News Cut

News Cut Category Archive: News Cut on Campus

Optimism, pessimism, and the college graduate

Posted at 10:13 PM on March 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, News Cut on Campus, Schools

On Wednesday night I participated in a roundtable with some soon-to-graduate college students. It was the final chapter of the News Cut on Campus project in which we focused on how the economy is affecting the outlook of students.

The roundtable will be broadcast on MPR's Midday one of these days, but I don't believe it's been scheduled yet. Find the broadcast here.

I was asked to provide some observations about what I learned during the project. Here's a few I tossed in along with a few I didn't.

  • People must really be in a bad frame of mind if I'm the most optimistic person in the room.

  • At one point, host Jeff Horwich noted that the people who grew up around the Depression share a lot with these kids because they really had to struggle as they set out in life. True, but as a colleague mentioned to me, "these kids sound like every soon-to-graduate student in history." It's not a new phenomenon that people can't take a direct route to their dreams.

    It's supposed to be hard to make the transition from college to the working world. The dream has never been accomplished by taking one giant step, but by taking a series of small steps, some of which can be missteps. That's just the way it works. It's the late '90s that were the exception. Don't make me tell you about my first $110-a-week-six-days-a-week job I got out of college.

  • Raise your hand if life has gone exactly the way you thought it would. That's part of what students are experiencing -- in many cases for the first time. It's also what old-timers like me are experiencing as we get into the retirement "red zone." It's not going exactly as we thought it would. But why should this phase of life be any different than the other ones? It doesn't go the way you think it will and sometimes -- most often, actually -- that's a good thing.

  • Jeff asked about advice from parents and several of the students made reference to parents discouraging kids from certain career choices. I met a very nice woman in Ely who gave up her dream of being an artist because her family said she couldn't make any money as an artist. Her comments have stuck with me for the last two months as did the comments of the students on Thursday evening.

    Part of the reason for that is I'm giving the same sort of advice to my youngest son, who isn't far away from graduating. I'm not going to advise anyone not to listen to Mom and Dad, but here's the thing: As we get older, we grow more conservative and more risk averse. But you're far too young to be 50.

    Your mother was a hippie and wants you to be more concerned about settling down than she was? Fine. Ask her if she'd be a hippie again if she had it to do all over. It's all part of the journey and we parents forget that you should make your own, regardless of what might happen.

  • You won't be the first generation to have to move back home for a little while. Trust me. I don't like it any better than you do, and neither do your parents. It's part of their journey, too.

  • The media isn't responsible for the economy the way it is, but we are partly responsible for keeping it the way it is. It's not our job not to tell you how bad things are, but it's not our job to tell you how bad things will be because....

  • We could be wrong. Anyone who's watched Jon Stewart's dismantling of CNBC over their consistently lousy predictions of a rosy economy, should understand that we all could be equally wrong with predictions that you'll have to learn to live as if it's 1933.

  • I have no clue how you're going to repay your student loans. Good luck with that.

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    • On Campus: The Middle Eastern Medieval historian

    Posted at 8:34 PM on February 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    moorhead_ramsdell.jpgMichael Ramsdell Jr. of Brainerd figures he's in the safest place to be during an economic meltdown -- school.

    The Minnesota State University Moorhead senior is studying to be a history professor. He'll go to grad school next, "then a job or a doctorate depending on how bad the economy is."

    The world has played right into Ramsdell's plans. He learned how to speak Arabic and he wants to specialize in Middle Eastern Medieval history. "It's the highest demand area for history," he says. "There's maybe 5,000 job openings a year in European studies, but in Middle Eastern history, there's 15,000 to 20,000. It's expanding thanks to the war on terror."

    If he doesn't become a professor, he figures there'll be a job with the government, especially for a guy who can speak Arabic.

    In the meantime, he can shut out the economy at school. "I just tell myself that I'm going to go and get my doctorate. The worst that can happen to me is I get my doctorate. As long as you stay in school, nothing bad is going to happen. You might be poor and living out of a dumpster and living on the street, but at least you're not that bad off. You could be living in China," he said.

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    On Campus: The online journalist

    Posted at 7:06 PM on February 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: Media, News Cut on Campus

    moorhead_matsuura.jpg It was fitting that I talked to Mark Matsuura of Burnsville on a day when San Francisco was about to become the first major American city not to have not daily newspaper.

    I sat up straight when Matsuura told me about his career track: Online journalism. He is the first journalism student I've encountered in 35+ of doing this who told me he wanted to be an online journalist.

    That in itself is a lesson in the economy. Whose job will he get when he graduates from Minnesota State University Moorhead in a couple of years? Probably a journalist who doesn't want to do online journalism. "It has more future than print," he said. In other words: It has a future. Adaptability is a plus.

    During my stop at the school at part of the News Cut on Campus listening tour to gauge the effect the economy is having on students, Matsuura said he'd like to write about technology issues.

    He says he hasn't found the economy to be much of "a challenge" paying for school. "I pay for half and my parents pay for half," he said. "I'm not too worried about loans; I'll deal with it later. You make a choice to go to school and you can't just stop because you don't have the money right now."

    Some students I've encountered during this two-month project have said they're somewhat worried about their parents' jobs, and the possibility a layoff might disrupt their own schooling. Matsuura says he has no such worries. His dad is a big cog for a small company; his mother just survived the latest round of layoffs at her business.

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    On Campus: The art professor

    Posted at 7:48 PM on February 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    moorhead_james_munsch.jpg I have been impressed -- very impressed -- during the News Cut on Campus tour of colleges and universities in Minnesota with the resourcefulness of students to identify a goal and then figure out a way to pursue it. It's why the "we are not quitters" quote from the young woman cited in Barack Obama's speech the other night struck a chord. Judging by the newscasts, the country seems to have thrown up its hands and packed it in. The impression is incorrect.

    James Munsch, 21, of Brainerd wants to be an art professor. When I saw him walking around the student union at Minnesota State University Moorhead with that piece of art, I had to encourage him to sit down and talk. "We're doing 3D forms and 3D sculptures and one of the elements we can use is volume," he said.

    He was taking calculus and engineering courses at North Dakota State University, "and I discovered it wasn't very much fun. I could do the practical thing and become an engineer and make some money. Or I could do the not-so-practical thing and go into art. So I made a compromise and I figured I'd just become an art teacher, because I'm fairly sure I can get a job doing that," he said during my News Cut on Campus stop on Wednesday.

    He'd like to "do experimenting" on high school kids and then "move on up."

    How does he plan to pay for an extensive network of education? "I submit my body to medical studies in the Fargo Moorhead area." A local research firm, Pracs Institute, conducts research on genetic drugs, and pays people -- including many college students -- to participate in research studies. He's trying to get into a study on nitroglycerin. He says students can make anywhere from "$300 to $5,000." He also donates plasma twice a week for another $260 a month.

    "So many college kids are doing that; they're selling themselves so they can pay for school," he reports.

    Between colleges and software companies, the Fargo-Moorhead region is doing very well economically, according to Munsch. "It's kind of secluded up here on the barren tundra," but even if it wasn't, Munsch doesn't appear to be the type to let rumors of a collapsing economy get to him. "We intentionally don't purchase cable or listen to the mass media," he says. "We have a subscription to the Economist but they're slanted and neo-liberal. They've had a huge transition in the rhetoric. It was 'free markets, free markets, free markets' and now it's 'Oh, nooooo!'"

    Munsch says he subscribes to the theory of the blue-collar economy. "Go to work, make your money, and don't be one of those corrupt elites," he says.

    And maybe buy a little art once in awhile.

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    On Campus: The broadcast journalist

    Posted at 6:48 PM on February 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    moorhead_nathan.jpgNathan Matson of Twin Valley, Minnesota has felt the sting of the economy and escaped it, for now.

    He's studying broadcast journalism at Minnesota State University Moorhead, this week's stop on the News Cut on Campus "listening tour." He studied at a music college in St. Paul with a plan to work in the music recording business. "I thought I had a plan, but then the plan got botched. I wanted to work in a recording studio in the music business and I did it for awhile and it lost all its 'glitz and glam.'"

    "You think you're going to work with these great people in a great studio and you're going to make money, and all of a sudden you find yourself broke and looking for work, without health benefits, and you have to do your own taxes. I thought I could tough it out," he told me.

    So he and his wife, who's studying international business, escaped to the Fargo Moorhead area. "Economically speaking, this was the place to live. You get to a point in life where you know you can live somewhere else for cheaper and get the same out of it, so why not? Maybe it doesn't make much sense to pay $800 a month when I can pay $500 a month," he said.

    The region "feels like it hasn't been hit as bad," according to Matson. The cost of living is low, some companies are hiring, and the large number of colleges and universities has insulated many people from the cyclical economy. In Moorhead in particular, education is a business and there's plenty of concern that state cuts to higher education are going to hurt it.

    "I was a fan of Public Radio and maybe I could go into journalism and learn how to write well and tell stories. So I'll have a technical background and a writing background and may be someone will want me to work for them," he said of his new career goal. But part of his passion remains in his "inner audio geek."

    "I'm going to be a guy who can do a little bit of a lot of things," he said, reciting the formula a lot experts say is the right one for the new economy. "If someone wants me to work in radio, I can do that. If they want me to work in a studio, I can do that. If they want me to go on the road, I can do that."

    What he's not sure how to do is pay off the accumulating student loan debt. By the time he graduates next year, it'll be $60,000-$70,000.

    He wonders if it's been worth it.

    His mother says "just don't think about it."

    "I say, 'Easy for you to say. You're not the one who'll have to cut $700 a month out of the paycheck for 30 years.' And if you don't have a job, you still have to pay these loans. So it starts to eat at you," he said.

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    Hello, Moorhead!

    Posted at 11:42 AM on February 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    bob_moorhead.jpg

    This is the last stop on the News Cut on Campus tour. I'm in the student union today at Minnesota State University Moorhead. As I've done every Wednesday for the last 7 weeks, I'm talking to students about their economy and their journey. I'll be posting profiles later today.

    11:02 a.m. -- The tables have been turned. I've been interviewed by the local ABC affiliate. "What have I found on the tour?" That people are more optimistic about their future and the future of the economy than we people who cover them. Oh, and that there are a lot of people with cameras taking pictures of me right now. Which is scary.

    11:30 a.m. - Nate Matson of Twin Valley stopped by. He graduated from McNally Smith College in St. Paul. He wanted to go into a career in audio and recording production, but has moved back to Moorhead and is pursuing a career in journalism, instead.

    12:11 p.m. - Mark Matsuura of Burnsville is an online journalism student. He may be the first person I've ever met who's studying online journalism. How does the economy intersect with his strategy? What few jobs that are available in journalism, are likely to be online. I often wonder why more journalism students don't know or aren't told that these days.

    12:38 p.m. - James Munsch of Brainerd just dropped in to tell me how he pays for school. He allows himself to be used for medical experiments and he sells his plasma. Seriously. He wants to be an art professor.

    12:45 p.m. - Michael Ramsdell Jr. of Brainerd is studying to be a professor of Middle Eastern history. There are three times as many jobs for professors of Middle Eastern history than professors of European history, he says. He's paying for school through more traditional means -- his parents and loans. "As long as you stay in school, nothing bad can hurt you," he said.

    1:08 p.m. - About done for the session. Sara Bowman of Casselton, North Dakota was my last interviewee. She wants to be a biology teacher.

    What I've learned so far today: The economy of Fargo-Moorhead is doing very well. Partly because so many people are employed in education, it has been somewhat isolated from the downturn. However, many people are concerned that may change with higher education budget cuts.

    Off to speak to a class. Talk amongst yourselves.

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    On Campus: The electrician

    Posted at 10:09 PM on February 18, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    chris_dillman.jpgChris Dillman, a Baudette, Minnesota native, has seen the the economic meltdown up close. He's one of the people who jumped before he could give it the satisfaction of pushing him.

    The Air Force veteran was working for a pharmaceutical company in Baudette as an electronics calibration technician. "With things getting tight and cutbacks, it was inevitable that there was going to be layoffs so I resigned," he told me during my stop at Lake Superior College in Duluth, where he's studying to be an electrician.

    Dillman, 43, thought he could get out in front of the economic wave, and find work in a bigger city like Duluth before more people got laid off and became his competition, but his "leap of faith" hasn't fully worked out yet.

    "The bad way to look at it is my wages have been cut to a third. The good thing is there's always something you can take -- it doesn't matter what the pay of what the job is -- there's always some type of skill or knowledge that you can take to your next job," he said. "It doesn't matter if I've worked at Holiday as a sales associate or if I've been a calibration technician for a big pharmaceutical manufacturer, there's still basic things you can take from one job to another."

    "This is an investment in me," he said. "And an investment in me means I'll be able to go out and help others like my children, and not have to work so hard and be able to spend more time with them."

    It took him about a month to find work but everything so far has been part-time with no benefits, "and that's tough when you have a family." He's got two sons at home -- one who is near college age -- and a daughter working on her Master's back East. He's been an assistant cook for 525 children in the Northern Lights School District in Superior, Wisconsin and was a bell driver at Sheraton.

    In the meantime, he's taking classes at the college trying to "widen his base" so he's not just in one field. He's taking out loans for classes in electronics, shopping at second-hand stores, and living a frugal life that was his nature long before the economy went south.

    "I was raised by my grandparents and the benefit of that was I basically was raised through the Depression also, so I'm not the type who has to have the brand name, as long as there's food on the table, heat and a roof over my head, that's fine with me."

    "Until things turn around to the positive, these are the things people are going to have to do."

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    On Campus: The translator

    Posted at 9:33 PM on February 18, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    eva_nordling.jpgThere's nothing scientific about the News Cut on Campus methodology. I pull up to a college, set up a table, and the people who sit down to talk to me do so on their own accord. Since it's not scientific, I can't say with any certainty that they are representative of a generation, so I'll say it uncertainly: They are interested in getting an education and then going out and doing good, and if there's money to be made in the process, so much the better.

    When I came up with the idea for the weekly chats about how students are feeling about the economy, I didn't expect to find that. It's not scientific, but then again, few other sweeping generalizations about a group of people are either.

    Meet Eva Nordling of Bayfield, Wisc., a student at Lake Superior College in Duluth, my stop on Wednesday.

    "I'm graduating this spring with my AA, then I'll transfer back to UMD (University of Minnesota Duluth) to get degree in Spanish," she said. She wants to be a translator and work in Mexico.

    Her family travels there once a year and volunteers at whatever places need some help. "Last year we went to a small village on the west side of Mexico and we worked at an orphanage just chilling with the kids," she said. 'My mom made Play Doh with them and we helped them with their schoolwork." Nordling says the family has no relatives there; they just like to find places that need help, and go. "My mom's not really into the whole Cancun scene, so we wanted something really tiny where there are no other tourists."

    After her year at UMD, Eva went to Florida to work on Habitat for Humanity houses. "That's when I picked up Spanish really fast. I taught myself."

    She fights the economy that's unfriendly to college kids. "My rent went up, I don't have a job, so my parents help me out, but my mom might lose her job so they might not be able to help me out."

    Because she took semesters off to build houses for people who needed them in Florida, and chill with the kids in Mexico, Nordling was unable to get financial aid. She's paying for school out of her pocket and with help from her parents. If she doesn't get financial aid for UMD, she says she'll just "go volunteer somewhere."

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    On Campus: The world traveler

    Posted at 9:28 PM on February 18, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    becky_segbee.jpgBecky Segbee experienced serious culture shock when she arrived in the Twin Cities from Liberia about nine years ago. "I always thought America was a land of gold, and people walked on gold," she told me during my News Cut on Campus stop at Lake Superior College in Duluth on Wednesday.

    When the civil war started in Liberia in 1990, her uncle in St. Paul "sent for a whole bunch of his young-generation family to come to the States and I was one of them," she says.

    After finishing high school in the Cities, Segbee set out for a career in the theater at the University of Minnesota Duluth, but found out that being a stage manager wasn't for her. She describes herself as "super calm, super quiet, and super shy," three characteristics for which stage managers will never be known. She switched to biology and found that wasn't for her, either.

    "Then I decided to start low and grow little by little," so she transferred to the smaller college to work on her Associate of Arts degree, before transferring back to UMD for a sociology degree. "I want to, hopefully, work with little kids and it doesn't have to be in America. I want to travel so much; just go."

    She has at least one stop to make. Liberia. Her parents are still there and she hasn't seen them for nine years. "It sucks," she says. "I really miss my mom and dad, but it's OK because I have a whole community around me."

    She says she wishes LSC was a four-year school because she knows more of her professors than she did at UMD where, she contends, professors are "always busy. They're cranky, little people, so I'd just say, 'OK, I won't bug you, I'll just pretend I know this.'"

    Like many students, she's surviving on loans and financial aid. "I am so grateful that America has such thing called financial aid, and taking out loans and stuff. I don't know how I would pay back when I'm done with school, but I know there's going to be a way. I'm just so grateful that the school and the government helps in that way."

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    On Campus: The dental hygienist

    Posted at 8:15 PM on February 18, 2009 by Bob Collins
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    newscut_ashley.jpgIf you're a dental hygienist in Minnesota, you can find a job, especially outside of the Twin Cities. But many young people who want to go into the career can't get the training because there either (a) aren't enough lab facilities or (b) aren't enough teachers in the state college system. At a time when the politicians are talking about needing to provide jobs, funding to provide either (a) or (b) is being cut. Go figure.

    Ashley Goodmund of Marshall, Minnesota knows all about the problem. At Lake Superior College in Duluth, where I stopped on Wednesday to talk to students about the economy, she's sitting at #74 on the list to get into the school's dental hygienist program. Only 20 will get in and she won't know until December whether she'll make the cut. Something's got to happen to 54 other hygienist wannabees.

    "My friend just got accepted for this fall. She's been waiting for three years."

    She originally started on a graphic design career at the University of Minnesota Duluth, but saw the quality of competition from other students and decided her future is in teeth.

    "I love teeth," she said.

    Her logic makes sense. "With graphic design, anyone can do that. People can take their own photos and wedding pictures," she said. But not everyone can clean people's teeth and "people are always going to have teeth."

    When she gets out of school -- if she gets into the hygienist program in the first place -- she says she's "99 percent sure" she's going to move to Arizona, home of many old people with questionable choppers.

    There, she can work and pay off her student loans, which are helping to cover whatever help from her parents can't. Like many people I've met during the News Cut on Campus Tour, Ashley's in the middle. "I'm not, like, super rich and I'm not, like, super poor," she said, explaining why out of the "eight million" grants and scholarships she applied for, she got none. She used $27,000 in loans to attend UMD, and another $3,000 for Lake Superior College, "and I'm nowhere near done," she says.

    "I try to take out the minimum amount of loans that I can. I work 24/7 so I don't have to worry about extra loans," she said. She's currently balancing three jobs and coursework.

    While she's waiting to hit the dental hygienist lottery, she's taking courses that will allow her to obtain a higher degree, leaving her the option of becoming a dentist.

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    On Campus: The 2nd or 3rd-grade teacher

    Posted at 7:21 PM on February 18, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    teacher_ray.jpg During my stop at Lake Superior College in Duluth on Wednesday, I didn't have to ask Ray Ballard if he thinks the plunging economy will affect his future; it already has. Things were going pretty well for Ballard and his wife when they lived in Crawfordsville, Indiana. He was working on designing a children's ministry for an alumnus of the school in Tulsa where he'd pursued a degree in children's ministry. His wife was a film processor for Fuji until six plants were closed and she lost her job last February.

    Indiana had raised its property tax on some people and the Ballards went from paying $1,600 a year to $3,800 a year. Without one income, and with the house becoming unaffordable, they returned to their native Duluth. You're not dreaming. Someone moved to Minnesota because the taxes were higher somewhere else.

    The Ballards may well be a model for surviving in the new economy. They took some classes on budgeting, realized that Americans spend 102% of what they earn, and pared down expenses. "We''re on our way to becoming debt free. We don't carry any plastic in our pockets," he says.

    His wife found work in Duluth, and -- because he fell in love with teaching -- he's in the education program at Lake Superior College, looking to be a 2nd or 3rd-grade teacher.

    "I've been working with at-risk youths and families, I actually worked with HUD for awhile in North Tulsa at a Section 8 site, and the adults didn't want to do much, but the kids did. They wanted to really learn... they really wanted to see how they could better their life," he said. "It inspired me even more to want to teach."

    When he finishes up at Lake Superior this spring, he'll go to the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth thanks to scholarships. "I've earned about $13,000 in scholarships so far and that pays for half the tuition."

    He thinks there's a real future for young teachers in northern Minnesota. Most of the teachers, he says, are retirement age. "The reason they're holding onto their jobs is because of health insurance and if they leave their jobs... they're going to be left like many Americans, wondering how they're going to pay for things."

    Teaching is not a moneymaker, he acknowledges, but "none of the fields I've been in has been a moneymaker. I don't do it for the money. I do it because I love the people I work with."

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    On Campus: The 4th-grade teacher

    Posted at 5:54 PM on February 18, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    tom_mitchell.jpgTom Mitchell of Duluth is all about local. He grew up in Duluth. He's going to school at Lake Superior College, where I stopped on Wednesday as part of the News Cut on Campus Tour to talk to students about the economy and their futures. He'd like to become a teacher in Duluth, something he says is a passion. His passion comes locally, too.

    "I started reading and looking into Paul Wellstone and his passion is what really caught on for me and I've become passionate about what I do," Mitchell told me. "He always said that the future belongs to those who work hard and are passionate and that's what I want to pass on to the 4th graders I'll teach some day."

    He says part of growing up is giving back. He has started student-teaching 4th graders. He mentors after school in the Mentor Duluth program. He also organized a drive for faculty and students at the school to make sandwiches for homeless kids in Duluth. He says there are about 50 such youth in Duluth.

    He's not picking the easiest job to make a living at these days. He cites a recent report that says up to 600,000 education jobs might be eliminated nationwide because of state budget cuts. He's hoping enough teachers will retire by the time he graduates to make a job possible, but he's concerned many will stay on so that they have health benefits. The Duluth school system is closing schools, eliminating programs, and cutting staff.

    Mitchell says he loves the enthusiasm 4th graders have for learning, but he also sees how it is the education system produces kids who aren't proficient in reading or math. "I've seen 2nd and 3rd graders sitting in class all day taking tests, these are 8, 9, and 10-year olds sitting in class taking these high-stakes tests all day long. I've also heard teachers aren't allowed to fail their students, which has some positives but if they're not ready to move on, that's going to affect them when they graduate. Are they really ready for college? Are they ready for the working world?"

    Mitchell is paying for school with his parents' help, but says he worries they won't be able to retire because of the help they've provided. He also works part-time at a grocery store to help pay for tuition. His grandfather, who passed away not long ago, also left some help behind. "When his family was growing up, he couldn't afford to send his kids to college so he worked hard to make sure he could help his grandchildren go to college."

    Mitchell -- and his future 4th-graders -- are the people politicians talk about when they talk about not leaving more debt for "our children," but he's OK with the stimulus package that will come due some time in his life. "You've got to spend money to make money," he said.

    And maybe keep a school or two open.

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    News Cut on Campus

    Posted at 6:13 AM on February 18, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    This week's News Cut on Campus stop is Lake Superior College in Duluth. I'll be setting up in the Internet Cafe to talk to students about their personal economic outlook and educational journey from 10 to noon and then visiting a class.

    So posting -- at least from me -- will be limited today. As always, I'll post some student profiles about our conversations later in the day or early this evening.

    You can find previous stops on the "tour" here.

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    Worthington redux

    Posted at 6:01 PM on February 12, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: Economy, News Cut on Campus

    worthington_interview.jpgEach week, after the Wednesday News Cut on Campus stop, either All Things Considered or Morning Edition graciously invites me to stop in and share what I've learned from the most recent stop. And each week I'm more and more impressed with the producers' ability to edit my rambling dissertation into a less-rambling one. MPR is an iceberg. You see (hear) the very tip of an active organization that is primarily underwater. Well, perhaps that wasn't the best analogy in these economic times.

    Here's this week's version, based on my stop on Wednesday at Minnesota West Community and Technical College's Worthington campus (hat tip for the picture to MWCTC).

    Here's the whole list of profiles of students I've met over the last month. Perhaps you have learned something from them, too.

    big_in_worthington.jpg

    Next week I'll be at Lake Superior College in Duluth. On Friday, I'm driving up to Moorhead to visit with the people who are helping me set up at Minnesota State Moorhead in two weeks, so posting (at least from me) will be light.

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    On Campus: The soldier-nutritionist

    Posted at 9:01 PM on February 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    newscut_saravia.jpgJose Saravia of Luverne shipped out to Iraq with the National Guard a few years ago intending to pursue a career in law enforcement when he returned. He came back a different guy.

    "My parents could only afford to put one kid through college, so I decided to join the Guard. The benefits were good, but not as good as they are now. I did it for the benefits at first, but then being overseas you see a different perspective on life. You see how you take things for granted," he told me during the News Cut on Campus tour stop at Minnesota West Community & Technical College. "Like all the resources we have here to be successful. We have opportunity here in America. You see on TV other countries, how they're not that developed, but when you see it firsthand and you're living there, it's a whole new story."

    Saravia says that experience is when the Guard became more than the benefits. "Someone had to do it for the kids back home, so they have a chance, too," he said.

    He's working on liberal arts courses and then plans to transfer to the University of Minnesota and pursue a degree in the nutrition program. He'd like to work in a hospital. "Before, I wanted to be a police officer but the only reason I wanted to be a police officer is because it was the easiest way to go. I didn't have good grades in school and there was no way I was going to get anywhere," he said. But in Iraq he said "everybody got into the nutrition thing, and staying healthy. We all got in good shape and when I came back I knew exactly what I wanted."

    Saravia says there's a family reason, too, for his choice. "My brothers are really overweight, and my mom has diabetes so I was thinking I could help them out with their eating habits. Hopefully I can go there, take care of them, and try to live a healthy life."

    In all likelihood, however, there'll be another stop first. He expects to be deployed as part of a troop buildup to Afghanistan.

    The poor economy is a fact of life, he says. "This is going to happen. It's happened in the past. It's going to keep on happening; it's going to go down and it's going to go up. I'm just going to keep on investing. We're still young and we have an opportunity to make something from it... that's the beauty of being our age. You have all this time to take risk and not worry about it. "

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    On Campus: The law enforcer

    Posted at 8:33 PM on February 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    newscut_joey.jpgBarring a completely collapsing economy, Joey Larson, a native of Alden, Minnesota, may have the right idea for a career in a bad economy. He's in the law enforcement program at Minnesota West Community & Technical College in Worthington. There's no shortage of bad guys these days.

    He may end up as a police officer when he graduates later this year, but he's got his eye on another job: "loss prevention leader" at the ShopKo in Worthington. He'll catch shoplifters. Like many of the students I've met on the News Cut on Campus tour, he has a well-thought-out plan. "It's helping me build a resume, build experience, and deal with people," he said of his potential job and his job-hunting strategy. "When you're a cop, a lot of times people are mad at either you or someone else. When you're working at loss prevention, the people you catch at shoplifting, they're going to be mad at you, and they're not going to like you. So it teaches you to deal with the people at that time."

    Larson has used student loans to pay for 100% of his education. "My parents made just enough money that I didn't qualify for any financial aid, but they didn't make enough so they could help me with tuition at all," he said. He couldn't say how far he's in student-loan debt, another similarity with other students I've met in the last month. He guesses it's close to $30,000. "I try not to think about it," he says.

    Alden is 100 miles from Worthington. Larson doesn't drive there much anymore because of the price of gasoline. "It's cheaper, but I'm being a lot more conservative with my money now."

    He's confident things will get better. "I feel pretty comfortable. I think there are ways to get help and you don't need to be by yourself," he says.

    He works at ShopKo now as a loss prevention investigator and says the economy "has a huge role in how much people shoplift." From what he's seen so far, people are stealing more frequently. "This year, the first month started out at about $3,000-$4,000 in known shoplifting," he figures. That's about four times the amount of a year ago.

    "They don't really need it. When we stop them we search their purse, their wallet. It seems like they almost have more than enough money to pay for what they stole. It's not from need, it's from greediness, almost," he says.

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    On Campus: The diplomat

    Posted at 7:47 PM on February 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    carrie_newscut.jpgCarrie Bauer of Luverne, Minn., has figured out at a young age how not to let a lousy economy ruin your plans. She's a high school senior who's been taking college courses at Minnesota West Community & Technical College, where I talked to her on Wednesday. "People don't realize how much college costs. Minnesota has paid for my school for two years. I've saved so much money," she said.

    Because she's at the top of her class at Luverne High School (She's #2 in her class. She says it's because she got an A- in gym), she had the option of taking post-secondary classes at college instead of taking classes in high school. "I haven't paid anything to go here for two years," she said. "I'll graduate in May from here and then I'll graduate in June from high school."

    On Tuesday, she found out she's been accepted at the University of Tampa. She plans on majoring in political science and international business, then she'll head for law school, become a politician, and eventually, she hopes, a diplomat.

    There was only one hurdle to overcome. Her mother told her there isn't money to pay all of her college. So in November, she joined the Minnesota National Guard. "I kept thinking my parents were going to pay for my school, but she told me they paid for only a portion of my sister's school and I didn't have that kind of money. (The National Guard) will pay for wherever I want to go to school. It's amazing! I've made so much money."

    Nobody will shoot at her for two years, at least until she gets her bachelor's degree. "I'm going to help defend the country and then I'll come home and the GI Bill will pay for my law school."

    Bauer says many of her friends have also joined the Guard.

    "After two years of going to school in the south, I'll come back to Minnesota to go to law school. Minnesota is a good place to raise your kids in. Luverne is a small town and you have to get away from it to appreciate how good Luverne is. But most people who go to school here, they graduate here, and they stay here. I'm not going to be one of those people who are a Luvernian for the rest of their life. I need to get out of here and experience the world."

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    On Campus: The engineering, football-playing minister

    Posted at 7:18 PM on February 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    newscut_jordy.jpgThere's a lot riding on Jordy Nunez. The Miami, Florida native is the only one of 13 children in his family to go to college, and now he's got a difficult decision to make: Pursue a football career, become an engineer, or enter the ministry.

    "I've been praying hard so the Lord directs me where to go," he told me during News Cut's stop at Minnesota West Community and Technical College in Worthington on Wednesday where I talked to several students about how the economy is affecting their lives.

    "Anything yet?" I asked.

    "Not yet," he said.

    Nunez was recruited to play football in Worthington. That and academic scholarships are his ticket to an education. "I have more of an education in mind than trying to make it big," he says.

    Southwest Minnesota has been good for Nunez, who says it's good to be away from the violence of Miami and the "worrying you have just walking down the street." The downside, however, is that there's not a lot to do in Worthington, which gives him a lot of time to think about his three options for the future, and the economy is certainly playing into it.

    "If it's ministry, it'll be hard. There's not much money, but I know money's not going to be an important thing," he says. "Engineering? If there's no money, there's no need for engineers. There's no building. It's going to be rocky because the economy is low right now. Hopefully when I graduate, the economy will be better. If I choose football, I'll have fun during college, and I'd pursue a business degree. I'd like to own my own business and maintain myself and my family."

    He's leaning toward the ministry, but he's still got choices to make. If it is the ministry, he plans to attend North Central University in the Cities and take up world missions. If it's engineering, he'll head for Florida International University. And if it's football, he'll take a scholarship offer to play Division 2 football at the University of Minnesota Crookston. It doesn't offer an engineering program, so he'd pursue a business degree.

    "Once you go into ministry, you're going in expecting that you're not going to have money," he says. "Your main goal is not money; it's to reach as many people as possible and giving yourself to the Lord. The Lord will always provide if you're doing his will."

    "If I didn't have all those doubts about my future, I'd just dive head first into ministry. But then you have all these outer influences telling you about money. I do keep those other two choices open just in case I do change my mind."

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    On Campus: The real estate salesman

    Posted at 5:37 PM on February 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    andreus_worthington.jpgIf you think the economy in the United States is bad -- and it is -- consider Andreas Wellit's perspective. The Swiss native, an international student at Minnesota West Community & Technical College in Worthington, has more of a connection to the world's economy than many Americans.

    His father buys and sells real estate around the world. "He starts with something little. He does it by himself. He cuts down the trees and puts a hotel on it. It takes awhile," he said Wednesday. "He looks around, when something gets cheap or someone goes broke, he moves in."

    "Even as the economy is bad here, you see country's like them, it makes you appreciate what you have here more," he said. In Switzerland, a value meal at McDonald's will run you about $12, he reports, so life in the United States' economy is a little better, but requires some finesse. "I look where I can save the money. Before, I'd just spend it. It's kind of tiring, always looking for the cheaper stuff, but that's how it is."

    Wellit first came to Minnesota in 2004. He was attracted to the "State of Hockey" in a roundabout way. "I didn't know what to do and I always wanted to go play hockey and go to the United States and learn English. I looked up a program where I could sign up and they said, 'Where would you like to be?' I said, 'Florida sounds good,' and they said, 'Yeah, that's another $500 so I was like, 'No, just sign me up anywhere you want; I just want to play hockey.'"

    He played hockey as a high schooler in Luverne, Minnesota -- about 1,305 miles from his first choice. "I didn't like it too much because I was 16 and they just started the war in Iraq," he said.

    He went back home to earn a degree in business management, then --because he liked it here, he says -- gave in to the lure of southwest Minnesota to take more classes. He'd like to buy and sell real estate, but he's not yet sure where. When classes are over in Worthington, he has to go back to Switzerland for a year of mandatory military service.

    "I have to say we've never lost a war," he said.

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    On Campus: Worthington

    Posted at 10:28 AM on February 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    newscut_campus_worthington.jpgNews Cut on Campus tour. Every Wednesday I set up an elaborate display in a busy location of a public college or university in Minnesota, and find out what's on students' minds.

    Today I'm at the Worthington campus of Minnesota West Community and Technical College, on the shores of Lake Okabena. The school offers liberal arts and sciences programs, including farm management, nursing, and it's quite aggressive in reaching students through online learning.

    I've been asking students about the economy and, in particular, their journey that's brought them to pursuing their dream, also known as a career if they do it right.

    If you've got some questions you want to throw into the mix, drop 'em below.

    10:27 a.m. - We're set up in the cafeteria/lounge area. Coincidentally, it's free-food day at the college. Or maybe it's not a coincidence.

    11:58 a.m. - I've talked to Jordy, who is trying to decide between the ministry, engineering, or football. He's from Miami. I've talked to Andreus, who is from Switzerland. He'd like to get into real estate but first he had to go back to Switzerland for mandatory military service. "Nobody picks on the Swiss, why do they need an army?" I asked.

    "You never know," he said.

    12:35 p.m. Jose Saravia of Luverne just stopped by. He was deployed to Iraq for 22 months and expects to be sent to Afghanistan in the next few years. The Guard is paying his way through college. He went to Iraq wanting to be a cop someday. Now he wants to be a nutritionist or dietician in a hospital.

    12:38 p.m. - A young man who wants to be a police officer stopped by. He current works in security at ShopCo, and says he's seen an increase in shoplifting, though he's not sure it's tied to the economy.

    12:42 p.m. - Carrie is graduating from Luverne High School near the top of her class (#2 because she got an A- in gym, she says). She's been taking college courses while going to high school and will actually graduate college before she graduates from high school. She's heading to college in Florida, but she's also joined the National Guard to help pay for it. She says many of her friends have also joined. "I want to get out of here," she said. "It's not that I don't love Luverne, but I want to see the rest of the world and then come back."

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    On Campus: The economic outlook from Winona

    Posted at 7:51 PM on February 4, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    DSCN2444.JPG

    I've been spending every Wednesday for the last few weeks at a Minnesota college or university, asking students about their economic outlook. This week, I stopped at Winona State University, the first four-year institution on the tour. For the most part, the students are (a) less chatty than their counterparts (b) just as optimistic about their chances to succeed in an "uncertain" economy and (c) confident that things will get better eventually. At the same time, however, I found graduating seniors to be filled with plenty of anxiety about their lives after May graduation, more anxious than any of the other schools I've been at. In a way, a typical four-year student has been more sheltered from the economy than the typical student at a two-year school.

    This anxiousness about the unknown economic world is heightened by concerns about the economic future of parents. If a parent loses a job, some students told me, the students' education and economic future is suddenly imperiled.

    As I continue the tour, I'm becoming more fascinated with the notion that the people I'm talking to are more optimistic about themselves than they are about the rest of the economy, which is generally made up of other people who feel more confident about the people they know (themselves) than the people they don't (the rest of the economy).

    Confidence. That's a word we've heard thousands of times in recent months, but where does it come from? I think the confidence-in-myself-less-confidence-in-the-rest-of-the-economy answers to this question I've asked provide a clue. It's what we know vs. what we don't know, and on the bigger question of the economy, all we know is often what we're told.

    Thus, it's becoming more obvious, we in the news business need to think some more about what we're conveying when talking about the economy. We might be telling a piece of the puzzle, but are we telling it in the right context and in a way that is useful? I don't have these answers yet. Perhaps you do.

    Incidentally, be sure to listen to Wednesday's Midmorning hour in which the economic future of graduating seniors was discussed. It was, I think, a good example of covering an economic issue in a fairly productive way, outlining those extra steps that graduating students can take to get a job.

    Now, one other distinction I'm finding. A lot of students are choosing their careers, not because of the money, but because they want to do something that helps someone else. I'll explore that more in future stops.

    Here are some of the people I met at Winona State University on Wednesday:

    randy_fish.jpgRandy Fish, Winona
    Mass Communications major (Junior)
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    "We're obviously in a slump right now. I see it bounding back; it's just going to take some time. The economy naturally goes up and down but over the past several years we've been on a steady increase, so with this decline people started freaking out because they weren't use to it. But the economy of our country is such that it bounds back. It kinds of hurts now, but..."

    Fish is a sergeant in the National Guard. He's been deployed to Kosovo and then Iraq and has decided his original intention to be a paramedic is no longer for him. He transferred to Winona State from Century College and relies on the GI Bill, state tuition reimbursement, and the Minnesota GI Bill to pay for things.

    He also works part-time as a bartender and says not everyone is living in fear of a declining economy. "People from different companies aren't worried about losing their job at all. But other people don't know what's happening. You hear about certain companies that are growing, others that are shrinking," he says.

    He's planning to be a federal agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). "I don't sit up at night and wonder what I'm going to be doing in five years. I can always re-enlist in the Army.

    caroline_nettestad.jpgCaroline Nettestad - Alexandria
    Public relations and social work (Senior)
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    "It is panic, panic, panic, panic, panic. A graduating senior from a few years ago, you name it, it was on her resume. She went up to the cities and got a really good job and now she's worried about losing it. If she can't get a good job, what chance do I have? This economy is really scary. It's February and I'm graduating in May; I'm very pessimistic right now. I don't think we've hit the worst yet but I think the worst will be in the next few months and then it'll turn around."

    Caroline says she has a passion for both social work and public relations. Winona State offers both programs.

    "My family's done foster care for some time so I would wake up some days and have three new siblings for that day or the week or years. That's where my communication (interest) comes from; I live hearing about other people's stories," she said.

    She wants to marry social work and communications. She was a nursing assistant through high school, "but I couldn't do the whole blood thing." The perfect job: A communications director at a hospital, preferably in Douglas County.

    He anxiety over her post-Winona life is heightened by the finances it took to graduate in three years. "I have student loans up the wazoo," she said. "I would cry if I had to sit down and tally them all up." Two travel study trips -- one to Egypt where she learned that Americans don't get enough international news -- added to the total. "We're not ignorant by choice, we're ignorant by the media we're provided with," she said.

    She says she's willing to wait tables, accept unpaid internships, go back to being a nursing assistant for awhile until her ideal job presents itself. "As long as I'm getting some experience, I'm willing to do it for free."

    newscut_interview.jpgRachel Smith, Champlin
    Mass Communications major with a minor in French (Senior)

    "The economy is bleak. I'm personally more optimistic. It's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Optimism will help. I'm not quite ready to accept defeat. I'm young. I can find something."

    Rachel says it's frightening that she doesn't have a better answer for the "what are you going to do?" question she gets asked more often as graduation approaches in May.

    She says she's "kind artsyish" and that's what attracts her to public relations where she says she can work on projects, write, and be creative. But she's also planning to travel. "The French minor encourages me," she said. So she may head to France to be an au pair.

    Among she and her friends, the subject of the economy rarely comes up. "No one really talks about it. We all know it's a challenge," she said..


    jack_linehan.jpgJack Linehan - Taylors Falls
    Political Science and Economics with an emphasis on Middle Eastern Studies (Freshman)
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    "(The economy) comes up every 15 minutes. We're constantly talking about how to make tuition more affordable and improve academic quality while doing so."

    Linehan is planning for a job in government or a non-profit and he figures an economic background will help the "financial side of things." He's got a good start with an election to the Student Senate at Winona State. His economy for the next four years, however, consists of how much it'll cost to get his education.

    "If we look at some of the cuts the university faces, we could be looking at a 17 percent tuition increase. I come from a low-income house," he says, rattling off a list of scholarships and grants that reduced his $16,000 a year tuition. "I'll come out with debt but thankfully it's nowhere near what some students are coming out with." But, he says, if he becomes a non-profit administrator, there won't be a big income to pay it back.

    He'll be the first man on his father's side, he says, to get a college education. "My mom was a first-generation college student as well and she's a hairdresser now. She has a history degree, so it didn't pay off quite the way she thought it would. But she loves what she does and I see what she does and how she really appreciates what she does and how I, too, could do something for people that isn't really making as much money as I could. But that's not what really concerns me. I really want to help others more," he said.

    newscut_ian.jpg Ian Galchutt - North St. Paul
    Political Science (Junior)
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    Ian plans on a life in politics. He's a member of the Student Senate and is trying to defend higher education against budget cuts.

    "Eighty percent of the graduates of MnSCU institutions stay in the state," he says. "They contribute to the economy, are good members of society and higher education is what stabilizes what Minnesota."

    He rattles off a list of challenges to his generation. "For me and people my age, we're graduating with an average $20,000 of debt from a MNSCU education. It makes it incredibly difficult for people our age to buy a house or a car. You want to buy a house, find a job, and start a family," he said.

    When asked whether he thinks his generation will have a better life than its parents, however, he says "I think so," seeming to apologize for being "a naturally optimistic person."

    "Tour" Dates:

    February 11 - Minnesota West Community and Technical College (Worthington)
    February 18 - Lake Superior College (Duluth)
    February 25 - Minnesota State University Moorhead (Moorhead)

    Tangent time

    A portion of a huge mural in WSU's administration building document's Winona's economic past.

    mural_1.jpg

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    News Cut: On to Winona

    Posted at 5:00 AM on February 4, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    winona_outside.jpg

    Wednesday is "News Cut on Campus" day, so I'm on the road. This week, the tour stops at Winona State University. It's the first stop at a four-year college. So far we've been to Century College, Vermilion Community College, and Minneapolis Community & Technical College.

    At each of our stops we're talking to students about their economic outlook and the journey that's brought them to Winona. Will we find a different theme from the two-year students? Stop back this afternoon. I'll be posting profiles through late this evening.

    In the meantime, MPR's Than Tibbetts and Steve Mullis will be your hosts.

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    On Campus: Facing roadblocks

    Posted at 11:01 AM on January 29, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
    Filed under: Health, News Cut on Campus, Politics

    MPR's Midday program continues the examination of Gov. Pawlenty's proposed budget cuts during its first hour today. University of Minnesota president Robert Bruininks and James McCormick, chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System are the guests.

    Their view is how it looks from their offices. But the human face of the budget proposals can best be found at the micro-level.

    jim_neumayer.jpgTake Joe Neumayer, who I met yesterday during my visit to Minneapolis Community and Technical College. He says he "feels God's calling" to be a certified nursing assistant. He's also on General Assistance, and stands a chance of being caught up in the proposed cuts. The eligibility for General Assistance may be pared to the federal poverty level.

    "You almost can't be working (to get help)," he said, which is a problem for him since the entire point of his going back to school and getting help is that he can work.

    "I'm trying to get off it, but I have a problem where I start jobs and have to quit due to my depression, but I'm trying to overcome that," he said. "I'm trying to see doctors and psychiatrists. But I'm trying real hard out there; I'm pressing forward."

    He's also concerned about whether higher education cuts will make it too difficult to get the training he needs to become a nurse assistant.

    "You've got people who have mental illnesses that need this type of program. They have no choice," he said. "They can't go to work. They're also seeing psychiatrists and doctors. Then you have people taking advantage of the system. Those people need to be addressed. We can't have that go on. If they're going to do any cuts, they need to cut the people just coming into the program and look at what their mental illness is."

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    News Cut: The human service activist

    Posted at 7:12 PM on January 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    campus_aaron.jpg When you talk about the economy -- as I did yesterday when the News Cut on Campus Tour stopped at Minneapolis Community and Technical College -- the discussion intersects with politics.

    It did when I talked to Aaron Westendorp of Edina, who wants to go into human services, a target this week of Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who released his proposed budget with significant cuts in human services, and quite possibly programs that benefit Aaron.

    "Pawlenty is doing the exact same thing that got us in this mess in the first place... the same thing he did in '03," he typed on a keyboard. It's how he communicates. He suffers from a brain stem lesion which causes a partial paralysis from the eyes down.

    But that's where politics ends in his career path. He says he's most interested in inspiring others and being inspired by others. "What about us inspiring each other?" he said when I asked him about the future.

    He says he's inspired by people "who strive to go up against popular culture and actually help us advance," he said. "People who rebel."

    But he says he's neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the direction of the economy. "I'm somewhat in between," he said. "I believe in balance."

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    On Campus: The graphic and Web designer

    Posted at 6:26 PM on January 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    campus_jan_russell.jpgYou have to wonder if we'd be in this economic mess if Jan Russell still had one of her old jobs.

    She worked in real estate. "I worked with some non-profits and did home-buyer education because for a while in the late '90s, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and HUD were giving grants to first-time homebuyers if they underwent some education."

    She says foreclosure rates fell by 70 percent among those with homebuyer education. But the programs disappeared and we are where we are. Maybe there's a connection; maybe not.

    She met and married, and moved to Denver when her husband was transferred there. When he was laid off in Denver in 2006, they moved back to Minnesota. They were unable to sell their home in Denver. They still own it and rent it to pay most of the mortgage. Now that they're back in Minnesota, they don't yet have enough confidence to buy a home.

    Her most recent job -- working part-time creating marketing material for other real estate agents -- disappeared last year. So she figured it was a good time to go back to Minneapolis Community and Technical College to finish the education she started in the early '90s. She's studying graphics and Web design, figuring that the "real estate world" is heading to the Web, she can work from home in her own business.

    Her husband's job (he's back with the company that laid him off) is stable enough, she says, to allow her to be back at school. Her kids are small and there's still time to save for college. And she and her husband don't plan to retire for 20 years.

    "I am really lucky. I know that I'm incredibly fortunate, but we're trying to live smaller. I clip coupons. There's a whole group of us who pass clothes from our kids. Those little things are the only things I can think of to do," she said.

    "We're not people who live big anyway. We save for college. We've saved for retirement. We're savers, which is not real popular," she says. In Denver, her friends kept talking about buying bigger and bigger houses. "And I thought, 'How are you going to pay for it?'"

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    On Campus: The moviemaker

    Posted at 6:03 PM on January 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    campus_moviemaker.jpgSammy Sarzoza of St. Paul says he's proud to be an American. "I love this country, it's the greatest country in the world. The fact that I was born in America, puts me a leg up over 99% of everyone else in the world. I feel lucky and blessed to be an American."

    That introduction makes the punch that follows hurt even more. He's pessimistic about the future. And not just in the short term.

    "It's not going to change tomorrow...or even in the next 10 years," he told me during my stop at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.

    He didn't stop there.

    "It's going to take a lot of time; it might take 20 or 30 years."

    Or there.

    "It might even take another generation," he said.

    No matter. He's willing to put in his time, he said. Just like the parents of babyboomers struggled during the Great Depression on their behalf.

    "If we have to struggle to make it better for them, that's the way it's going to have to be," he said.

    Sarzoza is a moviemaker; he's enrolled in the cinema program, which he says is "one of the best in the country." He's looking for a career producing films, screenwriting, working with lighting, and telling "American stories," as he calls them.

    "The new president can fix a little bit but he can't fix all of it. I'm willing to make art forms that are on the cusp of hope," he said, pointing out that the violent movies of recent years "reflected the time we were living in. I'm willing to put forward good stories."

    It might be the perfect job for his generation. There's very little job security. "It's the artist lifestyle. You have to be a bit of a Bohemian so I try to keep myself with as few strings as possible and be ready to go at the drop of a hat."

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    On Campus: The forensic accountant

    Posted at 5:34 PM on January 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    campus_tim.jpgTimothy Bonner, originally from Brooklyn and now a Minneapolis resident, knows firsthand the woes of the mortgage industry. He was the guy who called potential customers for a mortgage company until the company went bankrupt and tossed him out of his job.

    "I always felt, not just the mortgage business but the economy as a whole was getting too big," he said, rattling off a list of recessions he's weathered over his 42 years.

    So he's trying to get a degree in business administration, taking general courses at Minneapolis Community and Technical College before transferring, he hopes, to the University of Minnesota.

    He's been trying to pay for college by working a minimum wage job. "I had to let the job go. Thanks to the school I qualified for a scholarship and I just have to concentrate on being ready when the economy does recover, having the skills and resources necessary for this recovery. I don't just want to do sales over the phone, I want to do things that are more meaningful."

    One area he'd like to concentrate on is one area that should be in big demand: forensic accounting. "It's just like a forensic will look at a crime scene, a forensic accountant will find things that maybe you don't want to be found," he said.

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    On Campus: The nurses' friends

    Posted at 4:43 PM on January 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    campus_friends.jpg Shamsa Idle (left) and Lily Saenz (right) have plenty in common. Shamsa came to the United States from Somalia in the mid-'90s and Lily emigrated from El Salvador in 1989. Both fled their country's civil wars for a chance at a better life. Both were nurses back home and are studying to be nurses again. They're best friends, and both are convinced better days are coming. I spoke to them during my stop on Wednesday at Minneapolis Community & Technical College.

    Shamsa is pursuing child development courses and sees the value of early childhood education, something Americans take for granted. The lack of it is one of the reasons her country is at war with itself. "They are fighting because they have no education . If they get education early like Americans, the base is already built. If they have no early childhood education, the child is learning outside and nobody teaches in a positive way how to interract with others. Here, (it) is a big country and people live safe because they listen to each other," she says.

    Lilly and her husband moved to Los Angeles first and then to Minnesota. "It's been a very tough journey, especially in the first years. We lived in Los Angeles for two years, and moved to Minnesota in 1991 without knowing what a wonderful people they are."

    She works with Way to Grow, a school readiness program.

    It's true, the present economy is nothing like surviving a civil war and moving your family to another country, but both have nothing but sympathy for growing victims of a dying economy.

    "I see my co-workers getting laid off," Shamsa says. "We have to be patient. If we work together and be patient, we can improve. America, 40 or 50 years ago, I want to go back to that. I think they will create more jobs. I love this country. Education is free in America. Even if you're not working, you can get benefits to get a degree to get another job."

    Both received scholarships in December from the MCTC Foundation. Both are looking to pay it back in their own way. "I see that enthusiasm and determination on so many areas, not just the immigrant community. What we're facing right now, we can move on if we help each other, if we think of different ways to work. We need time, we need to help each other, there are people who are helping us and hopefully they will see the fruit -- in the future we can help somebody else," Lily said.

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    On Campus: The art teacher

    Posted at 4:05 PM on January 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    pearl.jpgPearl Madryga makes a lot of money working at a high-end boutique in Edina; more money than she'd ever make as an urban teacher. Pearl wants to be an urban teacher, a passion that brought her to Minneapolis Community and Technical College, this week's stop on the News Cut on Campus Tour.

    She teaches part-time at Whittier Elementary and has taught some high school. She knows the age group she wants to teach -- second and third-graders. Her reasons for not teaching kids older than that are sobering.

    "Fourth or fifth graders have felt the harshness of reality," she said. "It's over. They're already so mean."

    She wants to teach art and younger kids are more willing to express themselves. Any older than that and they're too concerned "with doing it right."

    She's still got years to go before she's a full-time teacher, but it's still not a great time to specialize in art, a subject that's being cut from schools all over America. "But it's my passion," she says. "I also have other elements of my life I want to pursue as well. Whether it's working for a non-profit arts organization or traveling -- I've done a lot of mission work -- if you don't have the passion there, nothing's going to work anyways."

    She knows the economy is going to get worse. "Every other day I hear about a friend's parents losing their job and it's affecting everybody; it's not just one sector of the community. It's capitalism. If you're going for a profit, you're going to fail. It's bottom line. It's not going to go up forever," she said.

    "I'm just really grateful to be living in this moment," she said of the era ushered in last week.

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    News Cut on Campus: MCTC

    Posted at 5:29 AM on January 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    It's Wednesday and so News Cut on Campus is back at work. Our two-month initiative aims to talk to students at several MnSCU schools around the state, getting a feel for how they fit into the economy and an idea of their personal journey.

    This week, from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., I'll be set up -- somewhere -- at Minneapolis Community & Technical College. And I'll write up some profiles later in the afternoon.

    Previous profiles -- based on visits to Century College in White Bear Lake and Vermilion Community College in Ely -- can be found here.

    Next Wednesday, by the way, I'll be at Winona State University.

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    News Cut on Campus: Vermilion Community College

    Posted at 9:21 PM on January 21, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    As you can tell by the half-dozen profiles that follow, I completed the second leg of the News Cut on Campus tour on Wednesday, with a stop at Vermilion Community College in Ely. It's a school that stresses programs surrounding natural resources, situated as it is at the edge of the Boundary Waters.

    The reason for the tour is to see how people see themselves fitting into the economy and what their outlook is for the future -- both theirs as individuals, and ours as the collective economy.

    What did I find on this stop? First, as I suspected, everybody has a great story to tell that leads them to this point in time. And I can't tell them all. I've had to leave some out for the sake of time. I also ran out of time to interview members of the law enforcement program who came by just as I was running off to speak to a class.

    I was disappointed and I could see they were disappointed, too. "But thank you for coming up to Ely to talk to the students here," one young man said. Students have a lot to say. Students who aren't in the Twin Cities have just as much wisdom to impart, and a fraction of the opportunities to do so. That's the fun of this project.

    Second, the students in Ely had less of a disconnect between their outlooks for themselves and the economy as a whole. Don't get me wrong: There's no right or wrong here. The schools I've selected are very different and that why I selected them.

    Last week at Century College, I found a real passion for a specific goal and a confidence that it would be achieved. It was a confidence not extended to the economy as a whole.

    Here's an explanation of it that I made during a visit last week on All Things Considered:

    In Ely, I found less passion for the goal per se, and more passion for the journey toward, in many cases, goals that have yet to be completely defined. On the overall economy, I didn't find the angst we find in cubicles all over America. The cost of education -- student loans primarily -- is what makes most of the people I talked with almost gasp, and then accept as a fact of life to be faced... later.

    What is the big deep meaning of all of this so far? I don't know. It's too early, other than to note that despite what we all know to be tough times, students from all walks of life, and all ages, are not going quietly into the good night.

    After my interview session, I had the pleasure of speaking to the English Comp class, most of whom had never heard of me, and I guess that's the way I like it. I explained what this project is about and why I'm doing it, stressing that everybody I ask to let me interview them alway says, "I'm not very interesting." They are almost always wrong.

    The instructor of the class, Meg Heiman, put it eloquently when she told the students that their journey which led them to be sitting in the classroom is a terrific story. There was the young man from Florida who was able to get as far as the Twin Cities on his way to Ely but was on his own to get the rest of the way. And did. There was Nathan, from the Twin Cities, who realized he wanted to do something more with his life when he was delivering for Jimmy John's. He delivered regularly to an auto dealership that didn't tip. And the final straw was the day they shorted him $2.50, and he had to make up the difference. Now, he's in the outdoor leadership program.

    There was Randy, an older student, who was in the construction business until one day when he wasn't anymore. And a woman whose name -- I'm sorry to say -- I don't recall Carlie told me about her passion for art. But her family convinced her there was no economic future in art, and so she's pursuing the wilderness program because she's all about her family. I'm guessing someday she'll merge the two.

    My friends in this business often refer to these stories as "human interest" stories, which is code for "light fluffy stuff of no real importance in the big scheme of things." And I couldn't possibly disagree more.

    The "issues" that we in public radio appropriately cite as being our focus, are lived by real people doing the best they can each day. There's nothing a politician or an academic can tell me, that is more eloquent than the daily journeys of people who -- on first thought -- don't think they have a story to tell.

    Next Wednesday, I'll be at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.

    Update 1/22 5:55 p.m. - Here's the interview MPR Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer did with me about the stop in Ely. It airs on Friday's show.

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    On Campus: The kayaker, musher, backpacker....

    Posted at 9:13 PM on January 21, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    paige_may.jpg Turn away now, readers, if you've ever leaned back in your cubicle and said, "I wish I were living in the Boundary Waters, teaching kayaking, rope climbing, or ice fishing. Nebraska native Paige May is living your dream.

    During our discussion about his place in the economy at Vermilion Community College in Ely on Wednesday, it became clear that there are areas where the economy of the wilderness is as isolated from the larger economy as Ely is from the big city.

    He's enrolled in the outdoor leadership program, which teaches experiential education. Outward Bound is one such example. "It's pretty much just taking people out and teaching them these technical skills and backcountry travels. There's a self-improvement part, discovering you can do way more than you thought you could," he says.

    In this case, the college he chose led to the career path he's following rather than the other way around. The program had recently been moved to Ely from International Falls. "As soon as I started the program, I loved it so much. In just my two years, I've gone from never having done any of this stuff -- canoeing or backpacking or rock climbing or kayaking -- and now I'm a certified kayak instructor, certified wilderness first responder, this summer I'll work for Outward Bound," he said. He hopes to be a dog musher in the winter, possibly in Alaska.

    Economy? What about it? He won't make a lot of money; he sees it as a lifestyle choice. "You get by," he said. "Money will be tight, paying off student loans and such (he says he doesn't know how much he owes). There'll be that but I'm the kind of guy who can live cheap, with just bare essentials."

    "This is a beautiful part of the country and you're living and working outdoors all of the time."


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    On Campus: The basketball player

    Posted at 8:40 PM on January 21, 2009 by Bob Collins
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    david_walsh.jpg David Walsh isn't like most American kids, which is partly attributable to the fact he's from Melbourne, Australia. He has a "what me worry" attitude, preferring to "test my boundaries and change things up," he said on Thursday at Vermilion Community College in Ely.

    He says he wanted to see what it's like to live in a town of 3,000 people, and play basketball at the college there. The other day, he told me, some 4th graders stopped him in downtown Ely and asked to have their picture taken with him. As we chatted, other students walked by and waved at him. He knows everybody in Ely, it seems, which is something else considering that he knew nobody when he moved here.

    It's summer right now in Australia. "I kept asking coach at the end of my e-mails, 'is it cold there?' and he never answered any of my questions," he said. It's an effective way for someone in Ely, Minnesota to attract a good basketball player from Melbourne.

    He'd like to play basketball here for another year and if he decides to make a career out of it, he'll go back to Australia.

    His one complaint is that classes aren't hard enough. "I don't just want to end up playing basketball for a couple of years, I want to set myself up in a career," although he says he has "too many clues" of what that might be.

    "I want to study psychology, French, drama, anything I can get my hands on, just because I want to know about that; it's a curiosity sort of thing."

    Walsh isn't terribly fazed by the economy, even though the Australian dollar is worth 66 cents in America. "It makes it hard to pay tuition."

    "There's a lot of tough things to battle through and if you keep your chin up you can get through any of it. If you have a clear enough vision of what you want to do, you can get through anything," he said.

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    On Campus: The ecologist

    Posted at 7:57 PM on January 21, 2009 by Bob Collins
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    katie_higsten.jpg

    Katie Higsten, 22, is looking for her keystone species, a species which -- were it to become extinct -- would lead to the extinction of other forms of life. She'll probably end up researching such things in a warmer climate than Ely or even Minnesota. "When it gets to 60 below here, people get laid off," she told me during a visit at Vermilion Community College in Ely, where she enrolled in the wilderness management program.

    "If you look at the ecological development of an area, what would be the most important. If something dies out as the result of another species? It continues up and down along the food chain. What species are being threated by global warming?"

    The Montana native -- who's lived in Hibbing, Duluth and Woodbury -- obviously wants to know everything about nature and has a plan for learning it.

    "I have so much school left," she said, just before I reminded her that we're supposed to look at things in little pieces. "If you think about the little pieces of every school I've done, I want to do history, archeology, and then move on to life sciences like biology and by then I will have a pretty good idea what species I want to specify and I want to go into ecology."

    She just returned from a trip to Australia, where she and a colleague surveyed people about their role in the environment, but where she became fascinated with grasshoppers. "It was amazing to me the different grasshoppers that are around the world. They live in all the climates of the world. I don't think they'll be a keystone species, but they're interesting."

    But they're not something she'll likely make a career out of. "Bugs are important, but at the same time they gross me out," she said.

    She completed a two-year program at Vermilion in a year, and she still has more courses to take on her search for her career and her keystone species. That's where the economy has turned bruising for her.

    "I had to take student loans for every class; I live off student loans. Because I did business school already, I was $10,000 in debt from Duluth Business University and when I am done here I'm going to be about $40,000 in debt," she says.

    Her parents are worried about the banks, "especially since I took one out with Wells Fargo. I'm pretty much getting to the end of the line with what banks will lend to me."

    She hopes to start working the Forest Service this summer, but probably not in Minnesota. "Everything up here is temporary."

    Higsten doesn't see a disconnect between her outlook and the nation's as a whole. "I think my economy will work itself out. i try to manage my money as best I can. I think the economy as a whole is the same way. Bailing the banks out is the same way that they had the stimulus package for everyone. They sent us $300 and it was gone in a second. I don't know if that makes us a Socialist society, but that might not be a bad thing if it comes down to our survival. People are starting to understand they can't spend their money so frivolously and (should) enjoy the finer things in life because that's what life is all about. Some people haven't had that sink in yet."

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    On Campus: The wastewater treatment plant specialist

    Posted at 7:06 PM on January 21, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    Kristian Gaasland, a Hibbing native, has had three knee surgeries and "all kinds of other issues" with his body. "Too much jumping out of airplanes, and being a machine gunner in Iraq, bouncing around in the top of a Humvee," he says. He joined the Army to get out of Hibbing and because he likes the outdoors.

    He's in the water quality program at Vermilion Community College in Ely and he wants to work in a wastewater treatment plan when he completes his coursework in a year, and gets a license.

    There's something you don't hear a lot of kids say: "When I grow up I want to work in a water treatment plant."

    "I came about it in a roundabout way. Because of Iraq, I don't like being around people as much as I used to so this gives me a route where I'm still doing something important but something where I won't have to deal with a large group of people or sitting in a cubicle farm all day typing on a computer," he told me on Wednesday. He went to the University of Minnesota Duluth but didn't like it because of class sizes. At Vermilion, he says, there are 10 people in his class.

    How did he come up with his career path? On a lark, he decided to take a tour of some water treatment plants, "and every time I went there I noticed all the employees were older and getting ready to retire." It's an interesting fit in a bad economy, he says.

    "I like the process of it because it's a little bit hands on compared to most jobs," he said. For example, someone's got to keep the bugs and protozoa that eats the waste alive and happy. "If you can handle the smell, it's not too bad," he says.

    "They're still hiring at a decent rate," he says when I asked him about his economic outlook. Vermilion's job placement rate in the business is 98%. "Basically, if you want a job, you can have it." He figures Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan will lead to more plants being built and older ones replaced.

    Not that the economic downturn hasn't stung. "My retirement fund I've been working since I was 18 has taken quite a hammering. There's recessions every once in awhile and you just have to go with the flow."

    Which is his plan.

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    On Campus: The forester

    Posted at 6:31 PM on January 21, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    jeff_swanson.jpg
    Jeff Swanson, 52, a native of the Des Moines area misses Sunday mornings. But those days are gone. Swanson, a Lutheran pastor for about 20 years, says he's got a new calling now, and he's following it as a student at Vermilion Community College in Ely, where I met him on Wednesday as part of News Cut's Campus Tour.

    Swanson is now enrolled in Vermilion's Natural Resources Technology Program, considered one of the best in the country. He'd like to get into forestry or wildlife management.

    His decision to make a change "came at a place in my family life and personal life that it just seemed that while I always followed God's call to various places... that was leading me to natural resources."

    He says the initial decision was hard; he had a "nervous breakdown" and quadruple bypass surgery "so the final decision to do something else, something different, and make a big change in my life was not very difficult and once the decision was made and the big dominoes started to fall for me."

    "I miss Sunday mornings, I don't miss Tuesdays through Saturdays too much," he says.

    He'd like to work with a group of people to manage a forest or a prairie restoration. Ideally, he says, he'd like to find something in Iowa or New Ulm, where his wife is staying while he's in Ely. They see each other once a month.

    "I'm a big bison guy," he says. He and his wife travel around the region watching bison.

    So, I had to ask. "What don't people know about bison?" And Swanson knows what you don't know... unless you knew that bison bones were used to make brown sugar back in the day.

    "At one point in American history, there were between 50 and 70 million bison that roamed across the Plains. By 1888, we had reduced bison to a population of approximately 1,000. You would think there would be a lot of bison bones across the Prairie, but it was found that bison bones made good fuel in the making of brown sugar. Virtually every bison bone upon the land was exported to the Detroit area."

    Swanson says he's got "big hopes" for the national economy turning around soon, maybe his pension account will regain some value. But he figures that's three years away.

    As for his own economy: "My big concerns is finding a job and having a government willing to invest in natural resources." He found Barack Obama's inaugural address encouraging in this regard.

    Swanson acknowledges that life at 52 isn't what he expected at age 5, that's when he first wanted to become a pastor. He thought he'd be a pastor of a large church, with a staff, living a comfortable life. "I'm missing the target," he said. "My goals are different. I want to be less successful and more happy." So far, so good, he says.

    At Vermilion, he's surrounded by students younger than him. And he's got a message for them: "Do what makes you happy; you, not mom and dad and aunts and uncles. I became a pastor because of three blue-haired ladies in the front row at church. And I was a very good pastor but at the core of which is not what makes me happy and what makes me happy is nature, and outdoors."

    And bison.

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    News Cut on Campus: Vermilion Community College

    Posted at 4:38 AM on January 21, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    ely_setup.jpg

    The News Cut on Campus Tour moves into Ely today. My every-Wednesday conversation with students on college campuses focuses today on Vermilion Community College. Look for the profiles later today.

    Update 10:26 a.m. - I've made it, with the last 50 miles minus any blue fluid for the windshield.

    10:55 a.m.

    <

    I talked to Jeff Swanson, who grew up on a farm near Des Moines, went on to become a Lutheran pastor for a few decades, and then decided his calling is to the woods and the prairie. I'll be writing about him later today.

    11:55 a.m.     -- I've been doing more interviewing than blogging, but I'll be posting profiles later. I just met a young man from Nebraska who's living everyone's dream. He's in an outdoor leadership program and will have a career working, for example, for Outward Bound, or teaching sea kayaking or any number of things that pop up as answers when most of us say, "if I had to do it all over again."

    Then there's the man from Australia who came to Ely to play basketball. Ely? Who knew?

    12:13 p.m. - - A few weeks ago here, we kicked around positions that are 'recession-proof.' I think I've identified one. Kristian Gaasland of Hibbing is studying to be in the water treatment plant industry. His story later.


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    On Campus: The police officer

    Posted at 10:56 PM on January 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
    Filed under: Economy, News Cut on Campus

    newscut_cop.jpg Corey Anorve-Andress, 19, of St. Paul wants to be a police officer, and that may come as bad news for his cousin, who runs in a St. Paul gang.

    He's been at Century College since last summer, taking some general classes, including forensics and biology. He plans to get a degree there, then attend Metro State University to learn more about the psychology of juveniles.

    He might be able to teach the class. "Where I grew up there are a lot of negative influences and a lot of bad things and I've seen how it looked on the other side of law and it wasn't good. So I started to help people out and I figured out I'm a leader and people started to listen to me. (I was) saving them from a lot of things," he said.

    "Most kids were African American and they wanted to do what everyone else was doing in St. Paul, which is fighting and drugs and all that crap," he said. So he organized football games instead.

    He says he talks to cops, even when he gets pulled over for a broken taillight, and asks what they like about being a cop, "and they say it's the best job ever. I always get their card and then I call them."

    Economic worries? "Right now there's a lot of people trying to be a cop," he says, suggesting that may be because of the economy.

    He's not thrilled by the idea of wearing a gun, and he realizes the nightmare scenario of living his dream. He might face his gang-member cousin. "I told him, 'if I catch you at the wrong time, I'm going to have to do what I'm supposed to do, but I said, 'if you need help, if you need help getting out of it, or you need some kind of protection, I'm there for you; I'm not going to just ditch you.'"

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    On Campus: The veterinarian

    Posted at 10:24 PM on January 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
    Filed under: Economy, News Cut on Campus

    newscut_apptrail.jpgCan the Appalachian Trail be a metaphor for life? Let's ask Sarah Anderson of St. Anthony Village, who told me on Wednesday that she hated high school in Roseville and she didn't want to go to college. "Then all of my friends moved out of state because I hung with really smart people and they were going to private colleges."

    So Anderson went to Georgia with a friend, to hike the Appalachian Trail. That's the 2,175 mile Appalachian Trail. "Two nights into the trail... I called my mom and I was bawling, and I was, like, 'I want to come home. Come and pick me up! I don't want to be here.' And my mom said, 'We're not coming for you. You still have 2,170 miles to go. Get moving.'"

    She made it to Maine. Her days of not following through on anything she started were over.

    When she got home, she admits, she had nothing else to do, her parents were willing to pay for school, so she went to Century College, where she's now working on her general courses before transferring to the University of Minnesota veterinary school. "It's a lot of school, and I hated school, but the whole AT experience really put things in perspective for me. I'd rather work hard now for something I'll enjoy 20 years down the road, than be lazy now and have something 'meh, whatever' 20 years down the road," she said.

    "I'm a completely different person. School is nothing (difficulty wise). For the first time in my life I actually care about tests and I'm getting good grades. Now I actually want to get A's and get a good GPA. It's stressful to do so, but I'm like 'meh, whatever.'"

    "You get out of it what you put in and it's as hard as you make it. If you put in a lot of work, sure it'll be hard, but you're going to get the A grade back and you'll be a smarter person for it in the end. It's just going to take a lot of time," said Anderson, who describes herself as "a pretty chipper pessimist."

    She's less chipper about the economy. "The government is lazy. They don't care about the people out here in the middle class. They're not progressive, they just recycle old ideas. We need something new. We need something fresh, and I don't see that happening."

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    On Campus: The priest

    Posted at 9:45 PM on January 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
    Filed under: Economy, News Cut on Campus

    newscut_priest.jpg If there's such a thing as a recession-proof career, David Crawford, 20, of Owosso, Michigan may be on track for it. He wants to be a priest.

    On Wednesday he started the first day of classes in art history, music, and Spanish at Century College. He's a seminarian at the University of St. Thomas, sent here by the Lansing diocese.

    He felt like he was called to the priesthood since about 4th grade in public school. "I was about to get expelled; I was the class clown and I was raising hell," he said. Thus began his education in parochial school. "I grew in my faith, buckled down. In high school is where I really felt the call."

    He knows what you might be thinking.

    "If I'm walking down the street and someone asks me what I want to be and I answer, 'a priest,' what is the number-one thing they say? A child molester or someone that's going to manipulate people. Fifty years ago it wasn't like that. Morality and the family and celibacy, people mock it. Living in a marital relationship faithfully, those things are less and less important to our society," he said.

    He acknowledges, though, that perhaps the recession-proof nature of the priesthood has some cracks. Many churches are empty, or struggling to survive. "The economic dimension of the church, you see at once the church controlled art and politics and a lot of the wealth and it's because people entrusted what the church stood for, and still stands for but has been manipulated in the eyes of the public."

    But he says the priesthood is not a career, "it's something you are."

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    On Campus: Miss You Can Do It

    Posted at 9:20 PM on January 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
    Filed under: Economy, News Cut on Campus

    newscut_miscanndo.jpg When you're talking to the reigning "Miss You Can Do It," about the economy, you can pretty much scratch the whole "are you pessimistic or optimistic?" question.

    Last summer, Alexandra Schmitt of New Brighton won the competition for people who've proven people wrong by proving people wrong. She has mild Cerebral Palsy. She and her twin sister were born three months premature. "We had a 50-50 chance of survival. I weighed in at 1 pound 11 ounces and they thought we weren't going to make it through the night," she told me.

    Alexandra is now attending Century College, working on her general courses. She wants to pursue a career working with kids. "Whether it's teaching or working on advocacy for people with disabilities, especially in college. Once you get past high school, the IEP (individual education plan) is no longer valid, but I think it should be."

    "I like to try new things and since I won the pageant, I'm not afraid to try something new. A couple of years ago I would never have gone on this radio station to talk to you, I would never have done the TV interviews that I have done. I would never have been able to do speeches. So I think it's boosted my confidence that I can do things," she said.

    This weekend, she's going to Washington to attend the Disabilities Power & Pride Inaugural Ball at the National Press Club. She may meet the incoming president.

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    On Campus: The dentist

    Posted at 8:52 PM on January 14, 2009 by Bob Collins
    Filed under: Economy, News Cut on Campus

    dentist_newscut.jpg Zach Rossow of Osceola needs two more biology classes at Century College before he can transfer to either Texas A&M or the University of Minnesota on his way to becoming a doctor of dental surgery. That's another six years of work before he starts his own practice.

    That's not just a lot of time. It's a lot of dollars. How does he pursue his dental dreams? He sells knives.

    That took our conversation about the economy in an entirely different direction and I asked him to tell me about his favorite sales calls. "In our business we remember the lady or gentleman who had Cutco 55 years ago and they're, like, 'Oh my gosh I haven't seen Cutco in 50 years.' And then they tell you a million stories about their one paring knife."

    Nothing perks up a day like a good paring knife story.

    He made $35,000 in the last year selling knives 5 to 10 hours a week to finance his education, but he's quick to point out that a friend of his who's graduating from Mankato State University made $180,000.

    He figures it's a recession-proof business in the bad economy "until grocery stores stop selling food that's bigger than your mouth."

    "You've practiced that line, haven't you?" I asked.

    "I've used it before," he admitted.

    If you can make that much money selling knives, why become a dentist? "To help people," he said.

    It's not a long-standing dream. He was pursuing a career in economics until September when the economy collapsed. He realized the market is going to be flooded with people with financial experience, "and I like school, and human anatomy was my favorite class so it's always been in the back of my mind. So I just chose to change now while I'm still young. I'll still be in my 30s, so what?"

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    On Campus: The nurse

    Posted at 8:18 PM on January 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
    Filed under: Economy, News Cut on Campus

    cut_lucy.jpgA bad economy takes away, and a bad economy gives back. Lucy Elmbald of Osceola, Wisconsin is going to be a nurse, a profession which is in short supply, and for which there's a waiting list. She's been meeting the academic requirements to get into Century College's nursing program.

    Up until 2007, nursing wasn't in her future. That's when Anderson Windows permanently laid her and about 500 others off. "It was, 'OK, here's a struggle, here's a bump in the road. You have to just come up with some ideas and figure where to go after that," she said.

    "At 32 years of age, thinking that Anderson was the promised land, it was almost a blessing because now I can get my degree and move on with life. Otherwise I'd be a manufacturer until I was 60 or 65 and I wasn't looking forward to that. When I was let go from Anderson, my husband looked at me and said, 'it's either law or it's medical, which one do you want?'"

    Up until recently, nursing seemed a recession-proof career. But "right now, people go to hospitals and clinics, they're going because of an emergency," she said. They're putting off other procedures to save cash and that's requiring fewer nurses.

    Elmbald doesn't see the overall economy picking up for 5 or 10 years. "It's slim pickings out there and that's why people are going back to school," she said. "Every day is a struggle. Until I get my degree, I don't know where things are going to go but I am bound and determined, even if I'm living in a cardboard box, to get this done."

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    On Campus: The child protection worker

    Posted at 7:48 PM on January 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: Economy, News Cut on Campus

    chld_protections.jpg Mary Bowlin figured she wanted to be a child protection worker right around the time she "had a bad experience with a child protection worker," she said during my visit to Century College on Thursday. "I was living with my mom and then my mom died and my sisters kicked me out. They told child protection I was being irresponsible because I was. I was doing crack. My life got more and more depressing and then my kids got taken away by child protection and it was a nightmare," she said, adding it took five years to get one back.

    She stopped drinking, stopped doing crack and she realized there was money available to go to college when a friend of hers told her he was buying cars with financial aid money. "I was just looking for a job and I was doing banquet serving forever. With the economy and stuff, it just goes down, down, down. But you only get $10 an hour , you only get 4 hours and you have to drive out to Plymouth. It's not worth it."

    The idea of going into human services popped up at her daughter's 9th grade career fair. She says she'd be good at it because she knows what it's like from the other side. "One thing I would do is having empathy for the people. If they're drinking, I'd tell them to go to AA every day. Don't cut them down. Don't degrade them," she said.

    The poor economy and the foreclosure crisis could help her, she figures. The house she's living in is in foreclosure, so she's trying to buy a house. She interested in a duplex that available for $35,000 and she thinks a tenant could help pay the mortgage and her way through college.

    When she's not at school, she often talks to women in recovery groups.

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    On Campus: The advocate

    Posted at 7:20 PM on January 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
    Filed under: Economy, News Cut on Campus

    kary_newscut.jpg You don't often hear about motivational speakers getting laid off, a fact Kary W. Bowser might keep in mind in the difficult economy. He's working on general courses at Century College with an eye on a career in advocacy and leadership.

    Some of Bowser's 31-year-old track records still stand at Roosevelt High School. Between then and today he flew missions with the Air Force to Grenada, was assigned to President Ronald Reagan's support team on a visit to China in the '80s, and had a 15-year career in the Postal Service in North Carolina.

    He had a track scholarship waiting for him in Mankato but took his route because he wasn't ready for college, he said. Timing is everything. When he returned to Minnesota in 2005, he wanted to enroll in the two-year pharmacy program at Century, which Century was phasing out in a year. Just as well, his mother wanted him in pharmacy. He wanted to go into radiology.

    But now he says he's into helping other students. "After they graduate from high school, there's a crossroads: They can turn down a bad road or they can look at other avenues and turn it up a notch. I didn't have that in the inner city but I had the drive and determination to go another way."

    "I like helping people; it's just blessings all the way around," he said, adding that he's turned some kids' lives around. "I see myself working in higher education field, dealing with children, pushing a lot of things."

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    On Campus: The prosthetic and orthotic technician

    Posted at 6:22 PM on January 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: Economy, News Cut on Campus, Schools

    nathan_greene.jpgNathan Green, 33, a Nebraska native, says he saw the economy collapsing five years ago when he was working in a parks and recreation department. Bond issues for swimming pools kept getting put off, he said during News Cut's stop at Century College today.

    "I wanted a profession that I could be proud of," he said. He wanted to get into orthotics and prosthetics and said the Minnesota campus is the only program in the country for both.

    For three years, he and his then-girlfriend-now-wife maintained a long distance relationship. After they got married, she got a job in New Ulm and they had a less-long-distance relationship for three months.

    "I needed to make a clean break so I didn't fall into the same old situation, hanging out with the same old friends trying to scrounge out part-time jobs here and there," he said. He's been working in the practitioner program working with patients, and now he's starting to check out possible residency programs.

    "It's looking a little bleak right now because the bigger not-for-profit hospitals maybe had their donors in the stock market. They're getting kind of tight and aren't willing to take the students. Taking a resident costs them money. The benefits of them taking new students might become a little daunting when they need to do what they can to keep the lights on in their facilities," he said.

    "I'm a little nervous with Medicare and the different outlooks on reimbursement for insurance," he said. It's cost him about $3,000 per semester and he's not altogether sure that won't go up. He expects MnSCU (Minnesota State Colleges and University System) schools to be the first to get hit with budget cuts at a time when the economy is requiring more people to go back to school.

    "(People) worked in the airline profession and are coming back to be different technicians and stuff. These are people who had a life, they're starting a brand new career, how long are they going to be in school before they actually get out in the work force and how long do they have to be out in the work force before they get established in the field?"

    Most of the money Green stockpiled for school is gone and he's found it difficult to get a job while going to school because employers don't think he'll be around long-term and they won't give him a long-term job while he's in school.

    Green's original degree was in education and therapeutic recreation, working with adaptive aquatics, "saw a lot of people post-op or amputation, special needs children."

    "I have a very positive outlook; I know everything will work out and things happen for a reason," he said. "My wife stuck with me so I know there's something there. I don't know if anybody knows what the right answers are right now. You may worry yourself into a hole. Yeah, a job is a big part of that but you've got friends and family, too."

    He and his wife are expecting their first child in June, right around the time he'll be starting a residency program. Somewhere.

    "I'm not going to live in the kind of house my parents do, with the cars and things like that. I'm not entitled to that. That's something I'm going to have to work for it. I'm hoping I'm prepared for that."

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    On Campus: The nurse and the biochemist

    Posted at 5:36 PM on January 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
    Filed under: Economy, News Cut on Campus

    elaine_burns.jpg When I asked Elaine Burns of Minneapolis what her outlook for the future looks like, her answer hit me like a bucket of slush.

    "Our outlook for the future is we want to get the heck out of here," she said, bouncing one youngster on her knee as another begged for her attention nearby.

    "Out of Minnesota?" I asked.

    "Out of the United States," she said. "We're looking very seriously at moving to Canada after we both graduate. We're kind of fed up, especially with the health care situation. We feel completely abandoned. We've been in and out of coverage by the state or by the companies my husband's worked for and we just can't do it. When we graduate, we'll be in a much better position ... but we're, like, just forget it, we're not going to participate in the system anymore; we want out."

    Her husband is a PhD candidate in biochemistry at the University of Minnesota. He graduated from Mankato State University after six years, went to work, then went back to school. Elaine went back to school after her youngest child was born,

    They're scraping by, she says. "My husband worked while he was in school. He was in construction. His dad has been able to help us out a little bit. Student loans, which with the current economic situation, is on our minds. Student loan money might not be there. He gets a small stipend, but we also worry about money from NIH (National Institutes of Health) drying up -- research money for programs he's in."

    "The health care is really scary. We're covered by the U of M, but it's still expensive. We don't have dental. It's always something; you always wonder what's going to be the next thing that happens. When you're living week-to-week, it only takes one catastrophe to put you under."

    She's taking Spanish at Century College at the moment, hoping it will be the "golden ticket" to break into the nursing field. She wants to work somewhere -- in Canada, apparently -- with kids.

    What does 5 years from now look like? "We're hoping things will settle down for us and we have a regular life. A little house somewhere that we won't have to move out of sometime in the near future," she said.

    In a typical day, she says her husband is gone 10 or 12 hours working in the lab, "and then doing classes. I go to school in the evening and then it's midnight and I'm working on online courses and I'm, like, 'We can't do this for four more years.' Then other days you just think about what it'll be like when it's over."

    Here's a second helping of slush:

    "There are people at this school that are doing way more than what we're doing. Single parents with parents to take care of, working two jobs, and going to school; so I know it can be done," she says.

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    On Campus: The information technology pro

    Posted at 4:50 PM on January 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
    Filed under: Economy, News Cut on Campus, Schools

    terrence_mcbride.jpg My hand-scrawled sign at the table I set up at Century College in White Bear Lake on Wednesday said conversations 25 cents. Terrence McBride, 24, of Inver Grove Heights was one of the first in line. He put 25 cents down. I put 25 cents down. "Whichever one of us enjoys the conversation more, the other one gets the money," I said.

    "Anybody's life can get out of whack when they're looking at the peak of a mountain," McBride said when I asked him about looking at the challenge he faces in a bad economy. He's one of thousands of students across the state who are pretty sure better times are ahead, because in some ways, they've already arrived. In a challenging economy, he's biting off a daunting task in small bits.

    McBride, who admits he "screwed up" when he was a teenager, was working at an auto dealership, performing oil changes when he saw which way the economy was heading. "There were firings and I have a six-month-old daughter and I wanted more job security," he said.

    He wants to become an information technology specialist and he talks "when," not "if." He goes to school fulltime and works fulltime.

    "How hard is that?' I asked.

    "Not hard enough to keep me from doing it," he said. "If something is really important to you, there's nothing that can stop you." His girlfriend is a nursing student and they get by by cutting expenses. "We don't go to movies, we buy movies on demand, we don't go out to eat. I study and I go to work. In the long run, I'm relatively sure it's going to pay off."

    Despite the bad economy, McBride says the work will pay off. "You can have any perspective on this whole economy that you want to, but people still have jobs. No journey is impossible if the first step is belief."

    That's when I gave him the quarters.

    He says two years from now he hopes to be doing an intership in "some sort of conglimerate, slowly working my way up the ranks. I've been down and out myself and I bring more maturity than a normal 24-year old." He says his girlfriend will be in nursing, and his daughter will be in preschool "to get a head start on her education."

    "I don't want to raise my daughter as a statistic. I want her to have a choice as to which school she goes to. I want her to have me in her life. I'm a black guy with a daughter and there's so many prejudices about that. I want her to have as good of a life as anybody else," he said.

    And what will he says to the kid in the auto dealership when he needs his car's oil changed? "Stay in school. Get into school if you can. Apply for financial aid if you need to. Set a small goal each day. That's what I did. I broke it down to tasks. Check out a school, pick a school, apply for financial aid, get books, arrange my schedule and work schedule, then all the pieces start fitting together."

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    On Campus: The benefactor veteran

    Posted at 3:18 PM on January 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
    Filed under: News Cut on Campus

    ray_basques.jpgRay Basques, a St. Paul native and current Maplewood resident, is concerned about the future of the economy and the rising unemployment rate. The veteran, who is disabled after getting cancer from Agent Orange in Vietnam, is trying to do something about it. He donates $1,000 a year to a scholarship at Century College in White Bear Lake, where he's been taking classes since 2004.

    His generosity comes despite the government's attempt, he says, to cut his disability benefits from $2,600 a month to $1,300.

    "It's another challenge of my life that I have to meet head on. I can only hope that things get better sooner or later," he says when I asked him about the economy. He spent decades as a printer before a cancerous tumor was removed in 2002. That industry, he says, is dying. And yet, that moment changed his life in a positive way, he says.

    "In Vietnam, I was just glad to get out of there and I went right back into the factory (when he got back) and didn't use my GI benefits. When my tumor was taken out in 2002, it turned my life upside down. I got benefits that allowed me to go back to college."

    He's not planning to go back to the working world. He always loved gardening so he went back to Century for a horticulture degree and his scholarship is given to deserving students pursuing a similar degree. He's content to take classes -- he's currently taking a class in psychology.

    Times are tough all around, he acknowledges, but "this is one of the best parts of my life; this last five years have been a dream after being stuck in a factory environment," he said.

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