Thanks to the service-oriented nature of the University of Arizona community, the institution has for years been one of the nation's top-raking producers of Peace Corps volunteers.

And that's not all. The UA also ranked second on the newly released Peace Corps' 2013 list of top Paul D. Coverdell Fellows programs, which are administered at institutions across the nation.

For Peace Corps volunteers returning to the U.S. states, the Coverdell Fellows program provides them with scholarships, academic credit and other support toward a graduate degree. In addition to their studies, fellows are able to complete internships in underserved communities in the U.S.

"The University of Arizona has established an impressive record of top rankings in the Paul D. Coverdell Fellows program,” Janet Allen, the Peace Corps West Coast regional manager, said in a prepared release.

Today, 52 returned Peace Corps volunteers are enrolled in the UA's 12-year-old Coverdell Fellows program. Since 2001, 159 UA students have completed the program.

"I had the honor of meeting this year's Fellows cadre during the UA's Peace Corps Week," Allen also noted. "They bring an impressive wealth of Peace Corps experience to their graduate work and a strong service ethic to the UA and the greater Tucson community – it's a win for everyone."

Other institutions that made the top producing list for the Coverdell Fellows programs include the University of Denver, Johns Hopkins University and Brandeis University.

"Every year, hundreds of Peace Corps volunteers make a difference by combining meaningful service with graduate studies through Peace Corps' Master's International and Coverdell Fellows programs," Peace Corps Deputy Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet said in a statement.

"After completing Peace Corps service, volunteers return to the United States as global citizens, with leadership, cross-cultural understanding and language and technical skills that position them for success in today's global job market," Hessler-Radelet also noted.

Since 1961, a total of 1,147 UA alumni have served in the Peace Corps, with 41 currently serving overseas.

Holly Bryant, who served as a community health volunteer before becoming a fellow at the UA, said her classroom-based education was greatly reinforced through her service work.

"This allowed me to test the limits of my comfort zones and my knowledge as it is applied in the real world," said Bryant, a student in the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

"Flexibility is the key, being able to move with the flow of what's happening in the moment," said Bryant, who served in Uganda from 2008 to 2010. "These traits were integral during my Peace Corps service."

The University of Arizona Eller College of Management's internationally recognized MBA program will be available online beginning this fall. Applications for the program now are being accepted.

"Business schools need to be responsive to the changing needs of their students, and we are committed to offering many modes of graduate business education," said Len Jessup, dean of the Eller College. "Making the MBA program more flexible for highly qualified students is part of our broader effort to expand access to the University of Arizona and will go a long way toward increasing its footprint in Arizona and beyond."

Hope Schau, associate dean of Eller MBA programs, added, "Offering our program in an online format opens it up to a new segment of students. We pride ourselves on meeting the needs of highly qualified students at all stages of their careers, and this new offering reflects that commitment."

With a focus on innovation, application and communication, the Eller MBA experience is designed to give graduates what they need to effectively lead in today's changing global marketplace. Like its full-time, evening and executive MBA formats, the Eller online MBA program is fully accredited by the International Association for Management Education.

The UA has chosen Academic Partnerships, or AP, one of the largest representatives of public universities' online learning in the United States, to help convert the program into an online format, recruit students and support student retention efforts. AP will work closely with Eller faculty to ensure that the new online degree program maintains the highest educational standards.

The company also will use its integrated marketing and branding strategies to extend the University's reach, increasing the enrollment of highly qualified students.

The UA's new online MBA program will begin in September 2013. Click here to apply or learn more about the program.
 
The Eller College is internationally recognized for pioneering research, innovative curriculum, distinguished faculty, excellence in management information systems, entrepreneurship and social responsibility. U.S. News & World Report ranks the Eller undergraduate program No. 14 among public business schools and three of its programs are among the top 20 – entrepreneurship, MIS and management. 

U.S. News & World Report ranks the Eller MBA full-time program No. 44 in the U.S. and No. 21 among public business schools. The college leads the nation's business schools in generating grant funds for research.

In addition to a full-time MBA program, the Eller College offers an evening MBA program and the Eller Executive MBA. The Eller College supports approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 700 graduate students on the UA campus.

Academic Partnerships helps universities convert their traditional degree programs into an online format, recruits qualified students and supports enrolled students through graduation. Serving more than 40 public institutions, AP is one of the largest representatives of public universities' online learning in the United States. 

The company was founded by social entrepreneur Randy Best, an 18-year veteran of developing innovative learning solutions to improve education. AP is guided by the principle that the opportunities presented through distance learning make higher education more accessible and achievable for students in the U.S. and globally.

This weekend, thousands of newly minted University of Arizona alumni will wake up and face the question before all new college graduates: What's next?

For some, the answer is already known. To date, 26 percent of respondents to UA Career Services' annual "career destinations" survey of graduating seniors say they have already secured full-time, post-graduation employment in their field. Another 17 percent say they have been accepted into graduate school.

For those who still aren't quite sure what the future holds, help is available from their alma mater.

"Graduating students still have access to all the resources Career Services has to offer," said Eileen McGarry, director of UA Career Services. "That includes a rich, very robust Web suite of resources and events."

For just $20 a year, UA grads can continue to access a variety of Career Services resources, including online job postings, career fairs, seminars, one-on-one career counseling, the opportunity to participate in on-campus interviews with select employers and more. For members of the UA Alumni Association, Career Services access is included in membership.

"If students haven't started looking for jobs or haven't had the success they wanted, there still is a lot to tap into," McGarry said. "Our staff offers career counseling by appointment. They also offer walk-in advice to help get that resume sharpened, help you enhance interview skills and learn how to reach market segments."

Career Services begins working with UA students early in their academic careers to connect them with valuable internship, research, leadership and employment opportunities.

In the 2012-13 academic year, the number of student internships posted online on the Career Services' Wildcat Joblink website jumped 90 percent from last year, with 2,100 opportunities targeting UA students. Meanwhile, full-time positions posted for students grew 20 percent to 3,100. In addition, University career fairs brought in 620 companies, while more than 210 employers engaged in active employee recruiting on campus, interviewing more than 3,600 students. 

McGarry notes that although the job market is improving for college graduates, it remains competitive.

Recent surveys by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, or NACE, suggest that employers plan to hire just 2.1 percent more new college grads from the class of 2013 than they hired from the class of 2012, with the top five hiring industries being educational services; professional, scientific and technical services; health care; federal, state and local government; and finance and insurance. The most in-demand graduates, nationally, include those with engineering, computer science, accounting and business degrees.

As students prepare to enter this competitive workforce, there are a few things they should remember in addition to tapping into Career Services resources, McGarry says.

No. 1: Be patient.

"Sometimes, depending on a student's experience, they have to start in a position they might not have envisioned was what they were going to do doing when they graduated, and then they grow from there," McGarry said. "But anytime I've seen graduates move in, they quickly move up because they're valued by employers, and that often propels them into leadership roles quickly."

Employer satisfaction surveys of companies that recruit from the UA show overwhelming satisfaction with UA graduates hired, especially with regard to their teamwork, communication and problem solving skills, McGarry said.

Also important for job seekers is face-to-face networking. McGarry says students should stay in touch with contacts like professors and UA staff as well as seek out new connections through professional networks related to their field or through UA Alumni Association chapters in their part of the country.

In today's digitally connected world, online networking also is essential. McGarry advises job seekers create a LinkedIn profile to highlight their professional accomplishments and connect with others in their field online. They also should be mindful of how they represent themselves on social networking platforms, such as Facebook, considering how information they share publicly might be viewed by a potential employer.

Of course, a good resume remains forever important. McGarry reminds students their resume should not just describe their past experiences, but rather highlight their specific accomplishments and how what they did had a qualitative or quantitative impact.

When it comes to actually interviewing for a job, candidates should be able to reflect in meaningful ways on their prior experiences and come prepared with a solid understanding of the company interviewing them. McGarry also advises following up with potential employers with "gentle persistence."

Finally, for graduates who have already landed a job, it's important to engage fully in the workplace culture while maintaining a long-term view, McGarry advises.

"Really tune into the culture and really listen to those that want to mentor you," she said. "Start with a mindset that you're really going to be committed to the environment and take a lot in. You also want to keep a long-term view, always – looking out further and having a long-term perspective in mind, not just what's happening right now."

Researchers at the University of Arizona have successfully determined the genetic mutations causing severe epilepsies in seven out of 10 children for whom the cause of the disorder could not be determined clinically or by conventional genetic testing.

Instead of sequencing each gene one at a time, the team used a technique called whole-exome sequencing: Rather than combing through all of the roughly 3 billion base pairs of an individual's entire genome, whole-exome-sequencing deciphers only actual genes, and nearly all of them simultaneously.

A new University of Arizona study, published in the journal Neurology, suggests a possible link between elevated blood sugar levels and risk for developing Alzheimer's disease.

About 5 percent of men and women, ages 65 to 74, have Alzheimer's disease, and it is estimated that nearly half of those age 85 and older may have the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among the known factors that contribute to the disease are age and genetics. Scientists also think that high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes may increase risk.

Although the link between diabetes and Alzheimer's has been studied, UA researchers wondered if elevated blood sugar levels in non-diabetic individuals also might indicate a higher risk for developing Alzheimer's disease.

"There have been studies that have linked diabetes to Alzheimer's disease as a risk factor," said Alfred Kaszniak, UA professor of psychology and a co-author on the study. "What was not known when we began this work is whether that risk was only at levels of blood sugar that qualify for diagnoses of diabetes, or in the borderline or pre-diabetic range, or would we also see a relationship across the so-called normal range of blood glucose?"

The researchers used fluorodeoxyglucose (18F) positron electron tomography, or FDG PET, a medical imaging technique that produces three-dimensional images of metabolic activity in the brain. Fasting serum glucose levels – blood sugar levels following several hours of not eating – are routinely acquired as part of the FDG PET protocol.

"When compared to those without the disease, Alzheimer's disease patients demonstrate a pattern of reduced brain metabolism in particular brain regions," explained Christine Burns, lead author on the study and a UA pre-doctoral student in psychology. "What we show is an association between elevated fasting serum glucose levels and a similar pattern of reduced metabolism in these same AD-related brain regions in cognitively healthy adults."

The researchers studied data on 124 cognitively normal, non-diabetic adults with a family history of Alzheimer's disease. The individuals, who ranged in age from 47 to 68, were among participants in a larger study, led by Dr. Eric Reiman, executive director of the Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Phoenix, looking at a variety of Alzheimer's risk factors, including genetic risk. 

The link between high blood sugar and reduced brain metabolism existed regardless of whether individuals carried the Apolipoprotein E4 gene variant, an established risk factor for the development of Alzheimer's disease.   

In addition to suggesting a link between elevated blood sugar levels and Alzheimer's risk in non-diabetic individuals, the study also shows promise for the use of brain imaging techniques like PET in identifying Alzheimer's risk and developing early preventative interventions, researchers say.

"Right now, if you want to develop a drug or evaluate some other kind of a preventive measure for Alzheimer's disease, the labor and expense is prohibitive," Kaszniak said. "If you recruit people who may be at some risk, but are 20 years away from developing signs of the illness, what drug company or governmental agency is going to fund research that follows people for 20 years to see whether something is effective in prevention?

"However, if you have a biologic marker, it suggests what areas you should really focus on in those very expensive longitudinal studies," he said.

Burns said she hopes the findings will inform ongoing work designed to help develop early Alzheimer's interventions.

"A lot of valuable research is focused on treatment and slowing decline in Alzheimer's patients," she said. "I'm interested in complementing this work with interventions that can be implemented earlier on, perhaps at middle age."