Multimedia Reporting (Kuhr-Volek)

Taking a class on job search strategies paid off for senior Teresa Lo. The history major will spend this semester interning at the Late Show with David Letterman.

Lo learned about the internship through the class listserv the day before applications were due. She said the skills she learned in the class made it easy to compile her application on short notice.

"The stuff on my resume was good, but the class helped me polish it and it taught us how to write cover letters," Lo said. "If I didn't take that class I don't really think I'd be here in New York."

Lo said the class also taught her interviewing skills, which proved helpful when she was invited to an interview in New York during fall break. She was one of 11 students from across the U.S. chosen for the internship.

Lo began her internship Jan. 2 and works doing research in the CBS Library to find articles on guests who will appear on the show. She is also in charge of picking up items, such as CDs or DVDs, associated with each guest.

Lo said her hands-on experience has allowed her to view aspects of show business from a new perspective.

"I had to go to Marc Jacobs to pick up a t-shirt with Julianne Moore on it, not the store but where they make designs. I've gotten to see things that are behind all the glamour so it really helps me learn what the industry is really about and what I need to know," Lo said.

Ann Hartley, associate director of the University Career Center, taught the job search class Lo was in. The class, which focuses on lifelong job search skills, is one credit hour and is offered every semester.

Hartley said Lo is one of many students who has secured a competitive internship after taking the class.

"I had one student e-mail me to tell me they got their dream job. She had pursued an internship with Liz Claiborne and now she has a fulltime job for the company designing leather goods," Hartley said. "It's important to know opportunities exist and it's very possible for a lot of students to find success."

Lo said that even though her internship has just begun, she has already gained unique experiences that will help her in the future. She's even gotten to meet Letterman himself.

"I was walking to the copy machine with a huge stack of files and I saw him coming around the corner," Lo said. "He smiled and said 'hello' and I just said 'hi' all quiet and walked away. He was really friendly and I was just awkward."

Lawrence is finally communicating. Vice Mayor Sue Hack said that a new approach to public planning proved successful for the Lawrence community. Planners, city commissioners, developers and citizens reacted positively to the weeklong planning session held from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6.

Hack said the process provided an opportunity for discussion between the groups, which typically do not communicate well.

“We have trust issues in this community. Developers don’t trust neighborhoods and neighborhoods don’t trust developers,” Hack said. “During meetings those people usually sit on opposite sides of the room and glare at each other.”

The design workshop, called a charrette, was held to develop a new zoning code for traditional neighborhood design. This type of development creates walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods.

Long range planner Dan Warner said the city chose to use a charrette rather than a traditional planning process to better address the contrasting opinions in the community.

“Doing it in a workshop setting like this is really what we were looking for because that really helps to create momentum and get something accomplished,” Warner said.

The design firm PlaceMakers led the charrette. Events held throughout the week included public presentations, meetings with community stakeholders and open house forums when community members could meet with consultants to discuss questions and concerns.

Charrette facilitator Jennifer Hurley said the charrette process is effective because it provides opportunities for more voices to be heard.

“People get bored and worn out in a longer, traditional process, so the general public is not participating and you have a very small minority deciding what’s happening,” Hurley said.

PlaceMakers consultant Scott Doyon said that a charrette allows citizens to take creative control.

“People do not equate zoning with any kind of emotional, warm-fuzzy experience,” Doyon said. “The beauty of a charrette is that citizens become participating authors of the code that is generated.”

Lawrence citizen Tom Worker-Braddock said he felt the charrette process encouraged community involvement more than traditional planning processes used in the past.

“It’s more informal and there are more opportunities to get involved. If you speak up and ask questions, you don’t look like the radical citizen,” Worker-Braddock said.

Laura Chaney, whose husband owns the development at 19th and Haskell, said that as a developer, she found the process simple and effective.

“What it does is take the developer, the city and the neighborhoods and put them all on the same page,” Chaney said.

One way the charrette process more effectively connects community members and promotes discussion is through its strong visual focus.

Hack said she found the charrette process appealing because of the drawings and designs produced.

“If you look at building codes they’re all words. People need pictures,” Hack said.

Doyon said the visual focus allows people to see a connection between their ideas and the decisions that are made.

“It’s very difficult for people to see a relationship between a meeting they were at and the changes that were made,” Doyon said. “One of the valuable things about the charrette process is someone can stand with a designer and say ‘no that’s not working’ and the eraser comes out, and suddenly it’s changed. People see a direct connection.”

KU art student Ned Epps attended many open house sessions to talk with consultants and view their work. Epps said he thinks the design focus of a charrette helps people better understand and appreciate the ideas of others.

“A town should reflect its people and their ideas. The drawing of ideas is really important for people to see what could be and compare it to the way things are now,” Epps said.

Doyon said the participation level throughout the week was above average, even though the process was new to the Lawrence community. He added that Lawrence’s history of civic activism greatly contributed to the charrette’s success.

“I was impressed with the level of questions people were asking. The people here have made the effort to be considerably more educated about what’s going on than a lot of other communities. I don’t think we did anything publicly that had fewer than 90 or 100 people,” Doyon said.

Planner Joe Rexwinkle said that although those who attended the charrette did not agree on everything, the event was a success.

“We got a lot of diverse comments, which makes it difficult for the consultants to come to a consensus. That’s actually a good thing because it isn’t supposed to be just one opinion,” Rexwinkle said.

Rexwinkle said that because the community reacted positively to the event, the city might hold smaller charrettes for other projects in the future.

Hack said she received positive feedback from many who attended the workshop. She said she would look forward to using the charrette process more often to encourage discussion within the Lawrence community.

“I think we had widespread acceptance and people really enjoyed the opportunity to work with really creative individuals,” Hack said. “Anytime we can get people together to share their visions is exciting.”

View the Lawrence charrette online

At age 25, graduate student Christina Spires is a CEO. She and three other students run Abacus LLC, a model business for data retrieval software. They are enrolled in a new venture creation course, which teaches students how to develop a business plan and market products created by University of Kansas faculty. This course is one of many new initiatives in entrepreneurship education at KU that may give students and the Kansas economy a boost in the business world.

Entrepreneurship education has grown considerably at KU in the past year. The School of Business recently added graduate and undergraduate degree programs in entrepreneurship. This addition placed KU in the top 50 business schools in the nation.

Director of entrepreneurship programs Wallace Meyer said there was significant student demand for courses in entrepreneurship. After just three semesters, the introduction to entrepreneurship class has 116 students, making it the largest elective offered in the School of Business.

Spires, who graduated from KU in 2002, said she wished entrepreneurship courses had been offered when she was an undergraduate student.

"If I went to work for a company, I would be able to assist with a business plan or do research for a new product. These programs will give undergraduates an edge going into the workplace," Spires said.

But that edge could help further more than students' careers. If Spires and her team do well, their business will go public, adding one more venture to the Kansas economy. Meyer said commercializing products is a primary goal of entrepreneurship education.

"Entrepreneurship education directly addresses startup companies and growth of small firms," Meyer said. "It better prepares anyone who attends KU to be able to participate in startups and small businesses and thereby contributes directly to the economic growth of Lawrence, Douglas County and the state of Kansas."

According to the Kansas Department of Commerce, 25 of every 100,000 adults in Kansas will start a new business every month. Caleb Asher, director of communications and marketing for the Kansas Department of Commerce, said educating students in entrepreneurial skills has a significant impact on the Kansas economy.

Asher said many students think they can't be successful as entrepreneurs if they stay in Kansas after graduation.

"We call it 'brain drain.' Not only do students not go back to their hometown, they don't even stay in the state," Asher said. "We need those students right out of college to find that there is a place for them here."

Senior Justin McAuley said he thought there was more opportunity for business on the coast. McAuley, who is minoring in entrepreneurship, started his own online company this year. He also started the Entrepreneurship Club, which helps students brainstorm to make their business ideas a reality.

McAuley said the club and other entrepreneurship education programs at KU would help the growth of businesses in Kansas.

"If we start stepping up and educating more people, maybe that will help keep the Midwest competitive," McAuley said.

Asher said encouraging entrepreneurship education has been a goal of the state since the Kansas Economic Growth Act was enacted in 2004. The act addressed economic needs of the state identified by business leaders and economic developers.

The act established the Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship to help connect entrepreneurs to available resources in Kansas. Director Steve Radley said the center supplies entrepreneurs with three basic tools: economic resources, expertise and education.

Radley said entrepreneurship education is important at a collegiate level, because it encourages students to think innovatively and adapt.

According to the book "Entrepreneurial Imperative" by Carl Schramm, over half of all university graduates will start a business over the course of their lives. Radley said this statistic proved that students needed entrepreneurship education in order to take control of their future.

"Entrepreneurship is job creation. It's the key to our competitiveness in the global market," Radley said. "I think entrepreneurship offers opportunities for people who want to stay in Kansas."

Meyer said he is working to open a similar center at KU, allowing students and faculty to connect with local resources.

"Our goal is to provide a steady flow of 'commercializable' properties from the University, Lawrence and the region that benefits the economic platform of the state of Kansas," Meyer said.

According to the US Small Business Association, small businesses and ventures represent more than 99.7 percent of all employers in the US. There are more than 240,000 small businesses in Kansas alone. Because it is likely that they will work for a small business, Meyer said that it is important for students of all majors to partake in entrepreneurship education.

The Kansas Economic Growth Act also addressed the importance of expanding entrepreneurship outreach beyond citizens already involved in business. The Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation started KTEC Pipeline Innovators, a program to mentor budding entrepreneurs in Kansas who come don't come from business backgrounds.

One of these innovators is KU professor of mechanical engineering Lisa Friis. Friis said that entrepreneurial skills can be applied to any discipline and help students of all majors develop their ideas.

She is currently working with Meyer to begin a new product development course for engineering, business and industrial design students. The course would allow students from the three departments to collaborate their skills.

Friis said that developing entrepreneurship education programs at KU would encourage students to pursue business ventures and ultimately contribute to the state economy.

"We have a responsibility to serve our constituents, not just in education and research for students here, but I also believe we have a role in economic development," Friis said. "I think we're doing our state and the region a disservice if we don't promote that."

Most adults will experience back problems at some point in their lives. KUJH-TV's Elizabeth Cattell tells us how a mechanical spine model could help treat back pain.

Michael Bretches is ready to graduate. He is one of many students who will walk down the hill on May 20. But Bretches is in the minority of students who will graduate from KU after only four years.

According to College Results Online, in 2005, just more than 30 percent of KU students graduated in four years. About 54 percent graduated in five years and about 59 percent graduated in six years. These rankings placed KU twelfth out of the 15 most similar institutions.

In the spring of 2005, administrators formed the Graduate in Four Task Force to evaluate how KU could improve graduation rates. Marlesa Roney, vice provost for student success, said the Task Force implemented a number of changes in the fall of 2005 to encourage a four-year graduation plan.

"There have been changes in practice, such as presenting a strong and clear message that graduating in four years is an expected, possible and good thing," Roney said.

But is it a good thing for all students? Bretches said that graduating in four years wasn't easy.

He never took less than 15 hours a semester. Once he enrolled in 19 hours, a choice he admitted was a mistake.

"You wouldn't imagine how much difference that extra test a month makes," Bretches said. "It changed how I was involved in different activities. I didn't debate as competitively because I couldn't fit it in."

Bretches said working 20 hours a week added to the difficulty of his semesters. During the week he was at class or work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.

While Bretches said he was happy with his experience at KU, he wished he had more time to take some extra courses. He said it was difficult for students to discover subjects of interest as quickly enough to graduate in four years.

"If you want to graduate in four, you better know what you're doing," Bretches said. "Intro classes generally don't teach you enough about the subject to let you know if you really like it."

Exploring interests
Tom Krieshok, psychology professor, said that while he understood the importance of graduating in a timely manner, he thought a four-year plan was not a sure fit for all students.

"Some students can pick a major and have the personality style that allows them to explore and check out things as they're getting their degree. People who are really focused like that can graduate in four years," Krieshok said.

However, Krieshok said most students don't develop deep interests until later in life. Students may find it hard to select a major if they feel like the clock is ticking.

"I'm antagonistic to the part that says everybody can get this figured out in four years. If we're saying to people that you're only healthy or competent if you do it in four years, I think there's a problem with that," Krieshok said.

Roney said that while the Task Force wanted students to explore areas of interest, a stronger message was needed to motivate students.

"What we were realizing is that instead of our primary message being 'Live life fully in four years and graduate,' it was, 'Hey, take as long as you want,'" Roney said. "There's no reason why the vast majority of students can't graduate in four."

Most degree programs were designed to be completed in four years. Roney said if students make "being a full-time college student" their top priority, four years should allow plenty of time for exploration.

While it is important for students to focus on their studies, Krieshok said students should engage themselves in extracurricular activities to broaden their experiences and skills. He said graduating in four years was possible, but probably harder for students who got involved outside their schoolwork.

"The issue isn't really so much four or five years, the issue is what you're doing in school," Krieshok said. "If you're just being a bookworm it doesn't matter to me if it takes you four years or five years. I think you're in trouble."

Steps to success
How does a student balance coursework with the rest of their life? Diann Burright, associate director of the Freshmen Sophomore Advising Center, said a four-year plan could help students focus their interests, allowing them to achieve more during their time at KU.

"In order to graduate in four years you need to find the path you want to follow first. Be engaged in what you're doing and before you know it you'll graduate, and it'll probably have happened in four years," Burright said.

The advising center supports the four-year policy by encouraging students to enroll in at least 15 hours each semester. Students are also required to declare a major by the time they've completed 60 hours.

Students should be aware of requirements for their major and degree program. Burright said students could stay on track while taking classes outside their major, or studying abroad as long as they planned ahead.

"Overall, college is a small portion of anyone's life. But, it also needs to be part of an ordered plan," Burright said. "We try to keep you on track to obtain that four-year degree in four years so you can move on to the next step."

Burright said the Task Force's message put pressure on students in a positive way.

"I don't feel like it's a big club that's being swung at students," Burright said. "It's an encouragement of being responsive and to come to college and take ownership of what happens to you."

What's the rush?
Nevertheless, some students feel that the "graduate in four" message is restrictive.

Mya Lawrence will be a fifth-year senior next fall. She works as a residence assistant in Ellsworth Hall and as a peer advisor. She said the focus on graduating in four years sometimes pushed students to do more than they were ready for.

"Taking responsibility for your own education can be daunting if you don't know what you're doing," Lawrence said. "Taking 17 or 18 hours is not for everyone. I've seen students get a reality check when they get their first C."

Lawrence said she could have graduated in four years, even after changing her major and studying abroad for a semester, but chose not to.

"I'm paying for my own education, so I'm going to take as long as I want," Lawrence said.

She said she was looking forward to an extra year.

"I recently discovered what I want to do. Now I know what the next step is and I need another year to make those things happen," Lawrence said. "I've met and helped a lot of people in my time here and now I have one more year to focus on myself."

But sometimes even four years is one too many. Tara Bergman is in her second year at KU, but with more than 60 hours she qualifies to be a junior. Bergman entered KU in the fall of 2005 with 20 credit hours from high school courses. She will graduate one semester earlier than her classmates in December 2008. Then in May 2009, she'll graduate again, this time with a master's in accounting.

Bergman was in the first group to receive the "graduate in four" message. She said making a four-year plan helped her discover that she could get a head start on graduate school.

Although her schedule didn't allow much room for exploration, she will study abroad this summer in Italy. Bergman said she would be glad to graduate early because it would save money and allow her to start her career.

"People say you have your whole life to work, so enjoy college, but I'm working right now anyway, so I'd rather do what I want to do," Bergman said.

Looking to the future
The Task Force's efforts are showing early results. A report in the spring of 2006 showed the average course load for full-time freshmen in their first semester had increased three percent since the spring of 2005.

Roney said more effects would be clear after freshmen from 2005 began to graduate.
While a four-year plan will never suit all students, she said an increased graduation rate would improve the reputation of the University and the quality of education.

"Graduation rates are a measure of success. As an administrator and an educator it's about doing the best job to encourage, support and enable students to be successful while they're here," Roney said. "It's going to be exhausting in a good way."

Before he walks down the hill, Bretches had some parting advice for KU students.

"It's important that you take your time and enjoy your college experience. If that means you need to take a little bit slower of a pace, then do," he said. "When you're 30, nobody's going to care."