Personal Growth Over Personal Wealth

By: Ryan Cosgrove
Today’s job market is shrinking and being flooded with hundreds of thousands of college graduates every year, which now has students thinking about postponing their professional career in favor of something non-traditional.
Whether it’s devoting a couple years to volunteer work, taking some time off to travel, or starting up your own business there are plenty of non-traditional options for recent college graduates.
“So, what are you doing after college?” This is a question that can be heard a lot around college campuses this time of year and you might expect hearing one of two things: A job or grad school.
However, there are students everywhere that will be spending the next couple years doing something completely different from the majority of their classmates.
“I hate how there’s this automatic expectation for you to graduate from college, get a job, get married, and settle down. I’m young, I don’t want that for my life, at least not right now,” said senior Chris Brosnahan, 21, of Weymouth, Mass.
This is a sentiment that is common among young people, and recent college graduates are in a very exciting, sometimes intimidating, time of their life.
That being said, it is interesting to try to understand why recent graduates would want to take a non-traditional career path after college.
“I think some students make non-traditional decision which shows they have matured and have a deeper understanding of how they fit into the greater scheme of things. A few students' decisions show they have not matured and are still in the ‘play at all cost’ in materialism centered society. Thankfully that is not the case for most students but I have seen it occasionally,” said Michael Tirrell of the Stonehill psychology department.
One popular non-traditional route is to volunteer for the Peace Corps which is currently boasting a 30-year high in overseas volunteers.
According to Stonehill’s website there are 11 members of this year’s senior class that have expressed interest in joining the Peace Corps, two of which have already submitted their applications.
“I’m trying to keep my options open. The company that I interned for over the summer already offered me a job, but I think joining the Peace Corps would be an amazing experience. That’s why I applied,” said Tom O’Connor, 21, of Tolland, Conn.
The are currently four Stonehill Alumni volunteering overseas for the Peace Corps: Astrid Gilles is in West Africa, Robbie Prime is in South Africa, and Anthony Tarzia and Virginia Gordon are in Belize.
There they are working to improve the inhabitant’s quality of life by teaching computer skills, language, hygiene, nutrition, and disease prevention while also setting a strong foundation for themselves when, and if, they enter the workforce.
They are but a small percentage of the 8,000 Peace Corps volunteers overseas right now, but their stories are nonetheless inspiring.
According to the Stonehill website, Jason Ricciardi, class of 2004, spent his time in Ecuador in a remote town with a very obscure dialect of Spanish call Kichwa. Seeing the importance of language and communication and the potential for difficulty in the future, Ricciardi took it upon himself to start writing a basic Kichwa guide for future volunteers.
The Peace Corps, however, is just one of the many service opportunities available for recent college graduates.
John McGaffigan, 21, of Dedham is applying to be part of the Massachusetts Promise Fellowship which is a community service program in Boston.
“I’m not really looking for a real job-type job right away, and the Fellowship really interested me. They give you money every week for living expenses and they also allow you to take courses for free at Northeastern, so you can’t really go wrong,” said McGaffigan.
Ryan Horn, 24, of Bethany, Conn., graduated from Stonehill College in 2006 with a degree in psychology and philosophy, but chose to devote a year to volunteer work.
Horn contacted an organization called the Jesuit Volunteer Corps which then assigned him to travel to Oakland, California to work for a program called Civicorps Schools.
There Horn worked with inner-city high school students as a mentor and tutor; helping them realize their potential and preparing them for the rest of their lives.
“It was a very rewarding experience for me. I felt like I was really helping the kids I was around. Also, it’s a great way to get connected and meet people in a part of the country that you are unfamiliar with because they have programs in a bunch of states,” said Horn.
Aside from graduates doing volunteer work, there are recent graduates that have the urge to travel and see the world firsthand and there are some that want to “make it on their own” and work for themselves.
“I’m getting my degree in Communication Studies, but I think I want to start my own business designing and producing drumheads. It’s a huge decision though because I am going to have to take out a loan to buy all of the equipment,” said Max Leonard, 21, of Concord, Mass.
With so many options out there it is easy to see why there are some students who chose to do something different with their time after college rather than start their career right away.
“All in all, I would say that the majority of this minority are either soul-searching or self-seeking, in the positive sense of the phrase. More power to them for taking a route that might involve unexpected challenges and even emotional, relational, and financial risks, if they use the experiences to continue to grow rather than stagnate at the college mentality. The world needs some of those "dare-devils," as long as they are not becoming a burden to others,” said Professor Tirrell.