideas and methods," Erickson said. "Students work directly with the faculty on research and creative activities and these collaborations provide hands-on learning opportunities, as well as synergy and innovation in both the lab and the classroom."
As Pennsylvania's land-grant institution, Penn State's research also supports the University's outreach mission and its economic development contributions to the Commonwealth. Penn State's research enterprise serves this goal since it enhances the competitiveness of Commonwealth businesses at home and abroad, fosters innovation and creates jobs, said Erickson.
According to data compiled by the Association of American Universities, about 44,000 jobs in Pennsylvania can be attributed to research activities at the state's doctoral-granting universities. Penn State's share is nearly 14,000 of those jobs. Since the chief funding sources are federal government agencies, those grants and contracts -- and the jobs they generate -- would go to other states if Penn State researchers were not able to successfully compete for them.
Erickson noted that the actual tally of jobs generated by Penn State research activities is higher than the AAU numbers suggest since "the
figures do not account for the jobs that are created or saved as a direct result of technologies developed at Penn State and transferred to companies across the Commonwealth."
Last year, 379 Pennsylvania companies invested in more than 800 Penn State research projects -- about 20 percent more than the previous year. In fiscal 1997, nearly $58.3 million from industry and other private sources was reported in expenditures for these and other projects. For example, Penn State's Center for Advanced Drivetrain Technologies, which focuses on improving specialty steels for heavy equipment components, partnered with three Pennsylvania specialty steel producers to develop advanced alloys. Thanks to the partnerships and the enhanced innovation and competitiveness generated, one of the companies recently won a contract to provide new alloys for the manufacture of 700 Apache helicopters -- preserving and creating jobs in Pennsylvania.
Students participate directly or indirectly in virtually all of the active research projects, which include studies of health care and disease control, particle physics, archaeological reconstructions, global warming, drought-tolerant food crops, electronic materials, ways in which to put military technology to civilian use and a wide array of other topics.
"Student participation in research projects often enables them to have a direct impact on people's lives and their communities," Erickson said. "One example, is the nutritional improvements that have occurred among the rural elderly as a result of a collaborative undergraduate research project with Meals on Wheels in Schuylkill County."
Erickson said these types of community-University collaborations show that research isn't always something far away -- "like the distant planets studied by our faculty and students. These projects touch people's everyday lives."
"The research we perform today leads to the important innovations of tomorrow in health, education, business and the environment," he said. "It enriches the academic lives of our students as we teach and they participate in the process of discovery. It provides a strong knowledge base for the outreach programs of Penn State in its role as the Commonwealth's land-grant university and is essential to our goal of being the best university in the nation at integrating teaching, research and outreach."
Payload specialist Jim Pawelczyk, a Penn State assistant
professor of physiology and kinesiology, performs the Kinelite experiment
protocol in the Spacelab Mockup where he is preparing for an April 2 flight
aboard Space Shuttle Columbia.
Photo: Courtesy of Ames Research Center NeurOn Web site
Editor's note: The following story is one of several planned for Intercom to focus on James Pawelczyk, Penn State's first faculty member to go into space.
By David Pacchioli
Special to Intercom
CLEAR LAKE, Texas -- "I had my mom up here in the commander's seat," Jim Pawelczyk said, smiling. "It was great. She was like a five-year-old kid."
Inside the cavernous Building 9 at the Johnson Space Center, south of Houston, Pawelczyk, assistant professor of physiology and kinesiology at Penn State -- and NASA astronaut -- was showing me around the training model of the Space Shuttle Columbia, aboard which he and six fellow crew members will circle the globe for two weeks next April. Their mission, known as STS-90 or Neurolab, will probe the effects of weightlessness on the nervous system. In addition to yielding insights into how the body adapts to space, the experiments they conduct should advance understanding of earth-bound conditions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and stroke.
The cockpit was snug, every inch filled with instrumentation and troubleshooting instructions. Below, the mid-deck was also close quarters, with stacked sleep stations, storage bins, a vacuum-operated toilet, and a galley with rehydrator and convection oven. From there we clambered through a tight tunnel rearward to the Spacelab itself, the 23-by-9-foot module that is the heart of the Neurolab mission. In flight, this self-contained laboratory will hold a small menagerie of animals -- rats, mice, crickets, snails and fish -- and special equipment ranging from a rotating chair for testing a subject's vestibular system (balance) to a virtual-reality helmet.
Later we stopped in at mission control, where flight controllers were running a simulation: seated or standing at their consoles, speaking quietly through their headsets as a hypothetical launch scenario took shape on the huge screens in front of them. This particular launch, it soon became clear, would have to be aborted, and the flight was eventually brought to rest on an airstrip somewhere in West Africa.
After lunch, it was back to training. For Pawelczyk, as one of the Neurolab's two payload specialists, first priority is the mission's 26 experiments, submitted by investigators from Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Canada as well as across the United States.
"They have selected us to be their hands in space," he said. As such, crew members must understand each experiment at least as well as its designers do.
The other half of training is learning to live in microgravity. Pawelczyk has had classes on eating and sleeping in space, and endured numerous rides in the KC-135 or "Vomit Comet," a military jet that flies parabolas to simulate weightlessness.
That afternoon, in the Spacelab mock-up, he and mission specialist Dafydd "Dave" Williams, a Canadian astronaut, ran through procedures for one of Neurolab's more complicated experiments, involving the nerve signals sent by the brain to control blood pressure. Pawelczyk and Williams worked closely with a team of support scientists, talking through each step as they assembled and set up each element of apparatus.
In the evening, after two games of squash in the astronaut gym, Pawelczyk repaired to his office to document the day, and to catch up on e-mails and phone calls. Early next morning, he and Williams met with NASA staff for line-by-line review of a small segment of the Flight Data File, the humongous script that minutely details their every activity in space. It's a tedious task, but one that Pawelczyk takes very seriously.
"If you average it out," he explained, "the cost of the time in flight is $3,000 per man-minute. I feel responsible for using that time as well as I possibly can."
A search committee has been appointed to identify candidates for the position of chair of the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Operations Research. Search committee chair is Tom M. Cavalier, professor of industrial engineering.
Operations Research is a dual-title degree program offered as an option through graduate major programs in eight colleges. The chair of Operations Research is responsible for providing overall program leadership; organizing various activities of the graduate program; formulating and executing priorities and enforcing University policies in relation to their effect on the program; assuming general supervision of graduate students, including ensuring satisfactory progress and quality; and overseeing the distribution and expenditure of program funds and the care of property assigned to the program.
Candidates should be faculty members who are currently or potentially associated with the Operations Research program.
Nominations, applications and inquiries should be submitted to Tom M. Cavalier, chair of the Search Committee for Chair of the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Operations Research, 114 Kern Building, University Park, Pa. 16802. The closing date for applications is Dec. 19.
Other members of the search committee are: Steven Arnold, associate professor of statistics; Terry Harrison, professor of management science; Joseph Lambert, associate professor of computer science; and Anthony Williams, associate professor of geography.
Nominations are being accepted for the 1998 Penn State Excellence in Advising Award. This award has been established by the Undergraduate Student Government's Academic Assembly, with support from the Office of Undergraduate Education, to encourage and reward advising excellence.
Awards will be given in two categories: 1) faculty members and 2) professional academic advisers. All current full-time Penn State employees who fit into one of these categories with a minimum of two years experience at Penn State are eligible for the award. Nominees will be evaluated on their impact in the following categories: general advising, academic guidance, career guidance, enthusiasm and assistance in decision making.
Nominations are being accepted until Dec. 12. To receive a nomination form, please contact the Office of the Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education at (814) 863-1864 or the Academic Assembly Office at (814) 863-1874.
Robin E. Manuel, staff assistant VI at Berks-Lehigh Valley College.
William G. Mulberger, manager, University apartments in Housing and Food Services.
Anna M. Nachman, staff assistant V in Intercollege Research Programs.
Rita K. O'Brien, staff assistant VII at Penn State Abington.
Susan A. Owens, library assistant II, UFO team in University Libraries.
Janice L. Pearce, assistant director, budget and finance in Continuing and Distance Education.
Denise S. Peck, staff assistant VII in College of Health and Human Development.
Kevin R. Peterson, assistant to financial officer in College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
Kathi S. Reynolds, applications programmer/analyst in Computer and Information Systems-Administrative Systems.
Kelly J. Riser, staff assistant VI in College of Arts and Architecture.
Theresa L. Roby, staff assistant VII in Business Services.
Catherine L. Rung, administrative assistant II in Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost.
James R. Schomer, supervisor, trade services in University Libraries.
Debra J. Shelow, library assistant II, UFO team in University Libraries.
Holly M. Shoemaker, administrative assistant I in College of the Liberal Arts.
Nancy E. Shunk, staff assistant VII in Eberly College of Science.
Heather R. Shutica, graduate enrollment assistant in Intercollege Research Programs.
Lara C. Simmon, network coordinator in Computer and Information Systems-Telecommunications.
Bonnie L. Spicer, staff assistant VI in College of Education.
Karen V. Stitzer, library assistant II, UFO team in University Libraries.
Christine A. Surovec, library assistant II, cast team in University Libraries.
Jacquett C. Wade, program director in Student Affairs.
George M. Weaver, manager, network and information systems in Eberly College of Science.
Jill E. Weaver, library assistant, UFO team in University Libraries.
Joel L. Weidner, manager of information systems in Housing and Food Services.
Morris A. Weinstock, senior research programmer in Computer and Information Systems-Center for Academic Computing.
Bernadine A. Weitoish, staff assistant VI in Division of Development and Alumni Relations.
Eileen M. Williams, staff assistant VIII in Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity.
Frank S. Wilson, executive producer in Continuing and Distance Education.
Elizabeth A. Yazemboski, staff assistant VII at Penn State Abington.
Russell P. Bruce, snack bar worker B, Housing and Food Services at Penn State Altoona.
Connie L. Brumgard, janitorial worker, Office of Physical Plant.
Vanessa L. Campbell, janitorial worker, Office of Physical Plant.
Chesterann Bowman of Housing and Food Services prepares chocolate brown layer cakes as part of a Chocolatefest celebration in the dining halls on the University Park campus.
Chocolate, the subject of myth and legend for centuries,
was first treasured by the Aztecs, who considered it the nectar of the gods.
Photo: Greg Grieco
A new institute dedicated to developing non-lethal technologies for defense and civilian law enforcement has been established at Penn State.
President Graham B. Spanier will formally announce establishment of the new organization at special inaugural ceremonies at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, in the auditorium of the Applied Science Building. Maj. Gen. Michael Williams, commanding general of the Marine Corps Systems Command, will also be on hand. The Marine Corps is leading the joint military forces team pursuing development and use of non-lethal alternatives. The inaugural ceremonies are open to the public.
The new institute is dedicated to developing multidisciplinary knowledge and the technology base needed for the creation and responsible application of non-lethal options for both military and civilian applications. The technologies are intended to be used as an adjunct to conventional means aimed at controlling conflict escalation and/or achieving conflict resolution.
Membership in the institute currently consists of Penn State organizations and faculty members with expertise applicable in these areas. In the future, membership will be expanded to faculty and staff members at other colleges and universities, government organizations and not-for-profit research groups. Businesses and industries are expected to participate as associate members.
Penn State's Applied Research Laboratory is responsible for operation of the institute. ARL, a Navy-sponsored research facility, has more than 50 years of experience managing defense and government programs.
Also participating in the ceremonies on Friday will be Edward G. Liszka, institute director, who will provide an overview of the new institute's activities. L. Raymond Hettche, Applied Research Laboratory director, who will serve as master of ceremonies, and state Rep. John E. Peterson, who will also offer comments.
TV or radio weather reports, which tend to be somewhat regional, leave true weather aficionados dissatisfied. Now, "Hometown Weather" from the University's meteorology department can give Pennsylvanians local, accurate, up-to-date weather information with a click of a mouse.
The site at: http://mm5.met.psu.edu/mm5/MM5data.html is a place where those interested in the weather across the state can get their fill. The weather model displayed at this location produces forecasts for a grid system of points every 20 miles. For the Philadelphia area, by moving the cursor only slightly, forecasts are available for Philadelphia, West Chester and other suburbs. In the southwestern corner of the state the choices are Pittsburgh, Sarver, Washington, Waynesburg, Uniontown, Greensburg and Somerset.
For those in the northwest, the Lake Erie shoreline is divided into areas and a quick flick of the mouse can show how far inland the lake-effect snow is likely to cover.
The Hometown Weather Web page can give temperature; relative humidity; wind speed and direction; precipitation; and barometric pressure for a 36-hour time span in three-hour intervals for each grid square. The model is operating in real time and so can provide up-to-date forecast information.
For people accessing the Internet via a telephone modem, the page may load slowly, but once the page is up, clicking anywhere on the map immediately opens the weather data for that location. Unfortunately, the page can only be viewed with a Java-capable net browser, such as the latest version of Netscape or Explorer and cannot be viewed by those using Windows 3.1 or less.
Want a weather update? Check this site at: http://mm5.met.psu.edu/mm5/MM5data.html
Needed: People to join a vanpool from Philipsburg to University Park. Van arrives on campus at 7:30 a.m. and departs at 4:30 p.m. This would be ideal for people working 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more details either phone Doris at 865-0560 or e-mail her at dgh@psulias.psu.edu.
