Track: Polymer
Undergrad: Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA
Internship: Arclin
Current Job Title: at Arclin

How did you find yourself at Oregon and what about the program intrigued you?

I spent a lot of time in undergrad doing research and had the expectation going into my senior year that I would continue my education by earning a doctorate. I had been exposed to the UO master’s program while at PLU, and many of my classmates actually applied and went through the program after graduating. While I knew about the program at Oregon, I was dead-set on PhD programs and went head first into the Chemistry PhD track at a big California school following graduation. I suffered from some health and personal setbacks the summer before I started, which made it hard to satisfy a lot of the expectations for first-years in the program there. Deciding that I wanted to hit pause and focus on healing before continuing my education, I applied and was accepted to the Oregon program, dropping out after my second quarter in California. I communicated with my friends and classmates who had gone to Oregon throughout this process, and their success and happiness made me confident that I was making the right decision. I had a few months off before the start of the UO program to complete my physical therapy and came into the summer recharged and ready to go.

What was the intensive summer like for you?

The summer was an all-around great experience. I had already been exposed to the workload and flow of graduate school, so the classes were more of the same for me. I had a lot of organic chemistry experience so the first few classes were straightforward, which allowed me to help out others with different backgrounds in chemistry. Everyone comes into the program with different backgrounds and experience, and with the help of the faculty, there are plenty of resources when the material is difficult. Later in the summer when the material became more physical-chemistry heavy, I was able to lean on others in the program who were skilled in that area. Our cohort was very close, so there were always study groups and homework groups to join, and when the work was done, people were always getting together to hang out!

The professional development offered by the program was one of the largest benefits to me. Going into the program, I thought I had a good resume, but the program teaches invaluable skills in building your resume to professionally reflect what you have to offer in the best way. The work required for this part of the program ramps up along with the coursework as the summer progresses, which teaches you to balance different types of work effectively, rather than just different classes. The program also offers ample opportunity to network with partners and alumni.

Where did you do your internship?
I did my internship at Arclin, in Springfield. Arclin is a manufacturer of resins and saturated paper overlays for industrial and decorative purposes. For resins, Arclin produces phenolic, melamine, and urea based resins for plywood, OSB (oriented strand board???), and other engineered wood products. For industrial overlays, Arclin produces resin-impregnated papers that are pressed to plywood or OSB at the customer. Some of these industrial applications include concrete forms, paint-base and pre-primed boards, and moisture-vapor barriers (house siding). Arclin also produces decorative laminates that you might see used in countertops, tables/desks, and other surface applications.

Without giving away proprietary info, what was your internship like?  What were you responsible for?  What was a typical day like?

I was hired into a group that worked on phenolic saturating resins for industrial overlays, as well as various new market applications. On any given day I could be in lab synthesizing potential additives, reacting new resin formulations - or performing QC to investigate production issues. I spent a lot of time communicating with our Portland plant (where these resins are made) regarding formulation changes and improvements in an effort to improve production safety and efficiency. My boss gave me ample freedom to investigate issues on my own and develop experiments on my own, which allowed me to develop creativity in designing future experiments. I was able to collaborate with chemists and engineers from other product groups which helped decrease the learning curve greatly and expand my knowledge across product groups and chemistries.

Did you feel the program prepared you for the internship?  In what ways?

The program helped prepare me greatly for the reality of project flow and timelines. In industry, you find yourself clamoring to get lots of experiments and projects done and most of the time these are driven by business goals, so some of the most interesting projects from a scientific standpoint can die because of a raw material simply being too expensive. The program teaches you how to work through tough projects efficiently and set the expectation that the best way to the end of a project isn’t always a single world-changing step, but many incremental improvements. It also teaches the value of understanding why experiments didn’t work and how to use that information to design future experiments better.

How did your internship prepare you for your current position/career path?

The variety of experiences and work I was exposed to during my internship allowed me to greatly expand my knowledge and skillset in science. I was able to carry out experiments starting with reacting a phenolic resin and finishing with testing the application properties of the overlays. Seeing how changes in the chemistry of the resin affect the properties of the final overlay helped me learn much more than if I had just been making resin every day, as you have much more to consider than the properties of the resin itself when making changes. Having knowledge of the entire process, not just the chemistry, opens up endless opportunities for growth and improvement.

How have you evolved in your career since you started?  

I have actually followed in the footsteps of another alum of the program, Tyrone Morato, and transferred into a process engineering role at our Portland site. The work I did on the resins and overlays at the R&D level opened up this opportunity for me, as I was able to demonstrate my ability to apply my knowledge of the chemistry to the manufacturing process. The opportunities I was given in my internship made this possible; if I had only worked on the resins and nothing else, I would not have had this career opportunity. The freedom I was given to explore ideas and perform experiments broadened my knowledge and understanding of the chemical processes, and I frequently found myself more interested in the process than the base chemistry. The program encourages exploring ideas and critical thinking, and this quality greatly helped me in my work transitioning from chemistry to engineering.

Is there any advice you’d offer students?

The only thing I would recommend is to consider why you want to go to graduate school. It’s easy to apply to PhD programs because you don’t know what else to do after undergrad, but committing to a doctoral program is a larger commitment than most people realize. This program is a good transition into graduate school - and to get a foot in the door to industry. I have many friends who are succeeding as a result of this program, and some that are considering going back for further education after some years in industry. A master’s degree in chemistry gets you a lot more opportunities than a bachelor’s nowadays, so completing this program expands your opportunities greatly even if you’re considering getting a PhD eventually.