Centralight

How to find the Chips at Dow Chemical? 'You can just tell.' It didn't take long for Clint Schmidt to realize he wasn't the only Chippewa working at The Dow Chemical Co. "A lot of us have 'Fire Up Chips!' on our cars, in our offices," he says. "I have the 'Flying C' on my pin board. It's very easy to connect with alumni here." Schmidt, '98, strategic market manager at Dow, says you don't always need a bumper sticker to identify a fellow Chip. About 300 employees are alums. "Sometimes, you can just tell," he says. "We have a go-do attitude. A good work ethic. CMU turns out a lot of go-getters." Ted Coale, '12, has a CMU flag on his bulletin board but you can find a bunch of CMU alums, he says, by following the chatter. "About 20 of us CMU grads go out to lunch once a month," says Coale, who works in information systems in Dow's Saginaw office. "We talk about our jobs, college, life. It helps us stay connected. We have a sense of camaraderie." Coale says he owes his job to "the heavy connections" between CMU and Dow. His CMU professor for an information systems course, Mark Buckley, 12 centralight winter '13 is a Dow employee who taught the class after work. "He thought I had promise and recommended me for an interview on campus," Coale says. "And the guy who interviewed me was from CMU, too." He landed a summer internship that turned into a job. "We must be doing something right," Coale says with a laugh. "Dow keeps hiring us." When Mary Klenk, '11, was a CMU student, studying integrated public relations and journalism, "I trolled the CMU Career Services website like crazy, looking for internships and jobs," she says. Like Coale, she landed a Dow internship that turned into a job. people and realize they're also from CMU, you end up talking about the CentralWestern game or the homecoming game. I was surprised to hear how many people were going back for homecoming – not just recent grads, but people from all years. There are a lot of proud alumni here." One trait they all seem to have, Klenk says, is a passion for giving to the community. That was honed at CMU, she says. "There's a volunteer culture at CMU," she says. "People get involved in campus organizations, in the community, they go on Alternative Spring Breaks. That says a lot about our students – we like to serve and be part of our community. It gets ingrained in you." Klenk volunteers with the Dow team on Habitat for Humanity projects. And when she served on a United Way panel, she met another CMU grad. Armed with the "real-world skills" she learned at CMU, Klenk says she showed up at Dow and realized Chips were everywhere. These days you can often find her back on campus, speaking to public "You see a lot of CMU diplomas relations classes – and keeping an eye on peoples' walls," she says. out for talent. She's a recruiter for Dow. Hers hangs in her workspace, along with a "I go to CMU," she says, "because I know CMU pennant and a CMU alumni button. there are top candidates there." > "You hear a lot of 'Fire Up Chips' around here," Klenk says. "Once you start talking to

• Cover