But spring is also a good time to look forward, and I would like to ask your help with the future, particularly regarding an important aspect of our mission - student placement. One of the most gratifying parts of teaching at BYU over the past 20 years has been watching our outstanding graduates leave here year after year to make important contributions to their communities and to the Church. Our goal and our dream is to teach and and have them learn under the influence of the Lord's Spirit in order to prepare them to assume their roles as future leaders of our country and the Church. But an important step is that they find employment. Unfortunately, the placement of BYU students is hampered by geographic isolation.
Companies prefer to come to universities in their own locality to seek their professional people.
But very few companies which hire chemical engineers are closer than 700-1000 miles from Provo. We have been encouraging and teaching our students to be aggressive and to use tools like the internet to find jobs in distant locations, and some have been successful. But it is hard, and not all of our students find jobs. Once we place a BYU student with a company, there is a high probability that the company will come back for more. We need a Network of BYU Chemical Engineers , where you talk to us, we talk to you, and you talk to each other.