College entrepreneurs find alternative ways to succeed

By Annie Porritt in News, NewsTeam on Oct 22, 2011 15:12 / comments

This story is courtesy of Newsteam, posted on 11 October 2011.

Graduation is approaching in less than a year. Some will leave CU in December 2011 while some still have another semester until graduation in the spring. It seems as though this younger generation of ours is becoming more and more perturbed with the economy and lack of jobs. The answer for some CU students is making their own jobs.

College students are becoming more innovative everyday, and not just for the mere reason of wanting to invent something new. Students often feel like they have to be in order to survive in the job world.

Daily Camera writer, Whitney Bryen, said college entrepreneurs are part of a bigger group of Americans reaching for self-employment in tough economic times.

The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity states that 20- to 34-year-olds increased their entrepreneurial activity about 10 percent from 2009- 2010. While this may seem exciting for those who have natural entrepreneurial skills, there are also students who are not quite as business savvy as others and this is frightening to them.

Susanna Choe, an senior international affairs major, said she is extremely worried about landing a job and being able to support herself after college. She explains that a couple of her friends started small businesses while in school, which turned into successful companies.

Choe said that although it is exciting to see students flourishing in the business world, it intimidates her and leaves her feeling discouraged.

“I feel like that’s becoming the norm, to start ahead of time,” she said.

Choe said many students don’t quite know how to get that head start. One way to for a student to get their feet wet is to meet with a counselor at the Career Services Office located in the Center for Community building on the CU campus. Appointments can be made online and students can choose multiple topics to discuss with a counselor such as brushing-up a resume, networking information, discussing personal likes and dislikes regarding jobs.

It’s common to assume that students stay in school as long as possible to get their master’s degree due to the nation’s decrease of jobs in the past decade.However, CU has been tracking its students after they earn their bachelor’s degree, and studies show there s an increase in numbers who enter the work force right away versus those who stay in school.

Daily Camera writer Brittany Anas said the percentage of graduating seniors who said they planned to attend graduate school decreased slightly from 21 percent in 2009 to 19 percent in 2011.

Although the job market seems to be making a turn for the better, students still fear moving back home with Mom and Dad, especially when they believe they are overqualified for certain job positions. Some decide to take their own path to create something revolutionary, while others seem to ride out their anxiety to see where graduation leads them.