"We have the best location of any educational institution in America. The University ought to make itself famous with a telescope."

With those words, part of his long and persistent effort to bring a world-class observatory to the University of Arizona campus, pioneering astronomer Andrew Ellicott Douglass set forth his best argument.

Arriving at the UA in 1906 from the Lowell Observatory outside Flagstaff, Douglass sought almost immediately to take advantage of Tucson's dry climate and clear night skies, using his renowned 1910 Halley's Comet observations as proof of the region's unique potential. As he wrote in a 1908 guest editorial in the Arizona Daily Star, "Nothing advertises a climate better than a big telescope."

The paper's editors agreed: "The fame of its observatory would be greater than any other institution of like character in the United States. The atmospheric conditions are such as to demand recognition and consideration from the scientific men of all nations," according to a Feb. 6, 1910 editorial.

Douglass unsuccessfully lobbied the state Legislature for funds but in 1916 secured a $60,000 donation, at first anonymously from Oracle resident Lavinia Steward, in memory of her late husband Henry B. Steward. Construction on Steward Observatory began that year, and on April 23, 1923, the UA formally dedicated the facility, with its state-of-the art 36-inch reflecting telescope at last making Tucson an astronomer's paradise.

"Not only was this the first big donation (to the UA), it was the start of research at the University in a very real way," says Buell Jannuzi, current director of Steward Observatory and head of the astronomy department.

From those ambitious beginnings – the Steward telescope was nicknamed the "All-American" because it was the first astronomical telescope built using all American-made products – the observatory and astronomy department have branched out in all directions, to radio, X-ray and ultraviolet astronomy, adaptive optics, space-based telescopes and the renowned Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory, which constructs gigantic mirrors for the next generation of astronomy, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and the Giant Magellan Telescope.

"Douglass wanted more than just a major telescope for the University of Arizona; he wanted Steward Observatory to produce discoveries and to share them with the world. I think he would agree that his successors have continued to develop the quality of research we're producing, using technological innovations not as the end points, but as tools to further scientific discovery," Jannuzi says. "Our aspirations are the same as those of Douglass; we are just pursuing them with more modern tools."

Built on what was then the far east side of Tucson, Steward Observatory has been overtaken by campus expansion yet remains an iconic fixture of the UA, its white brick and dome now housing the 21-inch Raymond E. White Jr. Reflector telescope, used primarily for undergraduate education and public outreach, which has been a part of the observatory's mission since its dedication. The original 36-inch scope relocated to Kitt Peak in 1963 and remains in use by the Spacewatch Project.

Leadership for Steward Observatory has maintained a remarkable continuity, with just seven directors over its 90 years, including Peter A. Strittmatter, who served 37 years as director and led a remarkable period of growth and development.

"I think (Douglass) would agree the soul is still there in the observatory, and we're continuing the mission he set out for us," Jannuzi says, reflecting on what drew him to astronomy in the first place. "It's fun, like philosophers or theologians do, to think about the big questions. Often times we're working on some small part of a research project, but it's all part of a larger effort to understand the universe and how we relate to it."

Chilean Master's student Pablo Gonzalez first picked up a classical guitar when he was 8 years old. The Spanish guitar stayed with him through his early education and finally swept him north to the University of Arizona as a Fulbright scholar, where he joined the roughly 25 undergraduate and graduate students in the UA's Bolton Guitar Studies Program.

"You can find it in almost any home in my country," Gonzalez said of classical guitar music.

Students in the UA program hail from countries around the world, including France, Chile, Philippines, China, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Norway, Turkey and many others, drawn by the reputation of a music program like no other.

Many elements of the Bolton guitar program are found in no other classical guitar program in the world such as four endowed guitar competitions supported by the D'Addario string company and by donors, said professorR. Thomas Patterson, who heads the program.

With boons such as artists in residence David Russell, a world-renowned musician and recording artist, and Grammy Award winners Sérgio and Odair Assad, it may not be surprising that UA classical guitar students regularly win at national and international guitar competitions.

"The Assad Brothers come for a week in the fall, and David Russell comes for a week in the spring, and they teach for a week and give concerts," said Julia Pernet, chairman of the Tucson Guitar Society. "I think that's a very unusual asset to have, to have that class of performing guitarists come and spend a week, and really know the students."

Patterson, who joined the UA faculty in 1980, is credited by many for making the guitar program what it is today. "I wanted to make it a flagship, a model for other programs around the country, around the world," Patterson said.

"If you ask other guitar professors what are their greatest achievements, they say, 'Well, I published this book, or that book,'" said Misael Barraza, a first year Master's student in the program, who recently won theMontreal International Competition. "If you ask Tom, he'll say, 'See this guitar champion, or that champion? This was my student.'"

"One of the great things that Tom is able to do is assist students to get to these international competitions and to try themselves out against the world," Pernet added.

"We've seen people make extraordinary moves within our program," said Patterson. "It's exciting to see a high-end person achieve an international prize, but someone who maybe you're taking a risk with, to see them succeed is absolutely amazing."

Pernet brings world-renowned performing artists to Tucson every year through the Tucson Guitar Society. "Part of the agreement that I sign with them is that they will give master classes for the UA guitar program," she said.

In 2011, Sanford and Phyllis Bolton, lifelong music lovers and supporters of classical guitar, gave $2 million to establish the Sanford and Phyllis Bolton Endowed Chair for Classical Guitar, a position held by professor Patterson. Shortly after, Bolton gave an additional $1.1 million, establishing the Sanford and Phyllis Bolton Endowment for Guitar. 

"This was the largest gift of its kind in the history of fine arts," Patterson said, a gift that has enabled the program to support talented students who otherwise may not be able to pursue their dreams with acoustic guitar. In honor of the support, the program changed its name to the Bolton Guitar Studies Program.

The reputation of the program, its calendar packed with events and activities, and the supportive student community have attracted classical guitar talents from many nations. "I'm here because of the reputation of the guitar program," said Ivar Fojas, who is from the Philippines and also a Fulbright scholar, entering the third year of his doctoral studies.

"Normally, other guitar programs would have one or two recitals each semester," Fojas said. "We have them every single week. I've learned how to listen, to really be critical of myself."

"That's really what makes the difference between players," Barraza added. "Is how well you can listen to yourself."

The guitar program curriculum engages students in the community, with a public performance every Friday at 11 a.m. in the UA Museum of Art, and many other concerts and recitals throughout the year.

Patterson said he also makes effort to engage the community through concerts and working with children, to get them involved with guitar and music at a young age.

"It really pushes you to have higher standards for yourself," said Leandra Hubka, who is finishing her Master's degree. "There are so many opportunities to play for the public," she added. "You get better by playing for people."

Barraza said he aims for a concert career, and that the UA guitar program has "been a huge influence on me. I wouldn't be able to do without it."

"We have an enormously supportive group of people," Patterson said. "I have friends who have traveled all over the world; I ask them if this happens anywhere else, and they say no."

"We have four in-house competitions each year," Hubka said. "It would be really easy to get competitive with each other, but we're not at all." Perhaps competition is out of the question among a group of people unified by the sound of an instrument they can't put down.

"It has that effect sometimes," Barraza mused. "The guitar just grabs onto you, and that's it."

Whether it's a bicycle collision or difficulty breathing, the UA community can count on quick help from students trained and certified as EMTs.
 
The University of Arizona Student Emergency Medical Services, or UASEMS, group has been operational for three semesters and provides assistance in medical emergencies. Its leaders emphasize thorough training and certification.
 
"We're students at the UA who happen to be EMTs. We're not student EMTs," says Derek Smith, manager of UA Student Emergency Medical Services and a non-degree-seeking graduate student.
 
When Brandon Murphy arrived at the UA three years ago, he didn't find any options for students to work in EMS on campus. He met up with two other students – who've since graduated – to begin brainstorming a program that students could run. They looked at other universities that have student EMS programs and modeled a club after the best practices they found around the country. It took two years to work through the administration and risk management officials, but they were able to start as a club with ASUA funding and began responding in spring 2012.
 
UASEMS switched to funding from the student service fee and began expanding hours in fall 2012. As the fall progressed, the group did too, taking on additional days until they were operating from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. seven days a week.
 
UASEMS this year was the sole EMS provider at the Tucson Festival of Books, saving the festival $4,000 by not using the Tucson Fire Department. UASEMS also works stand-by at Spring Fling, football games and tailgating and when requested for special events, like the Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure.
 
"Anything that occurs on campus, we can be there," Murphy says. "Our members do get put into emergencies where they're the only person there, so we make sure they're held to the same certification. We weren't going to settle for a CPR certification or anything else. We make sure everyone has state certification."
 
UASEMS finished the semester with 32 student members, most of whom are certified Emergency Medical Technicians, with the same Arizona training and certification as a Southwest Basic Life Support Ambulance. Two EMTs staff each 12-hour shift, sometimes along with an additional Certified First Responder, and typically respond to at least two calls for service. On its busiest day, UASEMS responded to 12 calls in a 24-hour period.
 
Common calls for service deal with fall victims, injuries from pedestrian, bicycle or vehicle collisions and respiratory distress.
 
"It's part of our emergency mission to provide a quick, rapid response and be the first to provide care until further medical care arrives," Murphy says.
 
By checking vital signs and reporting to paramedics, the student EMTs can eliminate a step and save valuable time if a patient needs to be taken to a hospital.
 
"There are calls where we take the blood pressure while waiting for TFD and give the information right to them so they can load and go. They appreciate it," Murphy says.
 
Many students join out of an interest in a future medical career, some have even gone on to medical school already, while others are considering EMT as a career. Interest is growing; the group has received 80 applications since the fall that they haven't been able to accept. They're hoping to take on as many as 10 in the fall and hope to expand to providing EMS service around the clock, seven days as week.
 
UASEMS has a golf cart and two bicycles, all equipped with emergency gear. UAPD ride-alongs are a mandatory part of the orientation, which includes 20 hours of vigorous bike training and instruction on bloodborne pathogens and health privacy laws. The members participate in monthly continuing education courses and perform mock drills during the week.
 
"It's real-life, in-the-field experience they can't get shadowing somebody in a hospital," says Murphy, a junior in communications from New Jersey. "Here, you're set to a standard and you have a responsibility. That is your patient until further medical attention arrives."

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.