By simply taking a stroll through a house and observing its woodwork, high school seniors with a scientific bent might discover a lucrative, rewarding career. Kitchen cabinets, window frames, furniture, and hardwood floors, as well as paper, all are products of the booming wood industry.

Because wood is strong, lightweight, abundant, and renewable, it can be converted into finished products using far less energy than other materials. These advantages, along with an increase in the world's standard of living, have expanded the demand for wood. On a global scale, sales of Wood Products grew 90 percent from 1952 to 1982, and analysts predict sales will increase another 45 percent by the year 2000. This growth in the industry has created a profession in which there are 2.3 available jobs for every Wood Products graduate--a statistic that's nothing to shake a stick at.

Penn State's Wood Products major offers students the chance to discover the anatomical, physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of wood while almost guaranteeing employment after graduation. In the past five years, nearly all of our Wood Products graduates have found professional employment or have chosen to pursue a graduate degree. Nationwide, the industry has about 38,000 manufacturing plants and 22,000 sales and distribution centers. The more than 2 million employees have an annual payroll that exceeds $36 billion.

The major offers two options: Wood Products Processing and Manufacturing and Wood Products Business and Marketing. Students in the manufacturing option are immersed in the science and technology involved in converting wood into products, a discipline that appeals to students with an interest in research, technical service, or industrial production. Undergraduates can specialize in fiber science, materials science, engineering, or chemistry. The marketing option, one of just a few wood-specific marketing majors in North America, teaches such concepts as customer service, product quality, value, product perceptions, competitive advantage, and global competition. Students in this option can begin careers in sales or retail management or pursue interests in market analysis. Penn State also offers a Wood Products Marketing minor for students in other majors, such as business, science, or engineering.

Since 1990, salaries for graduates with a baccalaureate degree have ranged from $22,000 to $35,000, with most approaching the high end of that spectrum. Those with graduate degrees can command salaries of up to $55,000. Graduates start careers with such large corporations as Weyerhaeuser, Georgia Pacific, and International Paper, or with more specialized cabinet, furniture, wood composite, adhesive, or finish industries.

"Wood Products careers are both interesting and challenging," says 1988 Penn State graduate Geoffrey Webb, a technical sales representative for National Case in Chicago, Illinois. "Wood technologists look for better ways to use one of our country's most valuable natural resources."