March, 2008

Objective

A career in a demanding, fast-paced, high-energy field.

Education

Bachelor of Science, Scientific and Technical Communication
Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI
Major: Communications
Concentration: Rhetoric, Physics
Related course work: Publication and Information Management, Editing, Grammar, Revisions, Science Writing, Scientific and Technical Communication, Risk Communication, Rhetorical Analysis

Is he an unstoppable rhetoric machine?

Barack Obama is the scariest person in politics today. I say this not because of his platform or of his past performance. He is not alarming because of his progressive message or his marketing presence. The reason is much simpler than any of these facets.

Everyone I know who listens to the man speak, without preconceptions or partisan bias, end up liking him.

In a culture driven by the rhetoric of lifestyle, where a product’s most important feature is its ability to improve or enrich a person’s existence, the most important feature of a politician is whether we like him or her. I offer an experience from yesterday afternoon as anecdote to this phenomenon.

Enterprise-Education

Student: Lauren Schaffer
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Minor: Enterprise Concentration
Student Status: Junior

Q: How does the Enterprise experience differ from going to class?

Early in November the Michigan Tech community started a new service to assist in the responsible monitoring of university conduct. Together with EthicsPoint, an industry standard in confidential reporting services, the Internal Audit office introduced the Michigan Tech EthicsPoint Hotline. The hotline provides faculty, staff and students a means to report inappropriate or unethical activity when they fear repercussions for their whistle-blowing.

EthicsPoint has set a standard for reporting services in college and university systems. Founded in 1999, EthicsPoint was started by a group of fraud specialists who pioneered reporting services on the internet. “We’ve been interested in this for a number of years,” stated Amy Hughes with the Internal Audit office.

The Internal Audit office started looking for a reporting service solution after receiving the blessing of the Board of Controls. The search was prompted by a desire to make the daily activities of Michigan Tech more transparent and improve the level of conduct amongst Tech employees. The search was strongly supported by the university’s external auditors, who work closely with private companies and have experienced the positive results of such services.