Service is a priority for seniors, grads
Andrea Smith Shappell, '79,'85
Director
In response to Ashley Lowery and Jake McCall's recent letter about post-graduate options for seniors in the College of Arts and Letters, I would like to comment on what I hear from the many seniors I meet with to discuss post-graduate service programs.
Nearly 10 percent of the Notre Dame graduates in the 1990s, approximately 180 graduates each year, chose to participate in service programs for one year or more. Throughout the academic year, I meet with many seniors to discuss their decision-making process and the variety of domestic and international service programs available.
What I hear is not that these seniors cannot find jobs, but that at this time in their lives service with others is a priority, motivated by faith or by humanitarian concerns. Many ask for and receive one or two year deferments from employers or graduate schools. Others seek to use the knowledge and skills that have been developed in their undergraduate education for this year or two with a not-for-profit agency. Placements include opportunities for those who have skills in engineering, journalism, legal advocacy, social service, public policy advocacy, marketing, medical fields as well as many others.
The seniors that I listen to, including those who may not choose to commit to a post-graduate service program but explore other ways to integrate social concerns into their personal and professional lives, are living out the mission of the University in a profound way: "The aim is to create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good that will bear fruit as learning becomes service to justice." I believe that this is the fiber of a Notre Dame education. The challenge is to continue to integrate these concerns into our post-graduate lives, whatever path of jobs, service programs or graduate schools we choose.
Thank you, Ashley and Jake, for the discussion that you have generated.
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, February 28, 2000
