A cyberfriend (SkepticalGraduate) messaged me to tell me of his doubts that Gallaudet's enrollment would increase as a result of the increased name recognition. SkepticalGraduate (not his real screen name) is a late '90s graduate, who works for a major retail chain and has struggled financially. He had a lot to say. Our AIM conversation is below:
SkepticalGrad: i read ur blog
SkepticalGrad: i dont know if the enrollment will go up
SkepticalGrad: some of us notice we arent getting jobs
SkepticalGrad: or good jobs
SkepticalGrad: i dont think all the alumni will serious recommened to the younger generation and VR would cuz they arleady have record of our sucsess rate
SkepticalGrad: my old vr in ohio dont really support gally cuz of the success rate is low and too expensive
Me: i know there are problems...
Me: but the increased name recognition may help
SkepticalGrad: they preferred us to go to a local school
Me: what year was that that you old VR said that?
SkepticalGrad: i kinda been telling younger kids to go to local school cuz im not seeing everyone getting good job with our degree
SkepticalGrad: that was last year when i ask about going back for 2nd degree
SkepticalGrad: my old vr said she would reccommend the smart one to go to local school and those who are on boderline to go to Gally
SkepticalGrad: do u remember 94 graduation
SkepticalGrad: clinton spoke there
SkepticalGrad: then washington post wrote an article abt Gally
SkepticalGrad: many business and goverments were not impresss with gally cuz of lack of english skills
SkepticalGrad: that article was painful article telling us we stinks
SkepticalGrad: i do love Gally but just not impress with the education we got I felt we could have gotton better education especially they should required us more english courses and requried some Internships
SkepticalGrad: some major required internship not all .. I think the internship would help some of us for jobs ... That one part lacking us is job experience
Me: bob is taking a computer major at GMU right now..he is learning more than i learned at gally
SkepticalGrad: maybe u can tell that on ur blog what gally is missing that gmu is offering
Me: fortunately the basics that we learned was just enough to help me on the job..ive learned more on the job
[To be fair, Gallaudet Professor Issac Agboola once told my CIS class something I have never forgotten: "It is important to be able to teach yourself. You have to be able to pick up a book and teach yourself new skills." That has certainly proven to be true in my career since then.]
SkepticalGrad: another thing some of the major are total waste of money .. some vr now more picky on rather to support you or not depend on the major.. some major are total of waste of their money like Child Development cuz u can get child delepment job in day care center without a degree at $7
SkepticalGrad: an hour
SkepticalGrad: Some of us who already graduated still need more than just our bs/ba degree some have to go another school for another degree or get master i feel i need another one
SkepticalGrad: some us do go back to gally again for another degree like u did
So some are lucky with the jobs and some aren't .. i beleive only 50% are getting good jobs but what happened to the rest of the 50% .. some end up working in Deaf institution as dorm RA , Teach subs, human service... and the worst of all some are us are working in Retails such as Target , Walmart, Kohls and etc
Monday, October 30, 2006
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11 comments:
This is becoming very true. We are not getting jobs. The career center is NOT helping at all. Heck they didn't even bother to send a e-mail out the day the job fair for the fall semester was canceled the day the protest took over the campus.
No matter what happens.. we are not getting the jobs we need. we are all hurt.
Everyone in President Bush's America is having problems in obtaining jobs. It's not just Gallaudet; it is everywhere now, especially during the midterm election year. Job prospects will get worse in a few years till we the Democrats reclaim The White House.
i agreed with carl bush ruined and made us missrable
Nope, everything started going down before GW Bush were in office.
Carl, get your facts right.
Carl,
I am not sure what part of "Bush's America" you live in but the unemployment rate in the US is lower today then the average of any of the last 3 decades. Now I live in Michigan which has the worst unemployment in the Nation....thanks to our Democrap Governor...many people are moving out of state to places where they cannot find enough skilled workers. There is many jobs out there and the facts stand on their own.
Gallaudet's retention rate and employment rates one year after graduation are low because Gallaudet is not offering skills that are needed in today's economy. It is very well to have degrees in psychology, philosophy, etc., but these are useless without also having practical skills in computer analysis, database management, information processing and so on. The liberal arts university today needs to undergo a re-examination of its mandates.
I don't think its a Republican or Democrat issue anymore. It's about corporate lobbying, and the bottom line for corporations is not a healthier America but the best profit, and for them that is outsourcing and sending our industries to countries overseas because they can pay them less. This is the new slavery [Economic Slavery] where people work because they need to survive, not because they like the salary they will get. We're returning to the days of the rich southern landowners and their slave class.
Clinton jumped into bed with those corporations, and Bush jumped in much deeper.
In my opinion it is time to end the two party dominance of politics.
The "employment rate" figure is misleading because it's calculated differently now than it was a few years ago. Without stepping into the "who is to blame" (really, there are many factors involved: some more recent and others older), the fact remains that more people are in poverty than ever, fewer people have health insurance than ever, wages have stagnated since the 70's and *not* kept up with economic growth (even during Clinton, while wages improved at a better clip than many other times, they didn't improve at the same rate as the economy). So over time, we're screwed...spending a far higher percentage of our wages on essentials with less and less discretionary income. That's also the reason for the high debt load many people carry, too.
How much Gally education figures into this for graduates is extremely difficult to say, but if the school has a reputation for poor education, that will certainly not help. I must say, many deaf people seem barely able to spell (discounting text shortcuts). I understand ASL is another language entirely and not a 1-1 with English, but I meet on a regular basis many people for whom English is a second language who write better than I. So something is lacking somewhere. Other factors could of course be the low expectations many teachers have of deaf people -- lord knows I had to fight that one many times during my own education.
Sorry, didn't mean to go on at such length. It's just that there are so many factors right now...
AMEN! I went to Gally for the chance to find myself as a deaf person. It sure as hell wasn't for the educational stimulation. Needless to say, I got on out of there in four years flat. I don't think I could have taken it that long if it were not for the opportunities the Consortium, the faculty I got to know, Washington, DC, and the honors program presented me.
I worked on my own to find internships, bypassing the career center altogether, save for the required reporting of my activities to my career counselor. I had an internship three summers out of four via an external government internship contractor (I took a break between my junior and senior year). I even had one over Christmas break my freshman year in my hometown's department of economic development! All were sought by me independently through contacts, because I figured early on the career center would havbe nothing I available to match my skills or abilities...and I was right. The closest they came to a possible match was with Booz Allen Hamilton. I declined.
I made the most of my economics degree by getting to know the professors, asking for more challenging work, and actually using the library for more than just a place to nap!
I could go on, but it doesn't need repeating. I love Gallaudet. It's a great place to find out about deaf culture. It is not so great a place to get competitve workpace skills if you don't already have the inner drive to go beyond what is expected of you, as I did.
I'll be going to GMU for my masters degree. And yes, I had a full time job with benefits in Alexandria lined up and waiting for me upon graduation last May. Count me as a self-made woman :-)
There are deaf success stories out there, but those successes are the ones not standing around waiting for hand outs or being dependent on others to do something for them. They take their fate into their own hands. They know how to open a book and teach themselves something new, as Dr. Agboola said!
A few things:
- globalization (exported American jobs overseas)
- increases in company mergers and consolidations (when a company merges with another, headcount goes down)
- most available positions requires SPECIFIC skills, not general liberal arts skills
As a result, there are increasing numbers of deaf enterpreneurs though. Keep the numbers coming and HIRE deaf! SUPPORT deaf businesses!
[graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Gallaudet - if THAT's worth anything!]
Carl, You've got to be either my husband, or his clone. Did you graduate from Ohio State? Nothing will help in the next months. We need to vote smart next time-don't waste your votes on a third party person!!! Because Mitt could be our next prez kids!
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