Less job options and changing career
By ALLY JAY
News Writer
One of the advantages of attending Notre Dame, until recently, has been the availability of high-paying jobs upon graduation. But with the Sept. 11 events and the current economic recession, more seniors may be pursuing service opportunities following their graduation than in past years.
Andrea Shappell, director of senior transition programs at the Center for Social Concerns, predicts that approximately 10 percent of the graduating seniors will be active in a wide range of public service and social justice activities next year.
"Usually about 190 graduating seniors do a year or two of service after graduation, and that's been consistent even though the economy's been good. I don't have any hard stats, because most programs including ACE aren't accepting applications until January and February," said Shappell.
"Sept. 11 brought volunteering back into the forefront of my mind," said senior accounting and film and television major Melissa Rauch. Rauch was offered her dream job at NBC, early in the semester, and signed up to work with NBC.
But after becoming involved in Foodshare, a community service project designed to minimize the wasting of food, Rauch had a realization that she wanted to do more than two hours of service a week.
"I signed the offer but then I had this realization that I hadn't done enough," said Rauch. "I had good intentions to do service when I first came here to Notre Dame, but then I got busy with other things. Now I'm questioning what was important and I was worried that the same thing would happen when I started my career in Manhattan. I thought I needed to set aside time to do this one thing."
Rauch admits that she was thankful that NBC allowed her to defer her job commitment for a year.
"I had these feeling that I needed to do service, but I was worried that NBC might not be agreeable and I was afraid of risking my dream job."
For Jeremy Bauer, a senior environmental geosciences major, Sept. 11 reinforced his decision to join the Peace Corps.
"That [Sept. 11] kinda reaffirmed my commitment to service," he said. "I feel especially right now we need ambassadors to promote good will and solidarity. But I've wanted to do international service since doing a sophomore summer service project. I feel now's a great time because it's harder to do these kinds of things once you're settled down with a job."
Bauer was accepted to the Peace Corps recently and will be in Ecuador next year teaching resource management and water sanitation.
Colleen Gilg, a senior government major, will also be involved in service abroad next year and had been planning on doing service even before this year. Gilg is interested in international and human rights law and hopes to go to Latin America next year to gain experience that will help her in the future.
"I figure long-term I'll be working on public policy, and it's crucial if you're doing something like that to have grass roots experience," said Gilg.
Like Bauer, Gilg had been thinking about service after graduation before Sept. 11. "Sept. 11 strengthened my resolve, but I had been thinking about it previously to that. If anything it makes it more difficult with family and friends who are worried about me going abroad," she said. "However, I felt what happened highlights the need to do international services and reaching out to better relations in the world."
For seniors still contemplating doing service, Shappell urged them to take advantages of the resources that the CSC offers.
"It's not at all late to do this. A lot of the domestic programs don't start taking applications until the end of January and there are opportunities for engineers, architects, and those interested in the medical field to get experience and also take part in service programs," Shappell said.
All News Stories for Monday, December 3, 2001
