Calling Class of ’09: How’d it go?
We want to hear from ASU alumni about jobs, more
On a hot May evening in 2009, barely 100 days into his presidency, Barack Obama brushed aside questions about his own achievement and urged more than 9,000 new graduates of Arizona State University to make their own mark in a world he acknowledged was hardly ideal.
“It is now abundantly clear that we need to start doing things a little differently,” he told those gathered in Sun Devil Stadium. “In your own lives, you’ll need to continuously adapt to a continuously changing economy: to have more than one job or career over the course of your life; to keep gaining new skills — possibly even new degrees; and to keep taking risks as new opportunities arise.”
The Great Recession tech- nically ended a month later, but the jobs crisis that pushed more than 8 million people out of work remains unfinished business to this today, especially in Arizona. So how did those students do? Well, it’s a good question — and one The Arizona Republic hopes to answer in the coming months.
We want to hear from ASU’s class of 2009. The Republic has prepared an online survey for those graduates to take beginning in March. Mostly the questions center on how long it took grads to find work and how they are doing these days. ARIZONA ECONOMY
The survey also seeks to answer another issue raised in recent years: Are college degrees worth their cost anymore? ASU President Michael Crow maintains a degree is still the best chance to succeed in an evolving work force.
If you’re an ASU graduate from the class of 2009, please contact me by e-mail and I’ll direct you to our survey. Please include your name and the degree you received that year. If you know someone from that class, let them know their input is needed.
We’ll share the results of the survey and the views of some of the former students who have tried to find their way in challenging times.