Science Alumni Back on Campus!

As melting snow leads to sunny days, the thoughts of many science students turn to exams, returning home for the summer, and jobs, jobs, jobs! This year, Science Career Development Events focussed on helping undergraduate students find summer employment and also helping graduating science students find permanent work. The workshops, which were organized throughout January – March 2004, included such topics as cover letter/resume preparation, interview tips, the basics of networking and business etiquette.

Following Spring Break, Science students were invited to join a live webcast through Science's Next Wave, in conjunction with York University. The presentation focused on “Interviewing Skills for Scientists”, and included panelists from academia, recruitment and industry. Alumni, faculty and students may still access this webcast at http://nextwave.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2004/02/26/5.

In early March, the Faculty of Science in partnership with Alumni Western and The Student Development Centre, hosted a Backpack 2 Briefcase event: “A Formula for Success: Science at Work”. Current students were introduced to a panel of eight Western science alumni, ranging from teachers to corporate vice presidents:

Michael Frendo is Cisco’s Vice President responsible for the Voice Systems Engineering Division of the Voice Technology Group. His team is responsible for driving Cisco wide engineering initiatives through the architecture, standardization, implementation and customer deployment of end to end Internet Protocol Communications Systems. Previously, Michael was Cisco’s Vice President responsible for the Protocol and Sessions Applications Division of the Voice Technology Group. His team was responsible for the development and deployment of advanced Voice over IP protocols and application enabling technology for a broad range of Cisco products. Michael had been Cisco’s Vice President responsible for the Technology Center, and led both an advanced development team and a new markets and technologies team. These teams focused on expanding and extending the Cisco technology base and also investigated and encouraged development of new technologies that complement Cisco’s telecommunications products.

During his career at Cisco Michael has been a Senior Director of the Global Alliances Engineering team at Cisco, which defined and executed many joint engineering projects with strategic Cisco partners and initiated several new technology developments. He was appointed to this role in December 1996, which expanded upon his position as a Senior Manager within the Global Alliance Engineering team. His primary responsibilities were to investigate new technology partnerships, manage the Business Development process and to deliver new products or technologies into Cisco or into the strategic partner. In June 1995, Frendo joined Cisco’s Partner’s Engineering team which was responsible for worldwide partnering of Cisco’s routing technology. Early projects led to the development of Cisco’s first Voice Over IP and cable modem products. Leveraging these partnerships to investigate and develop new applications lead to the evolution of the team to become today’s Technology Center.

Before joining Cisco, Frendo spent seven years at Northern Telecom’s Bell Northern Research R&D facilities in Ottawa, Canada, serving as a Senior engineering development manager. His team was responsible for much of the core development and architecture of the Magellan Passport multi-service WAN switch. Frendo has a B. Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada and an M.Eng and PhD. in Electrical Engineering from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada.

Melissa Cousineau joined United Way of Greater Toronto in 1999. Since that time, she has worked for Canada’s largest annual fundraising campaign, which raised $83 million in 2003. Melissa received her Honours Biology degree from Western in 1998. She spent her final year at Western as Vice President, Student Affairs on the University Students’ Council. She was responsible for many aspects of student life outside the classroom including charitable campaigns, clubs and Orientation. Melissa lives in Toronto and is an active volunteer with Western’s Alumni Association.

Wayne Hufford graduated from Western with a B.Sc.'00 (Honors Applied Mathematics and Statistics). Before attending Western, Wayne received a golf scholarship to Francis Marion University in Florence, SC. Upon graduation from Western, he became involved in social services after completing a Career Directions program and now works for Springbank Employment & Learning Centre, an organization dedicated to helping people find employment. Wayne guides people in the use computers to create competitive resumes and cover letters, as well as use the internet to search for job postings and research prospective employers and career opportunities, all while helping individuals prepare for the General Education Diploma examination and tutoring privately.

SzeJack Tan, B.Sc.'99 (Biology), Associate, AXON Communications. SzeJack joined Axon Communications, one of Canada's largest integrated medical communications and clinical research agencies in 2002. Axon provides a broad range of consulting services for companies in both the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Services range from designing and implementing medical/healthcare marketing and communications programs to clinical trial study development and implementation. SzeJack is responsible for day to day project/budget management, consulting and account coordination. Prior to joining Axon, SzeJack co-founded an online market research agency along with two other Western alumni. SzeJack received his honours biology degree in 1999. His extracurricular involvement while at Western included positions on Senate, Residents' Council, Orientation staff and a term as University Students' Council President.

Ralph Coe graduated from the University of Western Ontario with an Honours B.Sc.'76 (Zoology). His post university career began at Western as a teaching assistant, technician and department administration for the Zoology Department. His education and experience as an administrator took Ralph to his next position as Director of Operations at the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority in 1980. He became General Manager of the Conservation Authority in 1997 where he remains. He also serves as the Executive Director of the St. Clair Region Conservation Foundation which is the charitable wing of the Authority, raising funds to support a healthy environment. Ralph is very active in his community volunteering on a number of Boards and Committees holding positions of President of the Strathroy and District Chamber of Commerce, and Middlesex Community Living and advisory committees for Lambton College. The St. Clair Region Conservation Authority provides a wide range of conservation programs throughout its region which includes the Sydenham River watershed and several smaller watersheds draining into southern Lake Huron, the St. Clair River and Lake St. Clair. Conservation Authorities work to ensure our rivers, lakes and streams are properly safeguarded, managed and restored. They protect, manage and restore our wetlands, woodlots and natural habitat. They develop and maintain programs to protect life and property from natural hazards such as flooding and erosion and they provide opportunities for the public to enjoy, learn and respect our natural environment.

Maja Pental is a Business Information Advisor at the Small Business Centre in London. Maja’s responsibilities include advising and delivering training seminars to participants in self-employment programs, maintaining and developing the Centre’s extensive resource information collection, and providing business/market research assistance to clients. Maja holds a BSc. In Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Western Ontario. She also runs Credit Management business on a part-time basis. Maja’s breadth of expertise ranges from customer service, credit management to market research and strategic business planning. Since Maja’s graduation in 1996, she worked at the Future Shop as a customer service representative. In 1998, Maja decided to leave Future Shop and learn new skills as an Intern at the Small Business Centre. The one year internship proved to be a life changing experience. In 1999, Maja was hired by one of the largest agricultural companies, Cargill Limited. Skills she learned at the Future Shop and at the Small Business Centre proved to be a perfect match for the Assistant to the Credit Manager position at Cargill. Unfortunately, as the company downsized 3.5 years later, Maja and her coworkers from both credit and accounting departments, had to leave the company. In 2002 Maja returned to the Small Business Centre to follow her true passions: market research and business counselling. Maja is pleased to return to Western to share with you the value of having business skills that can be transferred from one industry to another, or one job to another.

Gerry La Rocque graduated from Western with a B.Sc.'79 (Biology), and spent one year working as a pharmaceutical sales representative before returning to Althouse College. Gerry graduated in 1981 with a BEd., and played varsity waterpolo during his years at Western. Following graduation, Gerry worked as supply teacher for a year before landing a job at Mount St. Joseph Academy in London, where he taught for three years. Gerry has been teaching with the London District Catholic School Board for nineteen years: fourteen at Catholic Central High School and five years at his present school, St. Thomas Aquinas High School. Gerry has served as a department head, been active in the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association as the staff representative, and has been a member of both elementary and secondary School Councils within the school board. Gerry has been a volunteer in youth community soccer leagues for several years, is married to a Western grad (audiologist), and has two sons (one in grade 9, the other in grade 12 with an application in for Western Engineering in the fall - a third generation Mustang, perhaps?).

Doug Fox, B.Sc.'68 (Astronomy), M.Sc.'69 (Astronomy), M.Ed.'82 (University of Windsor) Superintendent of Education: School Operations, Greater Essex County District School Board. In addition to his degrees at Western and Windsor, Doug Waterloo, York, Toronto and Queen's twice. Doug has held many different careers, though sometimes brief, as soldier, scientist, accountant, teacher, labour negotiator, human resources manager and school superintendent. Currently Doug is responsible for Leadership Development and many other things.

Topics included career choices, personal growth, time management and advice about integrating school and life. Following the career panel, students, staff, faculty members and the participants had an opportunity to network into the late evening. Both students and members of our alumni community are invited to join us for our next event. To express your interest, please contact Iwona Ciesielka, iwona@uwo.ca.

Also visit: Campaign Western - Foundation Western

Please send your questions or comments on "Science Flashpoint" to: iwona@uwo.ca

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