Good News from My Alma Mater
Amherst Grads Shun Wall Street, Save World as $45,500 Teachers
By Oliver Staley
June 23 (Bloomberg) — Amherst College President Anthony Marx spent six years at the school extolling public service and teaching. His efforts were rewarded this year when eight new graduates took jobs with Teach for America, now the largest employer of Amherst students besides the college itself.
As U.S. President Barack Obama urges young people to make a difference in the world and the recession crimps opportunities, new graduates are pursuing public-interest careers. At Amherst, at least 53 percent of May graduates with jobs are working in education, nonprofit groups or governments, an increase from 43 percent in 2003 when Marx started at the school, said Allyson Moore, director of the campus career center.
Nationally, 27 percent of about 1.6 million graduating seniors plan to work for nonprofit groups or governments, an increase from 23 percent in 2008, according to a survey of 14,225 U.S. college students conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Thirty-nine percent of graduates want private sector jobs, down from 45 percent last year, the survey found.
“There’s a generational shift toward increasing interest and concern into how to help make the world a better place,” Marx said in his office, in Amherst, Massachusetts. “I hear students saying, ‘We want to make a difference and we’re not going to feel quite right about ourselves if we don’t do that.’”
