Summer 2011 - University of Massachusetts Lowell

C A M P U S N E W S
PLASTICS STUDENTS MAKE
CO-OP CONNECTIONS
Angela Hu, a UMass Lowell senior majoring
in plastics engineering, didn’t
know what to expect when she took a
co-op job with TESco Associates last
summer. For Hu, who was participating
in the University’s pilot co-op program,
it was her first engineering job, an opportunity
to apply all she’d learned in
the classroom to real-world projects.
“I just knew I had to work hard and
the hard work would pay off,” she says.
After working full-time last summer
and part-time once classes resumed in
the fall at TESco, a Tyngsboro-based
provider of research, development and
manufacturing services to medical device
makers, Hu’s hard work was recently
recognized by the Plastics Engineering
Department and the Office of Career
Services and Cooperative Education.
Earlier this month, Hu and Liam Driscoll, a fellow plastics engineering major,
were named Outstanding Co-op Students for 2010. In addition, Freudenberg NOK’s
Elastomeric Lead Center in Manchester, N.H., was honored as Outstanding Employer
Partner of the Year for its commitment to the newly launched co-op program.
The co-op program prepares students for a job market that increasingly looks for
candidates ready to step into professional roles. In all, 26 plastics engineering
students participated in the pilot program and the initiative is being expanded to
include management, sciences and other engineering disciplines next year.
“Employers want people who can hit the ground running. The level of skills they
expect is much higher,” says Diane Hewitt, associate director of Cooperative
Education for Engineering and Technology.
STUDENT AWARDED FOR GIVING BACK
Nursing master’s student Djwan Scott accepted the
Excellence in Nursing Education/Teaching award at
a recent reception in Boston surrounded by 200
people, including her family.
The New England Regional Black Nurses
Association presented Scott with the award for her
leadership and teaching of diverse and disadvantaged
students in UMass Lowell’s Bring Diversity to
Nursing program.
In addition to working full time as a registered
nurse at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and pursuing
her master’s degree in gerontology, Scott works
18 hours a week mentoring, tutoring and counseling
36 students in the program.
“In my role, I build relationships with students,
understand their backgrounds and help them gain
insight into the nursing profession,” said Scott at
the recognition ceremony. “This is what I love –
sharing my knowledge with students who are
embarking on a journey I once struggled with.”
Djwan Scott, right, receives a kiss from her proud mother.
HEALTH GRADS SCORE
HIGH ON BOARD EXAMS
Graduates of the School of Health and Environment
(SHE) nursing, medical technology and physical
therapy programs have achieved consistent
above-average pass rates on board examinations
they must take to practice in their fields.
In all three programs, UMass Lowell pass rates
have exceeded the national average: a 95 percent
pass rate in 2010 on the national exam for registered
nurses, as compared with the state average
of 86.8 percent and the national average of 87.4;
a 92 percent pass rate for medical technology
graduates for the past five years on the national
medical laboratory science board exam, as compared
with the national pass rate of 77 percent;
and a 100 percent first-time pass rate on the national
physical therapy exam, for 2010 class of
doctor of physical therapy graduates, compared
with the national average of 89 percent and the
Massachusetts average of 91.5 percent.
EQUESTRIAN
TEAM RIDES
FORTH
UMass Lowell may be
an urban campus, but
students who want to
ride horses can. Members
of the equestrian club
ride at Midnight Moon
stables in Chelmsford.
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