Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Paper Airplane Fly-In

The Papyrus Club (student organization at SUNY-ESF) held their first annual Paper Airplane Fly-In off the bridge at Walters Hall.  Students, faculty and, staff folded, cut, taped, (and multilated) student-made paper into various forms of flying (and not) creations.

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After folding, the planes were launched in two competitions:  distance and accuracy.  For accuracy, the objective was to hit a target on the back of the statue of Lincoln in front of Walters Hall.  Additional awards were also given for the largest and smallest airplanes that flew at least 30 feet.  The largest plane, while it did fly 30 ft, did not land quite so smoothly.

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Airplanes of all sizes and designs were launched.  The "official" record for distance is 101 ft in the over 100 sq in category and 96 ft in the under 100 sq in category. 

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The day's events concluded with a meeting of the Papyrus club, a discussion of upcoming club events, and a determination to build better planes for next year.

Monday, September 29, 2008

SCA Tissue

  The interview schedule continues this week with SCA Tissue giving an evening program on 25 September and interviewing for summer and permanent jobs on Thursday.  The evening program gave students an introduction to SCA tissue, which produces various tissue products from 100% recycled material.  In addition to their location in South Glens Fall, NY, they have locations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Alabama, Arizona, and worldwide including Mexico and Russia.  The company headquarters is in Sweden.

Charlie Pound ('00) is the Fiber Prep Superintendent at their South Glens Falls location.  In addition to telling the students about SCA, he told the students about his career and how he ended up at SCA.  he also gave some very good and direct advice on interviewing skills and resume preparation.  Joan Lang is a Human Resource Generalist at the same location.  She discussed the history of the SCA mill in South Glens Falls and some general information about the company.  She also had some very good advice about interviewing and doing a job search.

The opportunities for both summer internships and permanent positions continue to come into the SPPF office.  We are anticipating a very good year for placement of students.  The jobs seem to be there for those students participating in the interviewing process.

DSC_0256Joan Lang discussing the opportunities at SCA Tissue.

DSC_0259Charlie Pound ('oo) discussing his career at SCA Tissue

Friday, September 19, 2008

Albany International on Campus

This week, Albany International was visiting and interviewing students on campus.  Albany International makes paper machine "clothing", which includes screens ("wires") and felts used to continuously make paper and to transport it through the machine.  They have locations in Homer, NY, Albany, NY, Wisconsin, Tennessee, South Carolina, and in 14 countries around the world including Hangzhou, China.

Chris Haverlock was visiting from the Menasha, WI plant, having graduated from our Paper Engineering program in May 2008.  He has been on the job for only four months and is enjoying his job that includes both engineering and research.  Chris originally worked for Albany International during one of his summer internships, which subsequently led to him being hired permanently after graduation.  Jeffrey Eggert, also a graduate of the Paper Science and Engineering program at SUNY-ESF, is the Manufacturing Manager at the Homer plant, which makes the monofilament strands that the wires are made of. 

As with last week, the students learned about the company first hand from our graduates, so that they could go into the interview process prepared.   We are finding that the job market this year is very strong, both for internships and permanent positions.

DSC_0178 Chris Haverlock describing Albany International.

DSC_0184 Jeffrey Eggert and Chris Haverlock answering questions about both summer and permanent positions.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Company Evening Session: Procter and Gamble

On Wednesday, 10 September, we kicked off our 2008-09 employment recruiting season with an evening program given by Procter and Gamble.  P&G is one of the largest consumer products companies producing such well known products as Bounty, Charmin, Tide, Crest, and many others.  Their manufacturing facility in Mahoopany, PA is the largest facility within P&G where they produce Bounty, Charmin, Bounty Napkins, Pampers, and Luvs.  Please see their website at http://www.pg.com for more information about the company.

P&G has been recruiting at SUNY-ESF for the past four years, and are returning this year on 2 October for interviews for summer interns.  Jess Herrington ('06, Paper Engineering), Nicole Garrisi ('07, Paper Engineering), John Ford ('08, Paper Engineering), Phani Mogalapu, and John Spencer introduced our students to the company over a dinner of Dinosaur B-B-Q.  In their presentation, they provided information about the company's philosophy of hiring from within, using summer internships as extended interviews for permanent job offers, and the variety of opportunities within the company.  Casie Goodwin ('09, Paper Engineering), currently a senior our department, spoke about her summer internship at P&G.  The evening also included a P&G trivia game that included valuable P&G products as prizes.

P&G represents the first of many companies that will be coming to campus throughout the academic year to hire students for both internships and permanent positions.

DSC_0148 John Ford, Nicole Garrisi, and Phani Mogalapu speaking to students.

 DSC_0162John Spencer explaining the application and interview process.

DSC_0161 Casie Goodwin (middle) describing her summer internship experience.  With her are Nicole Garrisi and Jess Herrington.

DSC_0157 John Ford passing out prize to a student for correctly answering a question.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

PBE at the New York State Fair

On 29 August 2008, the faculty, staff, and students of the PBE department set up at the SUNY-ESF tent to make hand-made paper.  While the day started out rainy, it stopped just before the tent opened at 10am and a steady business of customers came through to make and decorate a sheet of paper. 

KlausFairDr. Klaus Doelle helping his son make a sheet of paper.BiljanaFair Dr. Biljana Bujanovic helping some young papermakers.DSC_0044 Pressing the sheet of paper to remove the water.DSC_0038 Ellen Warner, a SPPF Board of Directors member, and Samantha Appleby helping two girls decorate their sheet of paper.DSC_0037 Dr. Shijie Liu and his family helping a girl make a sheet of paper.DSC_0036 Holding up the finished product.

Please come and visit us next year at the fair to see how paper is made.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

2008 Joachim Award Winner

Keith Van Scotter is the 15th recipient of the prestigious Herman Lewis Joachim Award for Excellence in Management, which will be presented to him on October 16, 2008 at the Syracuse Pulp and Paper Foundation’s Director’s dinner. The Joachim award is given annually to an executive whose career and achievements have been outstanding in the pulp, paper and allied industries. It is given both as a tribute to Dr. Joachim and a means of providing significant role models to young people entering the paper industry.

Mr. Van Scotter is the President and CEO of Lincoln Paper, a single mill operation that is the leading manufacturer of specialty napkin parent rolls and uncoated free-sheet printing papers. The company was formed out of bankruptcy in 2004 and with Mr. Van Scotter’s guidance has performed as an industry leader.

Mr. Van Scotter also plans to speak with the Paper and Bioprocess Engineering Students at the Student Forum at the Syracuse University Pack Room at 5 pm on October 15. Dinner will be served and all are welcome. Call Linda Fagan at 315-470-6592 for details.

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