Part blog, part oral history, part research project.
How has the Great Recession affected your path beyond college? What is your story?

Friday, May 27, 2011

Project Update

Although you haven’t seen much by way of posts recently, things have been hopping behind the scenes. For the past month, I’ve been producing Recession Grads stories for the radio. I will let people know as each piece airs this summer.

I am continuing to interview Recession Grads from around the country—if you’re interested in participating, please drop me a line. Worry not, I will return to posting people’s stories during the next few weeks.

In other news…Stories about how the recession is impacting recent grads are popping up everywhere and I’ve been trying to add my two cents. If you’re curious, read this NY Times piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/business/economy/19grads.html . I posted my own story in response and tried to get the word out about the Recession Grads project. A few days later, the radio program Your Call explored a similar topic and used an e-mail* I sent as a conversation starter. Listen to the show (which was excellent) here: http://a4.g.akamai.net/7/4/27043/v0001/kalw.download.akamai.com/27043/YourCall/052411yc.mp3

*My e-mail:

I am one of the lucky few who graduated with a B.A. in '09 and a Master's in '10 and have a job, albeit, a part-time internship. However, in my free time, I've started a research project to see how the recession is impacting recent graduates. In over a dozen interviews around the country, I've heard the same basic themes echoed time and again: recent grads are competing for entry level jobs with people who have years of experience, recent grads who get jobs are either taking service industry jobs or low skill low paid part time work not in their field, and many are drowning in student loan debt and worried about the future. Where is the job relief for our future leaders? What has happened to the American dream for us?

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Recession Grads on the Radio!

What? A fantastic story
Where? Here on Crosscurrents, an award-winning daily news program on 91.7 FM, KALW


Remember Kadie? I went back and learned more of her story (this time, with fancy radio-quality recording equipment) and crafted it into a short piece-- which aired Wednesday May 4th as the first in a three part series exploring the stories of Bay Area recession grads...


Please check out the result and leave comments for the wonderful folks at KALW!