COLLEGIATETIMES
august 7, 2008
what’s inside News.............2 Features ........6 0pinions........5 Sports ...........8 Classifieds ...11 Sudoku........11 105th year issue 69 blacksburg, va.
Summer jobs take some students beyond Blacksburg BRAD SHAPIRO
ct news reporter With the summer coming to a close, students prepare to return to school and reflect on their summers. While some students have taken advantage of some very nice rest and relaxation, others have really spent their summers with some incredible opportunities in incredible places to enhance their educations and future career options. Junior mechanical engineering major Julia Alspaugh spent her second summer in a row working at Michelin in Greensboro, S.C. In addition to getting to live in and experience a new city, she’s gained valuable work experience. “I worked in one of the tire plants doing designing modifications that will help improve production quality and speed,” Alspaugh said. “I actually put the engineering skills I’ve learned to use in the real world. I still don’t know what I want to do after college, but having a summer job has helped me figure out what some of my options are.” With the economy and job market struggling, summer internships really help Virginia Tech students to get their collective foot in the door. While some students focused on valuable work experience, others have narrowed in on research opportunities. The National Science Foundation sponsors several research projects around the country to support undergraduates for the summer in the Research Experience for Undergraduates program. According to the NSF’s Web site, “The REU program supports active
research participation by undergraduate students.” Junior civil engineering major Elaine Huffman participated in an REU this summer at The University of Notre Dame. The focus of the project was to analyze structures, water systems and geologic conditions following natural disasters. Huffman’s project was to research the structural integrity of schools in natural disasters. “Not only did I get valuable research experience, but I got to study something that is important,” Huffman said. The group at the Notre Dame site is currently doing field work in Thailand and Indonesia as a part of its experience. “Getting to see firsthand the effects of the tsunami has really put the research into perspective. It has been an awesome experience,” Huffman said. Mallory Brangan also participated in an NSF funded REU. As a junior biochemistry major, she is interested in infectious disease, and her study took place at Indiana UniversityBloomington. “For 10 weeks, I worked in an actual lab, doing actual science. It was awesome,” Brangan said. “We fluorescently localized a putative peptidoglycan hydrolase protein in the gram positive bacteria Streptococcus pneumonia,” Brangan explained. For those of us who have no idea what that means, she clarified: “I fused a protein that glows to a protein that we think might maintain the cell wall. If successful, which we don’t know yet, the location of the protein of interest will be seen with a fluores-
COURTESY ALEK DUERKSEN
see SUMMER, page three Alek Duerksen, a senior mining and minerals engineer, poses with a giant piece of earth-moving
equipment in Chile. He spent his summer working for a mining equipment company on a scholarship.
Officials work to expand historic district GABRIEL MCVEY
ct news reporter Blacksburg officials are working toward a plan that could bring in federal money to expand and preserve the town’s historic district. The present historic district corresponds roughly to the area north of the junction of Main and Jackson streets including sections out along
Lee and Progress streets. If successful, the expansion to a National Historic Register District would bring in the necessary funds for a museum at the Alexander Black house and provide aid for local homeowners. Qualifying properties would have to meet age and other restrictions to receive federal and state tax credits that can be used to renovate the properties.
The tax credit program does limit what can be done to a property, but participation is voluntary, Virginia Department of Historic Resources Roanoke office Director John Kern said. This new plan will expand only the town’s state and federal historic districts. Those designations do not impose any automatic restrictions or review requirements on property owners.
Blacksburg town museum director Terry Nicholson advises calm. “We’re not going to be telling anybody they can’t do something to their house,” Nicholson said, “This will actually benefit the homeowners.” Blacksburg currently has three designated historic districts: local, state and national. The local district imposes some restrictions by town ordinance.
THIS IS THE LAST PRINT EDITION OF THE SUMMER CT — DAILY PUBLICATION WILL RESUME AUG. 25
The tax credit program would likely include the Alexander Black house on Draper Road and help the town qualify for up to $1 million in tax credits for its renovation and conversion into a museum. Officials have been working for years on a $3 million plan to turn the house into a town museum. Efforts have been held up because of the
see HISTORIC, page two