Restoration Calls: "I'm willing to take on the additional expenses for the chance to have a more stable future."
Many recent college grads are considering graduate school in order to avoid the crummy job market. How many have a similar story? How many think the job market is starting to improve?
My name’s Jennifer. I’m twenty-three, and I live in rural Pennsylvania. I graduated from college in May 2011, but I have yet to find a full-time job. When I have applied to entry-level jobs where I meet the qualifications, I’m faced with rejection e-mails that tell me that I “lack work experience.” I moved back home with my single mom (who raised my sister and me without child support), but I also struggled finding full-time work in my hometown. Right now I’m working part-time while paying off my student loan debt and chipping in with household expenses when I can. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, my mother’s employer’s health insurance covers me until I turn twenty-six. Luckily I don’t have to worry about my health at this point in my life like so many other Americans. I’m applying to graduate school in the fall to hopefully increase my employment prospects. My graduate school expenses will increase my student debt. However foolish it may sound, I’m willing to take on the additional expenses for the chance to have a more stable future.
What’s your recession story? How can the U.S. rejuvenate itself? Submit your story and we’ll publish it here.
Our friends at National Journal are collecting your stories and ideas about how America has fallen and what the nation can do to fix itself.“America’s economic and social foundations are crumbling. The promises that generations of us grew up believing in - that hard work could support a family, that we would pass better lives on to our children - no longer hold.”
We see the stories as a starting point for a conversation about how to solve America’s great problems. We hope you’ll join us. This American story doesn’t have to end with a broken dream.
