| Thinking about your
post-college plans can be overwhelming; even within one program
of study, there can be dozens of possible career paths. To
help students navigate this sea of choices, three successful
USP alumni shared their experiences and offered advice during
a career panel on December 6, hosted by the alumni association
and the career services department.
Joseph M. Betz, PhD, P’88, recalled the long and unpredictable
journey that led him to his current position at the National
Institutes of Health as director of the analytical methods
and reference materials program in the office of dietary supplements.
“Things never go exactly the way you expect them to,”
Dr. Betz professed. “I thought that I’d be out
on a ship at sea directing a research program at this point
in my career, but it’s completely different.”
Susan Pytel, MPT’99, is a senior physical therapist
for MARC Children’s Services and a consultant with the
Spring Valley YMCA working on their developing special needs
program. “Right when I had decided I wanted to do physical
therapy, a notorious TIME magazine article came out hailing
physical therapy as the ‘job of the future,’”
Pytel recalled. “There were only five schools in the
nation with a MPT program like USP’s, but by the time
I graduated five years later, the market was flooded with
physical therapists.”
The event’s third guest, Jean Surian, P’84, PhD’90,
is the associate principal scientist and global drug delivery
manager at AstraZeneca. She is responsible for accessing external
drug delivery technologies for AstraZeneca research as well
as the development and commercial applications for all types
of pharmaceutical dosage forms. Her background in pharmacy
helps her develop products from the perspective of the patient.
“I’ve always had the patient focus,” said
Dr. Surian. “One of the things I always ask when developing
a new product is, ‘What’s that going to taste
like?”
“All the majors here at USP give you such a fundamental
background and solid foundations that once you graduate you
can go into practically any science-based field,” Dr.
Betz told the students. “Let your horizons be as wide
as you can imagine because you’ve got the background
and the know-how.”
Read more: http://www.usp.edu/calendar/news.asp?nid=986
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