Ashland Biology graduates pursuing degrees in Occupational Therapy

We are seeing growing interest among Ashland science students in the field of occupational therapy.  Practitioners in this field "treat injured, ill, or disabled patients through the therapeutic use of everyday activities", according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which forecasts above average job growth in the field.  Graduate OT programs typically take 2-3 years and lead to the Masters or Doctoral degree.

Chelsea in Quito, Ecuador

Ashland Biology graduate Chelsea Kaminski ('13) is in the Master of OT program at Chatham University near Pittsburgh and has completed field work at the DePaul School for Hearing and Speech.  This January she will begin another clinical experience at the Cleveland Clinic followed by a rotation at the University Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital.  This past summer Chelsea volunteered with fellow Chatham students to provide OT services in Ecuador.

Chelsea writes: “Both occupational and physical therapy students from Chatham University spent 10 days in Ecuador providing free services. Some of the places we provided therapy included a free clinic, an orphanage, nursing home and homeless shelter."

“I am also working with some other students in my class to adapt restaurants in the Pittsburgh area to create a sensory-friendly dining experience for children with ASDs (Autism Spectrum Disorder),” she said. “This involves adjusting the environment, training the staff and creating sensory rooms that the children can go to with their family if they need a break for some sensory input. We hope to improve community awareness and acceptance of families with children with ASDs.”

Another Ashland Biology grad, Elizabeth Mantkowski ('13), is currently in the OT program at Cleveland State University.

You can read more about preparation for graduate programs in occupational therapy on our pre-health profession advising pages.

Summer internship season is starting

The upcoming holiday break is the best time to be putting together application materials for 2015 summer internships.  Many of these opportunities are already posted and accepting applications, while National Science Foundation-funded university research internships often have January due dates.  Keep checking back to read about specific opportunities, or how to search for ones that interest you.

We recently heard about a summer scholars program at Akron Children's Hospital involving both research and clinical experience for those interested in health care careers.  Applications for this program are due by November 14th.

Some other great resources for locating internships are:

• The AU Career Connect service from our own Career Services Center
• Ohio Means Internships
• The National Science Foundation's list of summer research internship sites

Ashland science grads heading off to diverse careers

Cassie Nix, Alicia Myatt and Ainsley Moore

We recently posted a number of photos from this year's commencement ceremonies on our Facebook page.  Looking through some additional photos taken by Dr. Brauner I found one that really demonstrates the diverse types of careers that our graduates are pursuing after finishing their science degrees at Ashland University.

Cassie Nix earned her bachelor's degree as a triple major in Biology, Toxicology and Environmental Science.  She earned the Department of Biology/Toxicology's outstanding senior award and will now be pursuing a PhD in the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at Oregon State University.

Alicia Myatt earned her degree in Biology and was a member of the University's honors program and a Choose Ohio First Scholar.  She successfully defended her honors thesis research on the use of different scents to enrich the behavior of cats housed at a cat shelter in the City of Ashland, were she served as a volunteer.  Alicia will be starting veterinary school at The Ohio State University this Fall.

Ainsley Moore earned her bachelor's degree in Biology and has been hired by the entomology department at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster, Ohio, to assist graduate students with their research.  Ainsley would like to eventually earn her master's degree in either entomology or zoology.

Ashland Choose Ohio First Scholars volunteer at science entrepreneurship event

For the past five years students in Ashland University's Choose Ohio First Scholarship program have volunteered to register high school students, teachers and guest speakers at an annual science commercialization and entrepreneurship event held at Hudson High School.  A couple of weekends ago 10 of our current COF students and program director Mason Posner were on hand to help out and hear speakers from BioEnterprise, NASA, the Cleveland Clinic, WIL Research Laboratories and other companies making an impact in STEM across our region.  One of the goals of our COF program is to let our students know about the opportunities in the biosciences right here in Ohio

Our COF program provides scholarships to Ohio residents majoring in Biochemistry, Biology,
Environmental Science and Toxicology at Ashland University.  We have supported 24 students so far and plan to provide additional scholarships for our incoming Fall 2014 class.  Graduates from our program have been past valedictorians and salutatorians at the University, and are earning their PhDs, working in the biotech industry or preparing to attend medical and physician assistant programs.

You can read more about our COF scholarship program here.

Ashland middle schoolers spend a morning in our microbiology lab

A group of middle schoolers from the City of Ashland recently spent the morning with microbiology professor Paul Hyman staining and observing bacteria they collected at their school.  They also had the chance to look at their own cheek cells, bacteria from their mouths as well as some amoeba, paramecia and vinegar eels.  The students were accompanied by their teacher Lance Etzwiler and worked with a number of our science students: Ashley Franks, Hannah Baumann, Elizabeth Marinescu, Eryn Hobbs, Paul Honigford, Anthony Martella, Alayna Anderson and Nate Green.

Ashland Biology, Toxicology and Chemistry faculty invite Ashland middle schoolers to our Science Center for a variety of lab activities each semester.

Ashland middle schoolers working with our students

Dr. Paul Hyman (in the white lab coat), one of our programs microbiologists

Ashland forensic biology alumna heading to pharmacy school

We just received the good news that Lynette Vana (Forensic Biology '12) has been accepted to the Doctor of Pharmacy program at the University of Cincinnati.  During the past year Lynette has been working as an analytical chemist at Ben Venue Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company near Cleveland.  During the year she decided that she wanted to pursue a degree in pharmacy, and with some guidance from past AU graduates in pharmacy careers selected schools, prepared for her pharmacy entrance exams and will now be starting at Cincinnati in the Fall.

While a student at Ashland University Lynette conducted summer research at WIL Research Laboratories, a pharmaceutical testing firm in the city of Ashland.  She continued this work with a faculty member in the Department of Biology/Toxicology and presented her research at an annual meeting of the Ohio Academy of Sciences.  She was also selected by the Society of Toxicology (SOT) for an undergraduate travel award that paid her way to the annual 2012 SOT meeting in San Francisco.  The picture above was taken during that meeting.

Summer research internship in human impacts on Lake Champlain

The University of Vermont has a new 10-week NSF-REU summer internship for students interested in the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of habitat fragmentation, eutrophication, and invasive species on the Lake Champlain ecosystem. The experience is open to students who are rising freshmen through seniors; those from college and universities with limited research opportunities and underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply. Participants will receive a $5000 stipend, free housing, food stipend, and travel funds. Participants will take part in a "Think Like a Scientist" program, weekly journal club, weekly career seminars, conduct independent research, and present their results.

You find more information on the program's website.  Applications are due March 1st.

Ashland graduate teaches physics on the slopes

Ashland alum Dwight Souder has taken his physics students at Crestview High School to the Snow Trails slopes in Mansfield so that they can experience "snow physics".  Dwight and his students are featured in a news story which aired on WMFD in Mansfield and WKYC in Cleveland.

Choose Ohio First Scholarship program

We recently hosted a site visit by representatives from the State of Ohio's Choose Ohio First (COF) Scholarship program.  The program's director, Briana Hervet, and Jeff Handley spent a morning on our campus talking with our scholarship students, faculty, administrators and taking a tour of our facilities.

The science programs at Ashland have been able to provide additional scholarship dollars to select students in biochemistry, biology, environmental science and toxicology majors as part of a 5-year grant from the State of Ohio to increase the numbers of well-trained scientists going into biomedical, environmental science and agricultural fields.  We graduated our first four COF students this past year.  One of them was the University's valedictorian and is now pursuing a PhD at UNC-Chapel Hill, another was the University salutatorian and is currently applying to MD and DO programs, and a third is working in analytical drug development at Roxanne Laboratories in Columbus, Ohio.  Two of our four COF graduates completed their bachelors degrees in less than four years.  We currently have 20 students in the program and will soon apply for another five years of scholarship support.

The image below shows our visitors in front of a research poster presented recently by one of our COF graduates, Carly Young, who is currently applying to PA programs.  Her research project on viruses that infect bacteria was mentored by Dr. Paul Hyman, a microbiologist in the Department of Biology/Toxicology.  You can read more about our COF program here.

Jeff Handley and Briana Hervet from the State's Choose Ohio First program visiting the Ashland University Science Building

Research internships at the OSU agricultural campus in Wooster

While there are opportunities all over the country for paid summer research internships, those of you that want to stay local have options as well.  We already posted information about classes and research on Lake Erie and in Cleveland.  Even closer is the opportunity to conduct various types of research in agricultural science at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University's ag campus in Wooster.  We have had a number of students perform research at the OARDC over the years.

The 10-week program starts June 2nd and pays a stipend of $2400-3000 for 30 hours of work per week, with additional employment possibilities through your faculty sponsor.  Applications are due by March 5th.  You can find more details about the program here.  You can read about the types of research being done, including cutting edge work in bioenergy development, on the main OARDC webpage.