Recent college graduates step into the abyss
By Ibrahim Hirsi
Special to Sun Thisweek
Every weekday morning as I drive to work at the Wallin Education Partners in Minneapolis, I either yield or stop for the hastening student pedestrians who have just parked their cars at the Burnsville Transit Station, crossing the road to catch buses to their early classes at the University of Minnesota.
Hirsi
The sight of college students with backpacks, riding the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority express buses, reminds me of my years as a student at the University of Minnesota, which ended just a year ago when I graduated with a journalism degree and an African and African-American studies minor.
Earlier this month, some of these students walked – along with my brother and thousands of other students – across the University of Minnesota’s Mariucci Arena stage to honor and celebrate the end of many long and arduous years of studying.
On one hand, I was excited to share the happiness and celebration with the graduates. On the other hand, I was deeply distraught by the lethargic economy, which increasingly victimizes the rising professionals.
Despite the students’ enthusiastic desire to graduate, the nation’s work force has a poor welcome for the 2012 college graduating class.
According to an April study done for and reported on by the Associated Press, one in two college graduates are either unemployed or underemployed. The study stated that many with bachelor’s degrees find low-paying jobs or employment that doesn’t require a college education, and are competing with people who never set foot in a college or university.
On top of the anguish of unemployment, the new graduates will have to start repaying their student loans to the U.S. Department of Education six months after the graduation date.
The pressure to pay back loans and the need for some graduates to make financial contributions to their families have forced some recent graduates to search for any kind of jobs, even ones not in fields they hoped to work in or at the salary they expected to earn.
For instance, a former classmate from the university’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication who graduated with me last May, now works at a Minneapolis McDonald’s, barely making the minimum wage. Another friend, who graduated with honors from the university’s College of Liberal Arts, still remains unemployed more than a year after he graduated.
But what worries me the most aren’t the widening unemployment rates, especially among minority communities. What worries me the most is the fact that many high school students may not plan to attend college because they see college graduates working alongside them in places such as McDonald’s and Target. The consequences of not obtaining a college education are brutal. The young people without higher education won’t have the ability to think critically and may not make good choices in life. They may not be involved in improving their own communities and neighborhoods.
To avoid these consequences, the graduates who make the extra effort to attend colleges and universities should be rewarded with deserving jobs and salaries. And the White House should assuage the duress of unemployment by creating decent jobs for aspiring recent graduates.
Ibrahim Hirsi is a Burnsville-based writer who graduated from the University of Minnesota with a journalism degree and a minor in African and African-American studies. Hirsi’s articles have been published in numerous publications, including the Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio’s commentary page and the Twin Cities Daily Planet. He has also lived on the East Coast, where he’s written for New York’s Long Island Newsday and the Record-Journal, a local newspaper in Meriden, Conn.
Ibrahim Hirsi’s recent column on the difficulties new college graduates can face when entering the job market was, in my opinion, spot-on. But more concerning is the author’s assertion that “…graduates who make the extra effort to attend colleges and universities should be rewarded with deserving jobs and salaries.” Frankly, I think that the author is one of many recent graduates who finish school and expect that since they put in the time in the classroom that the working world now owes them the dream job they deserve. It is this attitude that exists in too many of the millions of unemployed people too proud to take a job they deem to be beneath them. A college education teaches you much, but one thing it does not instill is the concept of competition. Without competition, you have no reason to put forth effort in order to distinguish yourself from the others. It is the basic principle our economy and business world are built upon. Mr. Hirsi seems to think that our government should be doing more for he and his peers. I ask, what more do you want? You live in a free country that gives you the opportunity to show your individuality and be rewarded for it. A college education is good, but not always good enough. I have been with my current employer since November of 2008. I am fortunate enough to have been promoted three times in the past three years. I started at the bottom and am working my way up. I make a decent wage, have health insurance, and a sense that I am contributing and making my mark. I am thankful to at least have a job, let alone one that gives me as much as this one. One thing I do not have is a college degree. I’ve worked hard and earned my place in this world. Perhaps Mr. Hirsi can learn that an education in the real world can be just as valuable as an education in a classroom.
I will briefly comment that I don’t find this article of much substance because the writer only mentions college grads with degrees that don’t hold much weight. Gone are the days where one can obtain a liberal arts degree and expect the world to hand one a dream job. Such thinking is based in entitlement. Before anyone spends the money or time pursuing a degree, they must evaluate what the practical use of that degree is. To attend college and take a lot of “soft classes” will not give one practical skills. Sure, classes such as finance, accounting, etc., are not fun, however, those classes prepare one for the business world. Also, many people look down on technical colleges, however, it is at such a college that one can learn many practical skills. I am saying this from experience. I have graduated from 2 different technical colleges and also recently earned my bachelor’s degree. While it was my bachelor’s degree that increased my salary, I firmly state that it was my technical school education that taught me the skills to even get the job in the first place. I work in the logistics field.