{"id":68031,"date":"2007-04-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/glocester-resident-trades-firefighting-career-for-biotechnology\/"},"modified":"2007-04-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-04T00:00:00","slug":"glocester-resident-trades-firefighting-career-for-biotechnology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2007\/04\/glocester-resident-trades-firefighting-career-for-biotechnology\/","title":{"rendered":"Glocester resident trades firefighting career for biotechnology"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t through 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s biomanufacturing program<\/p>\n


\n\tPROVIDENCE, R.I. \u2013 April 4, 2007 \u2013 Returning from a whitewater rafting trip in Maine 20 years ago, Glocester resident Mike Tocco overheard a friend studying for a test to become a firefighter and found himself getting all the answers right. So he took the test, too, and began a long career with the Providence Fire Department.<\/p>\n


\nNow that he is nearing the end of his firefighting career, he\u2019s getting all the answers right in another discipline: biotechnology.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cFirefighting has been a great job, but I\u2019m at the tail end of my career and I\u2019m still a pretty young guy for sitting on the park bench and retired,\u201d said Tocco, 43, who grew up in Cranston and graduated from LaSalle Academy. \u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in science, and the program at 溏心vlog免费B站 piqued my interest.\u201d<\/p>\n



\n\tTocco is enrolled in the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Biotechnology Manufacturing Program, a rigorous curriculum of biology, chemistry, mathematics and laboratory courses at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Feinstein Providence Campus that begins with two semesters of full-time study followed by a summer internship at a biotechnology company. After completing the internship, most students go to work full time in the industry and complete their education as part-time students.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve always kept up with cutting edge technology, so as soon as classes started and I began hearing about stem cells and the like, I was hooked,\u201d Tocco said. \u201cThe professors are really enthusiastic, and they\u2019re dedicated to making sure that the point comes across in a way that you\u2019re going to be able to apply and understand. They make sure everybody in class gets it.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWhile Tocco finds it challenging to keep up with the course reading and homework, he\u2019s very excited by the laboratory work. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cA lot of the equipment we use isn\u2019t something you\u2019re going to see in a regular biology or chemistry class,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re working with commercial equipment that\u2019s just used in a larger scale in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe 溏心vlog免费B站 student also appreciates the sense of camaraderie among the other 23 students in the program, most of who are also non-traditional students who are training to change careers.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThere\u2019s a ton of interaction among the students in the program,\u201d Tocco said. \u201cThe professors emphasize that in the biotech industry, employees work in a team structure, so in our labs we are divided into teams, and that has really helped out the students who are a little timid or intimidated by the labs.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPerhaps Tocco\u2019s greatest achievement in the 溏心vlog免费B站 program has been to develop his time management skills. He continues to work as a firefighter in Providence, mostly working weekend and overnight shifts while attending classes four days a week and studying whenever he can. He appreciates the help of his coworkers who regularly trade shifts with him to enable him to keep up with his schoolwork.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI\u2019m sure it will look good on my resume to show that I\u2019ve been able to work full time and get A\u2019s while in school full time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n


\nAs the semester comes to a close, Tocco is looking forward to his summer internship. \u201cI don\u2019t know yet where my internship will be, but I\u2019m really interested in a mid-to large-scale company, especially one that\u2019s involved in stem cell technology and regenerative medicine. That\u2019s what I really want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站 News Bureau photo by Michael Salerno Photography\n\t<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

through 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s biomanufacturing program PROVIDENCE, R.I. \u2013 April 4, 2007 \u2013 Returning from a whitewater rafting trip in Maine 20 years ago, Glocester resident Mike Tocco overheard a friend studying for a test to become a firefighter and found himself getting all the answers right. So he took the test, too, and began a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}