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Theresa Zieske and John Polta
Class of 1982 College of Saint Benedict Alumnae
(John Polta, Class of 1981)
Full time mother
Substitute teaching in Elementary School
Theresa Zieske and John Polta write:
What are we doing? Baseball games, soccer games, basketball games, swimming, band camp, bible camp, camp camp, piano lessons, family vacations , and working. (Will this really help get you a grant??)
Theresa has never really used her Ph.D., but finds being a mom a good trade and hard enough work as it is. I'm with Mallinckrodt Group still (almost 5 years now, but not sure how much longer). I was with Henkel in Santa Rosa, CA for the previous previous 5 years ( with a one year layover in Duesseldorf,Germany -- the company's headquarters). Ja, Ich kann ganz gut Deutsch noch sprechen, aber nicht schrieben.
I am now as general as a general analytical chemist can get. A recap for you. Ph.D with Dennis Johnson at Iowa State in electro analytical chemistry. 1.5 yr post Doc with Pat Thiel at Ames Lab doing surface analysis. 5 years with Henkel as a spectroscopy group (==> section ) leader doing mainly mass spectrometry. Started and ran the mass spec lab at Mallinckrodt Medical, went through reengineering and downsizing (read worker hell) and am now just a chemist who happens to do analytical chemistry most of the time in pursuit of project milestones.... I'm doing more lab work now than ever before and it's actually kinda fun.
We've got three kids ages 11, 8, 6 (boy, girl, boy) and they keep us busy with all of the above mentioned sports. Theresa will be starting to substitute teach this fall in the elementary system and will perhaps try to find something more permanent after the kids are a little older. I still have woodworking as a hobby. The latest piece being our dining room china cabinet. It looks great if I do say so myself. So far just about all our furniture that is wooden has come out of my wood shop in the basement. Theresa's hobby seems to be teaching. She spends one night per week during the school year teaching catholic CCD and helps out quite a bit at the elementary school during the day.
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