Pharmacy students from Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Orange and Wagga Wagga will meet with industry and employer groups over pizza at a state-wide videoconference on Wednesday 7 August. The annual evening “jobs hookup” will include representatives from the Society of Hospital Pharmacists Australia and Professional Pharmacists Australia, says Pharmacy program leader at CSU in Orange Dr Maree Simpson. “We run a jobs hookup with our third-year and fourth-year students each year, to help them get a sense of the options available to them after graduation, and to help establish the professional and industry connections that can kick-start their careers,” she said. “Not all pharmacists go on to work in a ‘high-street’ pharmacy. Many go into hospital pharmacist roles, or into associated careers, and rural and regional hospitals offer many opportunities in those fields. A hospital pharmacist could work in an outpatient dispensary, in intensive care, recovery, or in coronary care providing medications and conducting medication reviews. It’s a really varied and valuable job, and the jobs hookup is a great opportunity for students to ask questions of the people who are often the ones recruiting into these fields.”

Taking mathematics to the real world will be the aim of a day long competition for Year 11 students from four Border high schools in Corowa on Tuesday 13 August. More than 30 Year 11 students, teachers and supporters from Corowa, Rutherglen and Denniliquin High Schools will take part in the Corowa Maths Challenge which involves two teams of four students each taking part in maths activities that include Charles Sturt University (CSU) and three local organisations: Uncle Tobys, Corowa Shire Council and Corowa Whiskey and  Chocolate. Dr Colin Carmichael from CSU’s School of Education will also attend with student teachers to help run the day. “Activities like these are valuable for the school students as it helps them see the relevance of mathematics when it is used in the workplace and the community. Similarly, the CSU education students will benefit from seeing how maths education activities can be run outside the school environment,” Dr Carmichael said. The Corowa Maths Challenge will be held in the Corowa Whiskey and Chocolate from 9.30am to 2.30pm on 13 August.

A filmmaker celebrated for his contribution to Australian cinema will deliver the biennial 2013 Theo Barker Memorial Public Lecture co-hosted by the Bathurst District Historical Society and Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst on Friday 16 August. The Head of Campus at CSU in Bathurst, Mr Col Sharp, will welcome and introduce Mr Andrew Pike, OAM, the principal of Canberra-based Ronin Films, who will discuss ‘Men and Women of the Bush in Early Australian Cinema’, including the place of bushrangers, the popularity of which led to a ban on bushranger films by the NSW Police in 1912. Dr Rob McLachlan, adjunct senior lecturer in history at the CSU School of Humanities and Social Sciences in Bathurst and coordinator of the public lecture, said, “Of the first twenty feature films made in Australia, at least twelve had a bushranger theme, with five of them featuring a Bathurst-area bushranger, including A Bushranger's Ransom, or A Ride for a Life, which was filmed locally in 1911. The main focus of the lecture, however, will be the films featuring the stories of bush women, which took the place of the banned bushranger films. The Bathurst region has a significant place in the making of such films with A Girl of the Bush, filmed locally in 1921. Mr Pike’s lecture will discuss the importance of this film today, for film and social historians.”

An astronomer and Aboriginal researcher will highlight thousands of years of serious star gazing when he discusses the astronomical knowledge and traditions of Aboriginal Australians next week at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga. Dr Duane Hamacher from the University of NSW in Sydney will explore the relationship between astronomy and calendars, navigation, food economics and social structure in the lives of the first Australians. The free public lecture will be the first event in Albury as part of National Science Week for 2013, which is being coordinated by the Astronomical Society of Albury-Wodonga in conjunction with CSU. The event starts at 7pm on Tuesday 13 August in the CD Blake Lecture Theatre, CSU in Albury-Wodonga, off Elizabeth Mitchell Drive, Thurgoona.

The successful rescue of a large animal from a road accident, mud or a deep hole carries a fresh set of skills for all those involved in an emergency, including veterinarians. Veterinary science students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga will be able to learn the latest in rescue techniques through a Large Animal Emergency Rescue course to be offered to CSU students by Equine Veterinarians Australia. The course, part of EVA’s continuing education program, is the first EVA has offered to veterinary science students in Australia. The course will involve lectures and simulated large animal rescues with a life size horse mannequin and a trailer at the University on Thursday 8 August. Dr Sarah Pollard-Williams from CSU’s School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences said, “The Large Animal Emergency Rescue course is a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn key techniques that will help them assist in emergency situations and keep the injury risk to themselves and other handlers as low as possible. There are vital techniques that can greatly improve the animal survival rate as well in these often very challenging situations.” The 52 veterinary science students are about to embark on their final few months of clinical practice before graduation from CSU at the end of next year.

It might be ugliness, not beauty, that is in the eye of the beholder, according to a Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic. Associate Professor Rocco Crino will address the topic in a School of Psychology seminar at CSU in Bathurst on Wednesday 7 August, in which he will explain research which found people who scrutinised a part of their body they disliked were more likely to feel unattractive. “Preoccupation with mirror checking, gazing, and reflective surface checking are noteworthy features in conditions where body image disturbance is severely affected, such as in Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Eating Disorders,” Professor Crino said. “These mirror behaviours are believed to be significant maintaining factors in these difficult to treat conditions.”  Professor Crino’s research on the topic tested volunteers asked to stand either before a mirror and describe themselves generally, or to stand before a mirror and describe their disliked body part in detail. “Results indicated that those who scrutinised their disliked body part were significantly more concerned and dissatisfied with their appearance, felt significantly more unattractive, and bothered by their appearance related thoughts,” he said.