Author: Steven

Good luck to all of our College of Forestry students as deadlines for projects and studying for final exams commence. For some quick study tips, visit this website: http://www.suite101.com/content/study-tips-for-final-exams-a9622

Also, good luck and congratulations to all of our graduating seniors!

As all of our students approach the end of this term, keep this in mind. It’s never too early to submit your work experience forms. Once you get back from the summer, stop by the Student Services Office to pick up our green forms and get them submitted ASAP. We’ve been hammering this home all year and it looks like it’s been working!

As a final note, I want to thank all of our College of Forestry students, faculty, and staff for making my time with the college a positive experience. There are brilliant people in Corvallis, and I am grateful that I got to spend some time with some folks with really deep knowledge about things I was utterly clueless on. Thanks CoF!

Last night, the College of Forestry celebrated the remarkable achievements attained by its students.  We would like to congratulate the honorees for the contributions to the College of Forestry as well as the Oregon State University community as a whole.  We also want to give a shout-out to all of the faculty and staff in the College of Forestry for providing the best instruction, mentorship, advising, and guidance to all of our students.  In addition to all of the graduating seniors, scholarship recipients, and fellowship recipients, the following students received special mention for outstanding work and contributions.

Pack Essay Award: Chet Miller & Danielle White

Harold Bowerman Leadership Award: Ryan Bronson & Brad Hamel

Paul & Neva Dunn Outstanding Senior Award: Kirsten Tilleman

Outstanding Student in Forest Engineering or Forest/Civil Engineering: Jesse Narog

Outstanding Student in Forest Management: Mathew Hemshorn

Outstanding Student in Natural Resources: Kirsten Tilleman

Outstanding Student in Recreation Resource Management: Meaghan Luchau

Outstanding Student in Toursim & Outdoor Leadership: Kelly Pence

Outstanding Student in Wood Science & Technology: Jeff Vaughn

Dean’s Award for Outstanding Service: Jesse Narog

There were also a couple of faculty and staff members recognized for their tireless efforts in making the College of Forestry and its students among the best in the country.  These faculty awards went to:

Aufderheide Award: Robin Rose

Xi Sigma Pi Kliewer Mentor Award: Kama Luukinen

Last but not least, if you’ve been a fan of this blog, you’ll notice that the main photo is on a changing rotation every week.  Each of the heading photographs have been the College of Forestry Photos of the Week.  For the rest of the year and through the summer, the Fernhopper blog will be displaying the Photo of the Year.

Photo of the Year: Ashley Flint, “Oregon Gardens”

Again, congratulations to all of our students!

But before you start getting excited over the prospect of fun in the sun (or clouds and rain if this weather keeps up), keep these upcoming things in the College of Forestry in mind!

Advising

Pre-registration advising for Fall-2011 has begun.  Stop by your advisor’s office to sign up for an appointment ASAP.  Registration will begin on May 15, 2011.  Get your plan of attack figured out with your advisor and be ready for when your registration time arrives.  You can find you registration time here.

Change of Grading Basis

It’s week, seven.  By now (at least if you follow this blog), you should all know that you need to submit Change of Grading Basis forms before Friday, May 13.  If you want to change from “A-F” grading to Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading, stop by the Student Services Office and pick up a salmon-colored half sheet.  Chat with your advisor if you feel like this is something you should do.

Withdraw Deadline

You should also know that the withdraw deadline is Friday, May 13.  This deadline is important if you are extremely worried about your grades and don’t know if you’ll be able to bring them up by the end of the year.  Withdrawing at this point will cause a “W” to show up on your transcript.  Definitely talk to your advisor if you want to pursue this option.

A national organization called the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities is preparing for a major summit on education with the theme “Creating Change: Reforming Curricula for a 21st Century Education.”  One area of interest is your education in soft skills, such as communication, leadership, teamwork, and other similar topics.  To inform the national discussion, a short web survey has been prepared and CoF students have been asked to participate.  The survey will be coded so they can track our input and we can use the results to improve our programs. The survey data will be presented at the conference and then published.

Follow this weblink  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SoftSkillsStudentOregonStateUnivForestry to the survey and complete it as soon as possible. The survey closes on May 10, so it is important to do this promptly to be included. It will take about 10 minutes to complete.

Have you ever thought about studying abroad but thought it was too expensive?  We’ll here’s your chance to experience the language and culture of China for four weeks this summer all for the price of a plane ticket!

The INTO China program is offering OSU students 20 scholarships which cover the full cost of the program (all you have to do is buy the roundtrip plane ticket to Beijing)!  OSU Administration wants to see representation from across all the colleges at OSU.  This means FORESTRY!

During this language program you’ll have the opportunity to meet, befriend, and study with students from all over the world including Russia, the UK, Vietnam, and China while getting and introduction to the Chinese (Mandarin) language.  You’ll also visit sites like the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, etc.

We’re offering brief information sessions to take names of interested students on the following dates:

• Thursday, April 14^th 1:30-2:00 pm in Pvy 256
• Friday, April 15^th 9:00-9:30am in Pvy 104
• Monday, April 18^th 11:00-11:30am in Pvy 256
• Tuesday, April 19^th 3:30-4:00 pm in Pvy 256

Please stop by one of these sessions for more information and also visit http://www.intohigher.com/china/en-gb/global-opportunity.aspx.  This is a great opportunity not to be missed!

Start taking more control over your academic success by exploring the new MyDegrees system.  Advisors have been using this system for a couple of terms now so that the kinks can get worked out.  As with any new system, there still may be some bugs.  Regardless of that, if I may say so myself, the system is BEAUTIFUL!  You can go in through Online Services and the Student Records link.  That menu will allow you to select MyDegrees.  You’ll then be able to see exactly what is needed to make progress towards graduation.  There are a ton of great features like the “What If” function, which allows you to see where you would be if you were to choose another major.  You can also use the GPA calculator to figure out how good of grades you need to have in order to graduate with a certain GPA.  All of the College of Forestry requirements are in there, too.  The Work Experience requirement and the Oral Communication requirement have already been coded in.

With all that in mind, like I said, there may be some errors that pop up.  You may have taken a class that doesn’t show up on your MyDegrees audit.  One of your substitutions may have not been coded in.  Thankfully, the College of Forestry has set up an error reporting website.  You can go here if you need to report an error in your audit.

Log-in now and explore and enjoy the new system!

The College of Forestry Student Services Office is seeking photos for a graduating senior photo collection.  Students who have graduated since the summer 2010 term are asked to submit up to 2 photographs of themselves during their time with the College of Forestry.  Submitted photographs must have been taken in an academic setting, such as during a summer work experience, a school field trip, a classroom laboratory or during a school project.  Photographs should contain no lewd gestures or offensive materials.

When submitting photographs for the Archive, you must include the names of all individuals in the photograph, where the photograph was taken, and what is happening in the photograph.  It is your responsibility to receive approval from the people who may appear in your photos to submit a photo of their likeness. By submitting the photo you are certifying that you have obtained this approval and that the Student Services Office has the subjects’ approval to display the photo in public.  Submitted photos can be sent to forestrystudentservices@oregonstate.edu with the following information attached: you name, e-mail, phone number, and a short title and/or description of the subject/people in the photo.  The photos should be no larger than 7 MB and be in a TIFF, PNG, JPG, BMP, or GIF format.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Speaking of seniors…

Graduating seniors need to save the date of May 18.  That night is the annual College of Forestry Awards Ceremony.  This year, it will also include Senior Recognition.  Don’t miss this chance to celebrate all of your accomplishments here in the College of Forestry.  The event will occur in the MU Ballroom and start at 5:00pm.  We hope to see you there!

Welcome back CoFers!  We hope that your spring break was relaxing enough for you to get energized for the home stretch.  There are a couple of things you should know about as this term starts.

CoF Student Worker Opportunity

The CoF Student Services Office has posted a job announcement for a Student Assistant position.  Training begins during this term and employment continues through the 2011-2012 academic year.  This job can provide you with up to 20 hours per week during the school year with full time work being possible over the summer.  The pay rate is $8.75/hour.  If you are interested in applying or seeing the job description, drop by Peavy 140.

Work Experience

We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again.  The work experience requirement is the leading cause of graduation hold-up.  Don’t let senior slack (it’s real…I’ve experienced it) get in the way of receiving your diploma.  If you are an FE, FE/CE, FM, FOM, RRM, or RM major and you haven’t already submitted your work experience form, come to the Student Services Office to complete these forms.

Scholarships still available

• The Douglas Small Woodlands Association/Don Ollivant Memorial Scholarship is open to students currently enrolled in college who graduated from a Douglas County.  Awards will be at least one scholarship not less than $500.  The application deadline is April 1!
• The Dakotas Society of American Foresters Forest Resources Management scholarship is available to students majoring in the broad field of Forestry.  It is designed for current or past residents of North Dakota and South Dakota.  Also important in this application is membership or membership interest in the SAF (if you didn’t think club involvement could benefit you, think again!).  The award amount includes $1,000 and a one-year student membership in the SAF.  Application materials must be received by April 30 to receive consideration.

Phase II Registration for Spring-2011 has started today.  You can now log on to Online Services and register for classes that will put you in excess of the 16 credits allowed during Phase I.

Phase II Registration also allows you to get on wait lists.  If there is a class that you are in dire need of or are chomping at the bit to take, get on the wait list as soon as possible.

If Phase II Registration sounds unfamiliar to you, it may be that you missed Phase I.  If you missed Phase I, it’s likely that you haven’t spoken to your advisor yet!  Meet up with them ASAP so you don’t miss the boat with your forestry classes and extend your time at OSU!

The Fernhopper blog will be taking a break over Finals Week and Spring Break!  Good luck with your exams and have an awesome break!  See you next term!

Got scholarships?

My desk is currently PACKED with scholarship opportunities!  Help clean it off by coming into the Student Services Office and taking them!  New scholarship applications include:

The National Hoo Hoo-ette Club.  This opportunity is for women in forestry, lumber, and the wood products industry.  It is available for 3rd and 4th year female forestry students.

Douglas Timber Operators have scholarships available for students who are majoring in a natural resources related field.  The applicants must be residents of Coos, Douglas, or Lane County.  The applications are due by April 8, 2011.

The Intertribal Timber Council has announced the Truman D. Picard Scholarship Program.  This award is dedicated to the support of Native American students pursuing a degree in Natural Resources.  Awards in the amount of $2,000 are available for college students.

The National Center for Cooperative Education in Natural Resources also has scholarships available for continuing students pursuing degrees in a natural resources field.  These include Forestry, Range, Agriculture, Soils, GIS, Fisheries and Wildlife, Watershed and Hydrology, and Civil Engineering.  The award includes $5,000 annually of tuition assistance, summer employment, and employment opportunities for after graduation!

What is blocking your success?

The results for the 2010 National College Health Assessment were just released.  OSU students were given the opportunity to identify factors that negatively impacted their academic success.  Those factors, marked by the percentage of students feeling impacted, were:

10.  Alcohol use (8%)

9.  Concern for a troubled friend/family member (8.1%)

8.  Relationship difficulties (9.4%)

7.  Depression (9.7%)

6.  Internet Use/Computer Games (11%)

5.  Work (12.6%)

4.  Anxiety (17%)

3.  Sleep Difficulties (17.2%)

2.  Illness (20.9%)

1.  Stress (23%)

The key is that all of these factors are manageable given access to the right resources.  OSU has multiple resources available for students to help cope with these issues.  Your success as a student is the most important thing; take charge of your success!