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Passion over pay associate@LANTHORN.COM
In a recent article by 24/7 Wall St., a number of jobs were listed as underpaid when considering the high levels of education required for the position. However, while some of these jobs often receive lower pay, some Grand Valley State University faculty members disagreed and said some occupations listed can in fact be highly compensated. Several of the jobs mentioned included radio and television announcers, legislators and rehabilitation counselors. Legislators with a bachelor’s degree had a 2010 median salary of $19,260, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While the article listed legislators as a highly educated but underpaid job, several GVSU faculty members disagreed, noting that many legislators own businesses, currently work or have had previous careers outside of the public sector. “Legislators often come to position fairly late in their career,” said Mark Richards, professor and chair for the political science department. “Usually legislators have already been successful in another career that requires at least a college degree. Common occupations among legislators include business, law, education or retiree.” Richards argued that legislators are highly compensated in several places and that in most other areas, it’s viewed as a part-time job so they can still work elsewhere while being a legislator. “The main point is that having an advanced degree is not a formal qualification to serve in governmental office, and that the lowest paid legislators are really part-time public servants who have a career or own a business,” said Paul Cornish, associate professor in the political science department. “So the whole premise of the article is false as it applies to people who serve as elected legislators.” Reporters, correspondents and broadcast news analysts with a bachelor’s degree had a median salary of $36,000 in 2010, according to the BLS. “It’s always pretty cheap as a start in broadcasting,” said Keith Oppenheim, assistant professor and coordinator of the broadcasting major. “The bigger problem is getting a job somewhere. I don’t think the main issue is the pay is too low, but that the job numbers are too few.” Oppenheim said the occupation has struggled because of the development of technology and the media revolution. He said that those hoping to enter the field of broadcasting or other media have to have multiple skills because there is more to do and fewer people to do it. “(Students) have to be a real
multimedia player,” Oppenheim said. “They need to be able to write for print and for web in different forms, have electronic journalism skills and the ability to tell stories in different ways.” It’s crucial for students hoping to find a job in media to get experience outside of the classroom, as well, Oppenheim said. Having an internship offcampus gives a student experience that enhances what they’re learning in the classroom. “A workplace gives you things you can’t get in the classroom,” he said. “Students need to apply themselves in both (technical and practical) areas. It won’t be easy, and students need to bring a lot of efforts to the table while they’re here.” Student interest in the GVSU broadcasting major hasn’t declined because of lower pay and more career responsibilities, but instead enrollment numbers have seen a steady increase from the fall of 2009 with 136 students to 155 in the 2013 fall semester. Oppenheim said students go into the major because it’s a cool job and an interesting way to make a living, instead of for the money. “I would rather do something that I love than be stuck in a cubicle or going to school for eight years,” said Stacia Brundage, a senior majoring in sports broadcasting. For students hoping to become rehabilitation counselors, the jobs are typically underpaid because they’re often funded by nonprofits or underfunded by the government, said Patricia Stow Bolea, associate professor in the School of Social Work. According to the BLS, rehabilitation counselors with a master’s degree had a median salary of $32,350 in 2010. “Students go into these lowpaying, helping fields because they really do want to help people,” Bolea said. The bachelor’s of social work program at GVSU has seen a population increase of 44 percent, from 345 students in 2009 to 499 this semester. Bolea said that even though the job is often underpaid, students are in it because it’s really what they want to do. “It’s an individual decision really,” she said. “For some people, it’s very worth it for altruistic reasons—worth is relative.” Her advice to students is to be realistic about their earnings, to carefully weigh their motivation to go into the health care field and to keep in mind the environment they’ll be working in. She said that it’s hard but rewarding work. “It’s a cultural value,” Bolea said. “If it was a cultural value of making sure there was more social justice and equity, then I think these positions would be more rewarded.”
Growing up: Tina Tran, 20, and her four-year-old daughter, Anastasia, enjoy lunch at Tran’s apartment in Wyoming, Mich. Tran is one of many Grand Valley State Univeristy students who sets aside time and money to raise a child during college.
gauging success
GV students set aside time, money to raise children BY CARLY SIMPSON CSIMPSON@LANTHORN.COM
T
wenty-year-old Tina Tran, a junior at Grand Valley State University, slowly gets out of bed when an alarm goes off at 7 a.m. in her apartment in Wyoming, Mich. She opens her bedroom door and softly pads down the hallway trying not to wake Anastasia, her daughter, who was born Jan. 6, 2009. “I went from being a freshman in high school to an adult in a very short amount of time,” Tran said. “I can’t explain to others how hard it is because they can’t relate. As a parent you’re in charge of all the decisions, big and small.” Twenty five minutes away in Caledonia, 20-year-old Brianna Kilgore has been awake since 6 a.m. She has to get her 4-year-old son, Alexander, ready by 7:15 a.m. They will then make the hour commute to Allendale, where Alexander attends the Children’s Enrichment Center at GVSU while Kilgore is in class. “I found out I was pregnant at the end of my sophomore year of high school,” said
Building blocks: President Thomas Haas takes a moment for a photo op with Giorgio Montanari, dean of the political science department at the University of Perugia.
Fostering international relations
GV hopes to broaden University of Perugia exchange program
BY CLAIRE FODELL ASSISTANTNEWS@LANTHORN. COM
Grand Valley State University and the University of Perugia in central Italy celebrated their sister school partnership with a formal lunch at the DeVos Center on GVSU’s Pew
Revelations from ‘Nam
Vietnam vets to share stories with Veterans History Project BY AARON CRIDER ACRIDER@LANTHORN.COM
Vietnam is the second most filmed U.S. war next to World War II, but surprisingly, it is the least known war in terms of the experiences U.S. military forces had overseas. James Smither, a professor in the history department and director of the Veterans History Project at
Grand Valley State University, hopes to change that. “Unlike World War II, which when you know a particular unit, you can follow it from one frontline to another, Vietnam is very fragmented even though we sent 1.2 million soldiers there,” Smither said. He will be moderating a discussion panel with veter-
Kilgore, who is now in her sophomore year wasn’t deciding whether to attend college. at GVSU. “I had just gotten home from Instead, it was figuring out how to fit into spring break in Colorado. At first I didn’t the masses of traditional students. believe it, so I took multiple pregnancy tests. “I have always wanted to go to college After the third one, I decided since I was a little girl,” Kilgore they were probably right.” said. “In my house it wasn’t an GVSU offers several supoption; you were expected to port systems for studentgo to college. Getting pregparents. The Women’s Cennant and having a baby only ter can connect students I do fueled my desire to go to colwith other organizations as sometimes lege, because now I had an well as provide them with actual reason to better myself. resources about contracep- feel like I am I knew I needed a good edution and pregnancy. cation if I wanted to get a job missing out. “A lot of times we get stuthat would support the two dent-parents that are told by Brianna Kilgore of us. It is hard sometimes, different offices, roommates GVSU student-parent though. I don’t make as many or friends to stop in. We are friends because I don’t live on that first step,” said JoAnn Wassenaar, or close to campus. It is hard to connect and associate director of the Women’s Cen- network with other people because I am ter at GVSU. “Whether it’s an unplanned rarely on campus, and when I am, my son or a planned pregnancy, they are look- is with me. Not many college students want ing for options. Is it possible to stay in to hang out with a 4-year-old. I do someschool? How do they navigate their times feel like I am missing out.” classes and faculty members?” SEE PARENT ON A5 For Kilgore and Tran, the question
COURTESY | JEFF DYKEHOUSE
BY Sarah hillenbrand
GVL | HANNAH MICO
Students walk confidently into often scarce, underpaid job pool
ans of the Vietnam War as part of the Veterans History Project, which is in partnership with the Library of Congress. The discussion panels are part of the “My Year in Vietnam” discussion series beginning Sept. 25. “We’re trying to get away from canned versions of Vietnam, what you’d see in movies like drugs and post
gia, with his family. “We signed the first agreement in 2003,” Montanari said. “It was one of my first duties as dean.” The original agreement between the universities was for the exchange of professors only in the political science department from each university. In September of 2003, a professor from the University of Perugia came to GVSU to teach a few classes, and in May of 2004 a professor from GVSU went to Perugia to teach. Since then, a total of seven GVSU professors have taught at Perugia, and six Perugia professors have taught at GVSU. This exchange only lasted six years, when the partnership switched to a student exchange in 2009. The new agreement signed by Haas and Montanari will last until 2016 and is still restricted to exchanges of faculty and students in the political science department. “We would like to develop some research together if possible,” Montanari said of a reason behind the exchange.
Campus on Wednesday. The lunch was held to celebrate the past 10 years of the partnership between the universities and to renew the agreement between the two institutions. In attendance were political science professors from
GVSU, exchange students who have been to Perugia through the program, GVSU President Thomas Haas, members of the sister city board and Giorgio Eduardo Montanari, the dean of the political science department at the University of Peru-
trauma, and give a broader range of experience of the war,” Smither said. The discussions will take place throughout the year with three veterans per panel, with the exception being the first discussion. The first panel will consist of six veterans—three marines who were among the first battalions sent to Vietnam and three Special Forces soldiers deployed to train native tribesmen to fight the communist regime. The discussion series is part of Smither’s per-
sonal project, as well—a there is no distinguishable book about Vietnam that front line, so the stories we doesn’t necesget are either sarily focus on done in movies, the geopolitical which focus on side of the war a battle, or we or on the dehave a singular bate of wheth- We’re trying memoir,” Smither the U.S. won to get away er said. “What’s or lost the war. great about this Rather, the fo- from canned project is that cus of the book versions... now many of the and the projveterans are at a ect is on the james smither point where they soldiers who history professor want to share fought the war. their stories. “Vietnam is like AfSEE VIETNAM ON A5 ghanistan or Iraq where
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