Preparing for graduation
Nearly 2,000 students are preparing to enter the workforce as USU’s spring 2008 graduation edges near.
“We just always have great students to honor,” said Sydney Peterson, chair of the Commencement Committee.
The graduate commencement ceremony will take place Friday, May 2 and the undergraduate ceremony is Saturday, May 3. Peterson said a little more than 50 percent of the graduating students usually attend their graduation ceremony.
According to a document provided by Marci Smith, supervisor of records at the Registrar’s Office, 1,937 students are graduating this spring. That is 1,143 more students than fall’s graduation. Fifty-two percent of this spring’s graduating class are male. The youngest student graduating from USU this spring was born in 1990 and the oldest was born in 1946.
The undergraduate ceremony will begin with an academic procession beginning at the Quad and ending at the Spectrum, where the actual ceremony will be held. Peterson said after the procession an honorary degree recipient and CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, James H. Quigley will address the graduates. After his speech, Quigley and the other four honorary degree recipients will be recognized. Peterson said the other honorary recipients this year are Clark P. Giles, W. Eugene Hansen, L. Tom Perry and Beverley P. Sorenson.
Once the five honorary recipients have been recognized, valedictorian Andrew Braithwaite from the College of Natural Resources will speak and the graduating students will be honored. Peterson said USU President Stan Albrecht will then give his concluding remarks after which senior vocalist Mary Jane Lee will sing the “Star-Spangled Banner” and lead the audience in USU’s alma mater hymn.
Donna Crow, director of USU Career Services, said the transition from school to career can be difficult for some students. Graduating students have been trained to follow syllabuses and due dates, she said, and the workforce isn’t usually as cleanly spelled out. Crow said employers wish students coming into the workforce would be more adaptive and willing to get in and get their hands dirty.
“Learn to love ambiguity because uncertainty is part of the work force,” Crow said. “It’s an opportunity to seize the day and make something happen.”
Crow said employers expect to hire 7 to 8 percent more college graduates this year than last year. She said Career Services has tools to help students find career paths that fit, from virtual mock interviews and one-on-one advising, to online job searches. Students should spend one-fourth of the time they spend job searching online to set up networks because it allows them to follow up more easily, she said.
“If students aren’t online building an online network of both employers and alumni, they’re missing out,” Crow said. “We want them talking.”
Blaine Ebert, senior graduating with a degree in political science, said he plans on taking an internship in Washington D.C. in the fall. Crow said although most USU students are prepared to enter the workforce with either careers or internships, Career Services expects to see students in May who haven’t done any job searching.
“Some don’t start their career search until after they graduate,” she said. “There’s a larger group doing that this year than last.”
Crow compared the career search process to a large menu at a restaurant that has too many options to look over.
“Take action,” she said. “Sometimes the process of career searching is too daunting or seems too big to wrap your head around so they’re overwhelmed and don’t take action.”
Students are eligible to use USU’s Career Services from the time they enter as freshmen until many years after graduation, Crow said.
“I’m working with three 50-year-old alumni who want to change careers,” she said. “They’re called career changers. We want students to be reaching back and using these services all through the career process.”
-rach.ch@aggiemail.usu.edu