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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2000)
(JO senior, aspiring author takes his own life ■ inebpringtield native, who had already written his first novel, transferred to the University from UNLV By Jeremy Lang Oregon Daily Emerald Don Stone said the first warning sign came two years ago when Joshua O’Brien boarded a plane for school and suddenly, without any word, didn’t report to football camp at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. O’Brien, a University senior his tory major, died last weekend from a self-inflicted gun shot, ac cording to Eugene Police Depart ment spokeswoman Jan Power. She said that, according to the po lice report, O’Brien made a 911 call at 2:34 p.m. on May 12 and left the phone off the hook without saying anything to the operator. When police arrived at his resi dence, they found the door open, O’Brien dead and a suicide note. “He was really sensitive — he cared about a lot of people. Some times I thought he cared more about others than himself,” said Stone, who coached O’Brien through four years of football at Thurston high school in Spring field and kept in close contact with him through his college years, most recently over last spring break. “He was an outstanding student and a really emotional kid,” Stone added. “He was one of our more fiery performers.” O’Brien played football and wrestled for Thurston before at tending UNLV on a football schol arship his freshman year of col lege. Stone said that O’Brien went to UNLV for his sophomore year and after he didn’t report to prac tice for a few days, coaches called O’Brien’s parents. “The parents called me to see if I had heard from him,” Stone said. O’Brien’s brother, Justin, a sen ior at Oregon State University, said that the decision to leave foot ball and UNLV was sudden. “One day he just decided no more football [and] decided to en roll in the UO,” he said. O’Brien’s father chose not to comment on his son’s cause of death. Stone said O’Brien felt like he •let people down by not continuing with football and he thought he was being treated for depression. As a person who also played foot ball in college, he reminded O’Brien to do whatever made him happy. Stone said he remembered when, in a 1994 first-round play off game, Thurston missed a field goal and some players criticized the kicker. O’Brien instantly stepped in to defend the kicker. “He was not your typical foot ball player... that was his struggle ... sometimes [football] can be very brutal,” Stone said. O’Brien had many academic goals beyond his sports life, ac cording to his brother. He said O’Brien was an aspiring writer who had written his first novel and taken it to a publisher, who re turned it for revisions. He added that O’Brien was one of the kind of people whom everybody knew and wanted to be around. “You could spend 15 to 30 min utes with him and just go ‘whoa,’” he said. “Everybody had some thing in common with him, no matter if they were 6 or 60. ” A memorial service for O’Brien will be held today at 2 p.m. at St. Alice Catholic Church in Spring field, where much of his family lives. Suicide facts More than 32,000 people i n the United States kill themselves every year. Accounting for 1.4 percent of all deaths, suicide is the ninth leading cause of death in the country. A person commits suicide about every 15 minutes in the United States, but it is estimated that an attempt is made about once a minute. Sixty percent of all people who commit suicide kill themselves with firearms. There are four male suicides for every female one; however, at least twice as many females as males attempt suicide. 3/4 of all suicides are committed by white males. Source: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention One-credit mentor class networks students, employers ■ Ca reer Center cou rses allow students to meet professionals in their field By Adam Jude Oregon Daily Emerald Junior Maria-Ladona Schaad enrolled in the Career Center’s Mentor Program class last winter expecting only to improve the structure of her resume. Schaad was surprised, howev er, when she met with her mentor from Est6e Lauder in New York City and established a relation ship that eventually led to the company offering her an intern ship. “I really didn’t expect it,” Schaad said. “I went in looking for advice. But we talked and one thing led to another and they asked if I wanted to intern with them.” With a database of nearly 1,800 professional mentors from around the world, the Mentor Program di rectors are eagerly looking to pro vide students with a transition into the job market. Alyson Bodai, program direc tor, said there are nine courses of fered fall term for those students interested in meeting with profes sionals and exploring potential careers. “This is a great opportunity for students to get hands-on experi ence from someone already suc ceeding in the field,” Bodai said. “It’s real life information.” In the one credit classes, stu dents make a request to meet two mentors in career fields of their choice. The database — which in cludes representatives from the National Basketball Association, Paramount Pictures, The Late Show with David Letterman and the National Wildlife Foundation — is then searched for a match and students are connected with the mentors to conduct short in terviews. “When you take the class, you learn about 40 different people and their careers,” said Katie Hopper, assistant director of the Mentor Program. “And that’s just that much more knowledge about career options.” The Mentor Program, estab lished in 1993, has classes that meet just six times each term to address career planning, resume writing, networking and inter views. English, biology, psychol ogy and journalism are some of the program’s course offerings. An additional class is offered for all majors. With her great experience in the mentor class, Schaad said she strongly recommends it. “I was really impressed [with the Mentor Program],” Schaad said. “It shows why networking is so important.” More information about the Mentor Program and its class of ferings for fall term is available on the Career Center’s Web site at http://uocareer.uoregon.edu/men tor. 00937a Most UO students when they party Office of Student Life Data taken from 1998 UO Health center Survey. University Of Oregon i . »
