]
Center Spread
The Goods on Graduate School
Stories by Linda G. Harris,
'80
For many grads, once is not enough
Dean Tim Pettibone
discusses
the
university's graduate program with a
female student. The national
trend
that
shows women outnumbering men in higher
education is also
true
of
NMSU's graduate
school where a majority of the students
are
women. (Photo by Michael Kiernan) |
For some students the high road to graduate school is a well-worn
path from one
graduation to the next. They tramp merrily along, their knapsacks stuffed
with good grades and good intentions. Others take the longer way, arriving
at the graduate school door loaded with real-world experience and with an
eye on opportunity. Regardless of their route, they all see graduate
school as leading to successful careers.
Tim Pettibone's own trek through graduate school led him to New
Mexico State University where in 1969 he received his Ph.D. in educational
administration. After a year in Philadelphia he returned to NMSU where he
taught until 1986 when he left to teach in Tennessee and in Alaska. NMSU
lured him back in 1993 when he became the dean of the graduate school.
Today he presides over an enrollment of 2,378 students and a school that
includes master's degrees in 55 disciplines and doctorates in 20
disciplines.
While Pettibone is the first to admit the dollar value of a
graduate education, he believes its real worth is training students to be
society's problem solvers. "We are in the business of discovery," he says,
explaining that through research students will use their "discoveries" to
solve the problems of the future. Graduate school also produces teachers
in |
all
disciplines who will pass along their knowledge to the next generation.
Still, Pettibone makes sure prospective students are well
acquainted with "the realities of the market." One
reality is that when
the economy is up - the current 4 percent
unemployment rate qualifies as a definite "up" -
graduate school
enrollment is down. For example, he says it is difficult to get engineers
to go to graduate school when companies are "snapping them up right out of
undergraduate school." True to trend, graduate engineering enrollment
decreased from 290 in 1996 to 269 in 1998.
On the other hand, enrollment in education and health and social
services has steadily increased over the past five years. More and more,
these fields are requiring advanced degrees for long-term career
advancement. "Some companies recruit master's degree
graduates only," he says. Graduate enrollment in education and health and
social services, at nearly 36 percent of total enrollment, reflects the
market demand for advanced degrees.
Women and minority students are making their bets on graduate
school in increasing numbers. Women, in fact, make up 53 percent of the
enrollment while minorities account for 14.6 percent. The addition in 1990
of a master's program in nursing has proved
especially popular. Twenty-one students are now enrolled in that program.
Judy Karshmer, who heads the nursing department, says the job market for
nurses with advanced degrees is "huge," with salaries to match.
Reality for some students, however, has little to do with money.
"These students have such a love and commitment that they will pursue a
field regardless of the market," Pettibone says. "We look at the practical
side, at how the astronomy field is doing, for example. Then we try to
match their commitment with their objectives."
Thomas J. Burnett
In a laboratory at Eli Lilly
and Co.
research scientist Thomas J. Burnett
analyzes the chemical
components of
drugs used to treat animals. Burnett
has worked in
food
safety research
since 1985. |
Every turn Thomas J. Burnett's career has taken always seems to
lead back to agricultural science. Although he didn't set out to become an
agricultural scientist, he admits that it's a direction that eventually
"made sense for me."
At NMSU his graduate research concentrated on the biochemistry of
bacteria. When in 1984 he earned a Ph.D. in chemistry, he was drawn toward
agricultural research. "It was an exciting time in the
food industry and
one where I thought research could make the most progress," he
says.
Also, Burnett welcomed the responsibility that came with having an
advanced degree. "The expectations |
are higher," he
says.
As a research
scientist he says he is in a position to make decisions
that influence the
industry.
At Eli Lilly & Co. in Indianapolis, he focuses on testing the
safety of veterinary drugs used to treat animals such as poultry, swine
and cattle. "Understanding whether a drug remains in animal tissue helps
us ensure the safety of food for the consumer," he says. "My role is to
make sure the science is impeccable."
Bonavita Quinto
Bonavita Quinto writes in her
poetry
journal, first in Spanish then with English
translation.
The
Taos
native has used
poetry both as a teaching tool in Spanish
literature
classes as well as for her own
enjoyment. One poem written by
a
student
tells Quinto "You open doors
and new roads." (Photo by
Michael
Kiernan) |
Graduate student Bonavita Quinto is on a career path that she
hopes will lead her to the top job as a community college administrator.
Although the odds are great - only 14 of such administrators in the United
States are Hispanic women - bet on Quinto to capture the prized position.
During seven years of teaching at a California community college,
Quinto saw the
student population shift from one of primarily vocational students to one
with a significant number of immigrants. In the Spanish classes she taught
on grammar and Hispanic
literature, she saw firsthand the need for curriculum adjustments. "I
could only do so much as an instructor, but as an administrator, I knew I
could propose changes," she says.
|
In 1997, through a national search, Quinto and five other students
were selected by NMSU to participate in the Hispanic Border Leadership
Institute. The institute's doctoral program in educational administration
is designed to train the future leaders of public
schools and community
colleges, particularly in the Southwest border region.
The added benefit of the program, says Quinto, is the bond that
has been created among the students and professors. "Now I have friends
and peers to depend upon in the future," she says.
Dale Kiehl
Dale Kiehl is shown on his
first trip to
Latvia in 1993. The Latvian woman in
native costume
participated in her
country's popular summer folk festival.
The
photo
is
by Steve Pasternack,
head of NMSU's journalism department,
who
was
in
Latvia on a Fulbright
teaching grant. |
In 1992, fresh from a B.A. in journalism, Dale Kiehl signed up for
a community education course to learn Latvian. By the end of the eight
weeks, Latvia, "an obscure little country" on the Baltic Sea, had captured
his imagination and sent him on to graduate school.
By the next year Kiehl was in Latvia attending the country's
summer song festival. Kiehl says Latvia's cultural identity was forged
centuries ago through its folk songs and legends but that during the more
than 40 years of communist rule in Latvia, folk festivals were outlawed.
"The Russians viewed the festivals as nationalistic and anti-Soviet," he
says. With Latvian independence in 1991, the festivals emerged from their
underground venues in full voice.
In 1995 he won a Fulbright Fellowship that
allowed |
him to spend a
year in Latvia
studying the renewal of the traditional culture. "The
fellowship gave me
the golden
opportunity to study a people seldom studied by anthropologists," he says.
Kiehl, who comes from an Air Force family and grew up in the Cold
War era, says the year in Latvia "opened up my whole world view."
Having earned his master's degree in 1998, his dream now is to
work in one of Latvia's neighboring countries.
Lucy Montes-Sandoval
Lucy Montes-Sandoval first
came to
NMSU in 1979 to become a nurse. Today,
with three
degrees
under
her belt, she
balances course work toward a doctorate
with her
teaching
and family responsibilities.
(Photo by Michael
Kiernan) |
Lucy Montes-Sandoval, '82, '86, '97, seems very much at home in a
world circumscribed by family, work and school. With equal measure she
lists the ages of her children - all in grade school, and the years of her
three degrees - all in nursing and all from NMSU.
She's now back in graduate school pursuing a Ph.D. in counseling
and educational
psychology and teaching a section in clinical psychiatric nursing. Her
years of nursing experience include work in hospitals, nursing homes and
community agencies.
It was her work as a psychiatric nurse that |
convinced her to
return for a doctoral degree. Although as an advanced practice nurse she
is eligible to prescribe drugs, she believed a doctorate would take her
"to the next plateau" of learning.
The sum of her education fits snugly within the holistic approach
to health care. "The blend of my psychology training and my nursing
background will help me assess the patient's physical and mental condition
and decide which therapies are appropriate," she says.
Montes-Sandoval plans to stay in Las Cruces when she graduates.
"There is so much here to explore. I have just touched the surface in my
own backyard."