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U.S. Department of State / December 2008
journal under the eJournal USA logo. These journals
Volume 13 / Number 12
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 About This Issue

G
o for your life, some American kids are Americans to tell how they found a path to a career that
saying today. “Go your own way” and is right for them and what they learned along the way.
“Do your own thing” are the slogans some They tell the good part, but they don’t leave out the bad
songwriters have left us. “Do what you want to do.” moves and wrong turns. You’ll meet people who found
Different cultures and different generations have their calling while doing very hard work for very little
chanted a lot of mottoes about that stage of life when a pay. Several will tell you how their families influenced
person is becoming an adult and making hard choices their choices. Others describe years spent going in one
about the future. direction, only to learn
Mottoes like these they really had to
make it sound like follow a different path.
becoming a stand- This issue also
up adult is a totally contains some advice
excellent adventure. from experts who
But — reality-check found their life’s
— most young people work in helping other
are also worried about people find the right
finding some kind of careers. They might
interesting work that help you figure out
also brings them the what skills, credentials,
income to make a and passions you bring
comfortable life. to the search for a
Barton Stabler/Photodisc/Getty Images

Whether you call career.

it choosing a career, These stories
making a living, or just are all different, but
getting a job, everybody really, they are all
would like to find a way about the same thing:
to be amped-up about self-determination,
their work and still empowerment,
pay the bills. What’s the secret? No magic words, no dreaming your own dream, and finding a way to get
mysterious spells will do it for you, but we’ve managed there.
to pin down some advice that might give you some
direction. —The Editors
On the pages that follow, we’ve asked a variety of

eJournal USA 1
 U.S. Department of State / December 2008/ Volume 13 / Number 12
http://www.america.gov/publications/ejournals.html

Choosing a Career

4 What You Offer the World 16 Making Memories to Make a Living

Richard N. Bolles Walter Scheib
A renowned life-planning expert gives advice on A former White House chef explains his love for the
how to look at yourself to identify your skills and hospitality industry.
strengths.
18 Congraduations, Dude: California
6 Culture Affects Career and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Life-Planning
Richard N. Bolles 19 A Gamer Goes to “The Darkest of
This same expert explains different cultural views of Days”
life and career planning. Bill Wadleigh
A video-game producer describes how he came to the
9 Congraduations, Dude: Dell Computers dream job he didn’t know he wanted.
CEO Michael Dell
Brief articles based on excerpts of speeches delivered 21 A Tribute to Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous
by prominent people to graduating students at Jobs
various colleges and universities. “Congraduations” An interview with television host Mike Rowe of
is a mash-up word, combining “congratulations” and Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs who discusses the
“graduation.” value of dirty work and the qualities of the people
who do it.
10 A River Runs to It
Jeff Rennicke 25 Swimming with Sharks
An outdoors writer describes how nature called him In his blog, Mike Rowe describes diving into a
to a career. school of hungry sharks.

12 Congraduations, Dude: American 26 Congraduations, Dude: Supreme Court

Express CEO Kenneth I. Chenault Justice Stephen Breyer

13 Chili, Hot Dogs, and the Family Legacy 27 Choosing a Career in Changing Times
Jeanne Holden Phyllis McIntosh
Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, D.C., is a family New technologies and economic restructuring have
business that has been passed to a second generation created a different environment for career selection
dedicated to customers and community. and job-hunting.

eJournal USA 2
30 Giving Public Service, Gaining a Career 38 Getting to College
Siobhan Dugan The nongovernmental organization College
Participants in Americorps, the national youth service Summit is working in 10 states to give promising
program, discover skills and gain experience that help secondary school students a boost into college.
them choose a career path.
40 Open Your Eyes
33 Empowering a Community Eldon Harmon
Gwen Moore A veteran of College Summit recalls the experience.
Moore, now a member of the U.S. Congress, recalls
her experience in Volunteers in Service to America in 42 A Journey of Revisions
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Maggie Leffler
A physician-novelist explains why she must pursue
35 Congraduations, Dude: Pop Singer Billy two careers.
Joel
44 Additional Resources
36 Every Call Is Different Books, articles, Web sites, and films on choosing a
Andrea Clark career.
A female firefighter left a career as an electronics
engineer to take up work in emergency services.

eJournal USA 3
 What You Offer the World
Richard N. Bolles

life planning expert richard n. bolles, author of What Color

Is Your Parachute?, offers some advice on how to identify the
skills you have that will lead you to the career you want.

F
or years, I’ve taught workshops attended by people
from around the world — poor, rich, young, old,
schooled, and unschooled. I’ve discovered that
everyone — and I mean everyone — has at least 500 skills.
The questions are: Which kind, and what are they?
We are all born gifted; we are all born “skilled,” even
those with severe disabilities. Watch a baby learn, digest,

© AP Images/The Fresno Bee, Tomas Ovalle

and put information to use. The skills every child has are
astounding!
Look at your skills, examine them, and recognize they
are talents you offer the world.
Basically there are three kinds of skills, and it is useful
to think of them in three categories: verbs, nouns, and
adjectives.
Some of your skills are
verbs, things you do.
Like: healing, sewing, Some research shows that peo-
ple working in jobs in which they
constructing, driving, care for, teach, or protect others
communicating, persuading, experience the greatest levels
motivating, negotiating, of job satisfaction. Individuals
working in creative pursuits also
calculating, organizing, report high levels of content-
planning, memorizing, ment in their work. A kindergar-
© AP Images/Daily Messenger/Jack Haley

researching, synthesizing, ten teacher (above) in California

teaches students to run on the
etc. These are your
grass, not the cement.
Transferable or Functional
Skills. They are also called
talents, gifts, and “natural
skills.” Students in a vocational educa-
They are strengths tion program in upstate New
you have, often from birth. York are getting some training in
veterinary assistance skills.
Some people, for example,
are born knowing how to
negotiate; but if you weren’t, you often can learn how to do three universes: people, things, or data/information/ideas.
it as you grow. So, some of these skills are “acquired.” You Most of us lean toward preferring work that is primarily with
rarely ever lose these skills. either people, things, or data. And why? Because that’s where
They are called your Transferable Skills because they we use the skills we most love to use.
can be transferred from one occupation to another and Some of your skills are nouns, subjects, and objects
used in a variety of fields, no matter how often you change you understand well.
careers. Like: computers, English, antiques, flowers, colors,
These skills are things you are good at doing in one of fashion, Microsoft Word, music, farm equipment, data,

eJournal USa 4
 style to your transferable skills. Often these are developed

© AP Images/Matt Houston
only through experience.
In everyday conversation, we speak of our traits as
though they floated freely in the air: “I am dependable; I
am creative; I am punctual.” But in reality, traits are always
attached to your transferable skills, as adjectives or adverbs.
For example, if your favorite transferable skill is
“researching,” then your traits describe or modify how you
do your “researching.” Is it methodically, or creatively, or
dependably?
These styles, these self-disciplines, are the third thing
you have to offer to the world.
How you combine these three kinds of skills is what
makes you unique.
It is important, then, that you figure out what kinds
of jobs need the transferable skills, and the expertises, and
the traits that you most like to use. After all, you were born
because the world needs what you uniquely have to offer. 

Simmie Knox is a Maryland artist, and the first

African-American painter to be commissioned
to do a presidential portrait.

Rourke
graphics, Asia, Japanese, the stock market,
etc.

© AP Images//Matt
These are called your Subject Skills or
Knowledge Skills. They are subjects that
you know something about and love to use
in your work. They are often called “your
expertises.” Tricia Borneman, right, works at a farmers’ market in Philadelphia. She is among a new
You have learned these, over the years, crop of farmers sprouting up around the country who are college educated and leave
through apprenticeships (formal or informal), other careers to enter farming.
school, life experience, books, or from a
mentor. Which ones do you absolutely love to use? This is this article is adapted from http://www.jobhuntersbible.
the second set of skills you have to offer the world. com, the official site of bolles’s book What Color Is Your
Adjectives or adverbs are the third kind of skills. Parachute? reprinted with permission.
Like: accurate, adaptable, creative, dependable,
flexible, methodical, persistent, punctual, responsible, self-
reliant, tactful, courteous, kind, etc. the opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or
policies of the U.S. government.
These are your Personal Trait Skills. Traits are the ways
you manage yourself, the way you discipline. They give a

eJournal USa 5
 Culture Affects Career and Life Planning
Richard N. Bolles
You resign yourself to the
frustration that your favorite fruit is
forever beyond your reach, or you devise
some plan for attaining it.
First you try to knock down some
of the fruit by throwing rocks at the
lowest branches of the tree. When
that approach is not successful, you
try another. You get several of your
friends together, and they form a living
pyramid, standing on each other’s
shoulders, then hauling you up, like an

© AP Images/Bebeto Matthews
acrobat, to the very top of this human
pyramid where you will be able to reach
the fruit. But the friends are unsteady,
and the pyramid beneath you soon
begins to crumble. You come up with
one last idea. You take out a book from
the library, and with the advice and
This job fair was sponsored by the City University of New York to bring graduating students, practical help of those same friends, you
alumni, and recruiting employers together.
learn to build a 30-foot (nine-meter)
wooden or bamboo ladder. Once built,
How young people make career choices varies widely in it can be carried from one spot to another beneath the
different countries. A career expert surveys these various tree, and you can pick the lovely fruit you so desire.
standards exclusively for eJournal USA. Once you have the fruit in hand, you exit the valley
Richard N. Bolles is the author of What Color Is Your at the other end, where there is an inspector to ascertain
Parachute?, a guide to job hunting and career choice that if the fruit is really yours before you are allowed to
has been reprinted in 10 editions over the last 30 years and keep it.
translated into more than 20 languages. You may have guessed that this is a parable or
allegory, designed to help us picture the approach to

L
et’s start with a story. career pursuit in the United States, with its four stages:
Imagine, if you will, a beautiful valley, filled with The choice of a career that pleases you. This
every kind of fruit tree. You are told that you may is represented by the fruit tasting at the entrance to
choose any tree in that valley, and its fruit will be yours. the valley.
To aid you in your choice, a little table is set up at the The job hunt. This is represented by the fact that
entrance to the valley, where you may taste the various you cannot reach that fruit at first. Here is our principal
fruits to see which one you most prefer. When your truth in this article: Career choice without job-hunting
tasting is finished, you point to one fruit you’ve decided skills is “fruitless.” They are two parts of one indivisible
is your favorite. They lead you down the valley until you whole. Without job-hunting skills, career choice is only
are looking at this beautiful tree. “That is your tree,” they a dream. Without a career choice, job hunting is no
tell you. more than drifting. Drifting or dreaming: These are the
You should be thrilled, but instead your heart falls consequences of mastering only one side of the career
because the lowest-hanging fruit is at least 20 feet (seven hunt as it is pursued in the United States.
meters) above the ground. Though in theory you may
have the fruit you chose, in fact you cannot reach it.

eJournal USA 6
 Keeping these caveats in mind, let us
catalog what variations there are around the
world. Let us look at the rainbows:
Career choice. Around the world,
some people will just “fall into” a career by
accident or happenstance, hence “career
choice” is not something highly valued or
expected; in such cultures, young people do
not know what they want, nor do they have
the perspective to even frame the question
to themselves. While at the other end of our

© AP Images/Ben Margot
rainbow, in some countries career choice
is certainly expected, but the whole family
chooses what career you will be pointed
toward. It is a communal choice, not an
individual one — based on what will gain
Richard N. Bolles, seen here in California, is the author of What Color Is Your Parachute?, the greatest prestige, or “face,” for the
the bestselling career-advice book of all time, according to publisher Ten Speed Press.
family as a whole. (In many cultures, “face”
refers to a family or individual’s reputation
The various methods of job hunting. These are or standing in society.) It is worth noting that societies
represented by the rocks, the human pyramid, and the that do not use the vocabulary of “face” often base their
ladder. Favored job-hunting methods in the United States career-choice system upon the concept nonetheless: Does
are the sending out of resumes (throwing rocks at the a certain career automatically earn respect and confer
tree, hoping to shake some of the fruit to the ground); admirable social standing upon the individual or family?
networking (building a human pyramid in order to reach Typically, engineer, doctor, and professor are at the top,
the fruit); and/or empowerment, becoming a competent while entrepreneur and politician are at the bottom.
job hunter forever by using the present crisis to learn how Individual choice is constrained by such considerations.
to deal with this kind of crisis for the rest of your life. The job hunt. In some cultures, or at least amidst
You’ll achieve that by inventorying your skills, learning certain classes, there is little choice as to how you go
to provide evidence of those skills, and then identifying about your job hunt. The method of the job hunt is
the needs of targeted employers (this is represented by the prescribed and even ritualistic: “There is an order to
building of a permanent ladder). things; this is the way it’s done.” In Northern Ireland, for
Successfully passing the interview with a example, the law requires that for certain state jobs every
prospective employer. This is represented, in our candidate has to be asked exactly the same questions. In
parable, by the inspection station at the exit from the other countries, the ritual may not have all the status of
valley at the far end. law but may be a heavily prescribed expectation. In some
With this parable about the U.S. careers system as Latin or South American countries, for example, you
our background, let’s see how the process of career choice are expected to deliver to companies that are of interest
and the job hunt (one indivisible topic) diverges from a package, running up to 10 pages or more, in advance
this model in other countries around the world. Keep in of an interview. This package should include a three-
mind that in every country this process is like a rainbow. to five-page resume (sometimes longer), educational
We may select or discuss a dominant color in that country, records, certifications, photocopies of diplomas, letters
but the other colors are always present in one degree or of recommendation from previous employers, etc. The
another. Hence, claiming that any country has just one point is to provide credibility — “I am who I say I am”
method of going about career choice or the job hunt is — before companies even ask for such evidence. Some
ridiculous; there are usually as many exceptions as there cultures (as in Europe) have an almost indestructible
are “rules.” We can speak only in terms of dominant belief that the job-hunting system functions in a well-
assumptions, tendencies, or trends, and these frequently ordered, prescribed way — even when there is a ton of
occur only among some social classes in that particular evidence that this simply is not true. Even much of the
country. United States is not immune to this delusion.

eJournal USA 7
 The various methods of job hunting. At the other you worked with in the past. More than this — that is,
end of this job-hunting rainbow, in the United States and trying to stand out from the other members of the group
countries with similar latitude, you can use any method — is regarded as arrogance. In Japan, this prohibition
of job hunting that occurs to you. If you invent a new is enshrined in the adage “hit the nail that stands above
method tomorrow that nobody has ever heard of, more the rest, so they all are even”; while in Australia and New
power to you. There are no limits, apart from avoiding Zealand, this is referred to as “the tall poppy gets cut
weirdness and bad taste. In What Color Is Your Parachute?, first.” Ouch!
I identify 16 different methods of job hunting, but the You are advised instead to speak of your assets only
three most common methods are those alluded to in our in terms of “added value,” a term that almost every
allegory earlier: resumes, networking, and empowerment. employer understands.
Unlike the allegory, however, these are often not Now that we have seen how the process of career
alternatives, but are all used simultaneously in pursuit of choice and the job hunt varies in countries around the
success in any particular case. world, I see four lessons for someone who is about to
Successfully passing the interview with a head down this road:
prospective employer. The rainbow here is impressive. • Take inventory of yourself. Know yourself as well
The outstanding difference, however, revolves around as you possibly can. (See exercises in What Color Is Your
whether the interview and the job are perceived in terms Parachute? or similar works.) Decide what transferable
of the group or perceived in terms of the individual. In skills you have, particularly what skills you could
the United States, we are accustomed to the emphasis contribute to a team or community of workers.
being upon the individual. The individual is the subject • Using the Internet, the phone book, or
of the hiring interview, at which time the individual conversations with people who work in your field of
must say what makes him or her outstanding, compared interest, find out as much as you can about companies
to other job hunters with similar backgrounds. The or organizations where you might like to work. If you
individual must describe and document the results he know more about that company than other job seekers,
or she achieved in previous jobs or roles. The individual you’ll make a good impression when you get an interview.
must, in the end, ask for the job and later decide which Companies love to be loved.
job offer to accept. • Familiarize yourself with how the job hunt is
In many, many countries around the world, this is typically done in the land where you are seeking work.
a totally foreign process, particularly in those cultures Talk to several people who have found jobs there, and ask
where the family is a dominant social force. In these how they did it. Take notes.
countries, the emphasis is on the importance of the • Go deeper. Ask people whom they know who didn’t
community, the group, and the team, both at work and in follow the typical path but found work they enjoyed
the interview. doing anyway. Talk to them face-to-face, if you can, and
For openers, the community may be present in the ask how they did it. Take note of all the details so you can
interview, with the entire family coming to the interview devise a “Plan B” in case the typical path in that country
(in some Asian cultures or Maori). Their role is to doesn’t work for you.
volunteer things about you that you may have forgotten What you want, more than any job, is hope for
to mention or that humility may dictate you not say your future and in your life. And in job hunting, as in
about yourself. As the process advances, the role of family life, hope is born from always having alternate ways of
members is to decide which position and firm you should pursuing your search for purpose and meaning on this
accept, based on which offers the most “face” to the earth. 
family.
The community is the subject of the interview. It Further information about job hunting is available at the
is not the individual who accumulates achievements — author’s Web site http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/
only the group or the team. Indeed, in some cultures, in
order for the team to function at its highest, employers
may only consider hiring everyone from the same city or The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or
policies of the U.S. government.
community to be sure they will work well together.
As job hunter, your role in the interview is to
emphasize what you contributed to the team or group

eJournal USA 8
Congraduations, Dude

Corporate Executive Michael Dell:

The Contest With Your Own Potential

Y ou have an abundance of
opportunities before you — but don’t
spend so much time trying to choose the
perfect opportunity, that you miss the right
opportunity. Recognize that there will be
© AP Images/Harry Cabluck

failures, and acknowledge that there will

be obstacles. But you will learn from your
mistakes and the mistakes of others, for
there is very little learning in success….
Many times along the way, you’re
Michael Dell occasionally still works the phone line in the
company’s U.S. consumer department. going to ask why. Why am I on this path?
What is it all about? You’ll ask yourself
those questions in 10 years and in 20 years as often as you’re asking them now. Well … I have an
answer for you. It’s all about winning. That’s right, winning.
But I’m not talking about the most points, or toys, or sales. I’m talking about winning in a
contest with your own potential. I’m talking about believing in yourself enough to become the
best accountant, engineer, or teacher you can possibly be. I’m talking about never measuring
your success based on the success of others – because you just might set the bar too low.

michael Dell is the chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Dell computer
corporation, the company he founded in 1984. In 1992, mr. Dell became the youngest ceo ever
to earn a ranking on the fortune 500. He spoke to graduates at the University of texas at austin in
2003. (excerpt used with permission.)

eJournal USa 9
 A River Runs to It
Jeff Rennicke

Courtesy of Tom Beck

The author is at the oars of this raft as it roars down the Yampa River in the state of Colorado.

I
An outdoors writer explains how rivers set him on a path to am a writer because of a river. It wasn’t much, just
a profession. a tired old stretch of an industrial waterway, but
Jeff Rennicke is an award-winning outdoors writer, I could see it from my high school classroom. On
who has lived a life of travel and adventure. His search for days when the hands of the clock seemed glued in place
stories has taken him to the wildest places on five continents, and the pages of textbooks wouldn’t turn, I’d sit for
travels he has chronicled in 10 books and more than hours watching the river, dreaming. Here was Ernest
200 magazine articles in such publications as National Hemingway’s Big Two-Hearted River where Nick Adams
Geographic Adventure, Backpacker, and Reader’s Digest, fished for a new start in life. Here was Mark Twain’s
twice winning gold medals for excellence from the Society of Mississippi with Huck and Jim lying on their backs
American Travel Writers. He teaches writing and literature aboard a raft pointing out stars with their toes. This small
at Conserve School in Wisconsin and still loves to paddle stretch of river was, on some days, the only thing moving,
rivers. the pathway of my dreams, my ticket to the world that
lay around the bend. And then one day the teacher
mentioned Carl Sandburg.

eJournal USA 10
 “I know now it takes many, many years to write down questions and keep yourself open to the echo of
a river,” the poet wrote, “a twist of water asking a answers, however faint. You hone your skill with a pen
question.” At that moment, staring out the window at the instead of a paddle, lay bare your soul on paper, and send
river, my very own “twist of water,” I knew what I would it in to a magazine editor.
do with my life. I would be a writer and I would begin by And they say “no thanks.” Or at least they do some
writing about rivers. of the time. But you try again – another magazine,
Being a writer is not the kind of career they tell you another story. And then one day, they say “yes.” A
about at a job fair. It doesn’t fit neatly into the check-off magazine comes out with your name in it, your story,
boxes of any “occupational aptitude survey” a guidance something that started with an idea as indistinct as the
counselor might give you. With writing you make your swirl of a river current is now in a magazine, a story, your
own path, find your own way, a prospect that is both story, shared with the world.
frightening and exhilarating. Then you do it all over again,
In college while others and again. Within two years, I
were doing job interviews and was writing as much as paddling,
internships, I was practicing the money I made as a guide
an Eskimo roll in my kayak, supplementing the money I made
paddling every chance I got, as a writer. Magazines began to
and reading, always reading call. Assignments came that took
— River Notes by Barry Lopez, me away from rivers to other wild
John McPhee’s Coming into places — hiking among the giant
the Country, The River Why by grizzlies of Kamchatka, hang gliding

Courtesy of Kim Schumacher

David James Duncan. I knew off the Outer Banks of North
in my heart that there were Carolina, trekking in Antarctica.
stories told in rivers, questions Soon I was an editor at Backpacker
in the twisted currents, if only magazine and contributing regularly
I could find them. to the publications of the National
With a bachelor of arts in Geographic Society. Magazine
English/Creative Writing in Author, adventurer, and teacher Jeff Rennicke. articles became books. Somewhere
the bottom of my backpack, I along the line I stopped defining
took a job as a river guide after myself as a river runner/writer. I had
college and set off searching — the Colorado River in the become a writer and the river flows on in words.
Grand Canyon, Alaskan rivers with their banks stitched There has never been a better time to be a nature
together in grizzly tracks, rivers with unpronounceable writer. Books and magazine articles, the stories we
names and raging whitewater in China, South America, tell, have always been one of the ways we find our way
and Canada. I paddled them all, sat around the campfires, through the darkness of uncertainty, a way to address
listened to the stories. Along the way, I learned about the great questions of our time. With global climate
rivers, about time, and about language. change, increasing extinction rates, and the host of
Wild rivers are more than just pathways of water environmental challenges we face, the questions of the
from here to there. They are as much pathways into human relationship to the environment and our place in
ourselves. There is no rushing a river. When you go there, the natural world will be among our most vital literary
you go at the pace of the water and that pace ties you into inquiries, the most important stories that we can tell.
a flow that is older than life on this planet. Acceptance of There are indeed questions in the layers of rock on a
that pace reminds us of other rhythms beyond the sounds mountainside, in the swirls of grass in a meadow, and
of our own heartbeats, teaches us about the flow of an in the “twists of water” as a great poet once wrote. And
idea, the pace of a good story, the preciousness of time. there are answers too, in the rivers, in the mountains, and
I paid attention. I took it all in. And then I sat down to inside each one of us, if only we learn how to look. 
write.
As much as running wild rivers, writing is an act of The author’s Web site is http://www.jeffrennicke.com
exploration. You set off on a blank page to explore the
mountains and canyons and rapids of ideas. You stare

eJournal USA 11
Congraduations, Dude

Corporate Executive Kenneth I. Chenault:

Face History, Make History

W hether you are heading off for further study or

moving into the workforce, we need you. Our nation
needs you. Our community needs you, both in the United
States and the world at large. We need your energy, your
intelligence and insights, your skills, your determination to
take on the world, and your confidence to succeed.

© AP Images/Jason DeCrow
Always remember your dual responsibility. Recognize
that you can contribute to a company but also to the
reconstruction of New Orleans and the Gulf region.
You can pursue profits and promotions, but you can
also help a little girl in Panama pursue her potential. You can
build a career and start a family, and you can help close the American Express CEO Kenneth
Chenault at a 2007 event at the
gaps of inequality that still exist for too many in the African- Whitney Museum of American Art in
American community. New York City.

Face prejudice, and make progress. Face history, and

make history. Recognize that dual responsibility and lead.
That is your indelible ancestral imperative.

Kenneth I. chenault is chairman and chief executive officer of the american express company. a wide
variety of civic, social service, and community organizations also have recognized his public service
leadership. He delivered the 2008 commencement address at Howard University in Washington, D.c.,
among the nation’s most highly respected historically black universities. (excerpt used with permission.)

eJournal USa 12
 Chili, Hot Dogs, and the Family Legacy
Jeanne Holden

Courtesy of Tim Brown

Nizam Ali inspects his family’s storefront on U Street in Washington, D.C. The Lincoln Theater, another Washington landmark,
is in the background.

Ben’s Chili Bowl is a small restaurant with a huge reputation late 20s before he truly appreciated the significance of his
in Washington, D.C., and beyond. A West Indian immigrant parents’ accomplishments.
to the United States started the business more than 50 years Mahaboob Ben Ali, Nizam’s father, came to the
ago, and his sons lead the business into its sixth decade. United States in 1945 from Trinidad, West Indies, where
Jeanne Holden is a freelance writer. he was born. According to Nizam, Ben had the drive of
“ the poor immigrant who must succeed. “Dad’s people

I
t’s about the people. It’s always been about the were business people,” said Nizam. The United States
people,” says Nizam Ali, when asked why he went was the land of opportunity. Ben Ali tried several careers,
into his family’s business, Ben’s Chili Bowl. “It came from the import-export business to dental school to
down to helping my family and realizing how much our waiting on tables.
restaurant means to so many people.” On August 22, 1958, he opened a little hot dog
Nizam, now 38 years old, didn’t always want to run and chili parlor in a vibrant section of the U.S. capital
the landmark hot dog and chili shop his parents started then known as “Black Broadway” because top African-
50 years ago in Washington, D.C. In fact, he was in his American performers played clubs in the area. Ben started
the restaurant with the help of Virginia Rollins, the

eJournal USA 13
woman who would become his wife. Virginia worked on your customers.’ If you treat your community well, they
U Street at the Industrial Bank of Washington, one of will be there for you.”
the oldest and largest African-American-owned banking
institutions in the United States. Career Decisions
Virginia had grown up on a farm in Chance,
Virginia, about 100 miles southeast of Washington, D.C. Nizam, the youngest of the Alis’ three sons, was
“Mom’s strong work ethic and warm, welcoming ways born in 1970 and grew up in the restaurant. “As soon
— her so-called Southern hospitality — complemented as I could reach the tables, I started wiping them off,”
Dad’s business sense,” said Nizam. They were in love, he recalled. Nizam helped out after school and in the
but getting married was complicated. Ben Ali is of South summer, but the restaurant wasn’t all-consuming. He also
Asian descent and Virginia Rollins is African American. took part in camps and other activities. “I never minded
At the time, interracial marriages were illegal in certain having a family that owned a restaurant,” he said. “It was
states. After several attempts, Ben Ali and Virginia Rollins a very cool place to bring your friends.”
were married in a civil ceremony in a Washington, D.C., Nizam’s oldest brother, Haidar, helped out in the
courthouse — two months after the opening of Ben’s restaurant for a short time, but he always wanted to be a
Chili Bowl. musician. He now lives in California with his wife. The
middle son, Kamal, on the other hand, came to work
A Neighborhood Restaurant in the restaurant directly after college. Eight years older
than Nizam, Kamal is the son who promised Ben Ali that
The Alis used $5,000 to open a neighborhood he would carry on the family business. So Nizam didn’t
restaurant known for simple, good food and a friendly experience much family pressure to join the business and
staff. The U Street Corridor was a center of the black was able to explore his options.
community with businesses, shops, and restaurants. Ben’s In college, Nizam realized he loved radio. He was a disc
Chili Bowl was popular and attracted a mix of African- jockey on three college radio stations and held internships
American artists, professionals, and ordinary folks. In with two commercial radio stations. By the time he was 20,
the early years, well-known jazz performers such as Duke “I had one foot in the restaurant and one foot in radio,”
Ellington and Bessie Smith were regular customers. Nizam said. “I loved them both, but I wasn’t doing my best
Later, Bill Cosby, a famous comedian, humanitarian, and in either one.” So Nizam took a year off after college and
philanthropist, liked to hang out at Ben’s and brought his dedicated himself to working at Ben’s Chili Bowl.
future wife, Camille, there while
they were dating.
Ben’s Chili Bowl endured
in good times and difficult
ones. When the civil rights
leader Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. was assassinated in 1968,
riots broke out in many cities.
In Washington, D.C., most
businesses in the U Street
Corridor closed down, but
Ben’s remained open. In the
1980s, subway expansion tore
up U Street, but Ben’s remained
open throughout years of
Courtesy of Tim Brown

construction.
His parents’ philosophy
sustained the restaurant, Nizam
said. “Basically, it consisted
of ‘treat everybody well, your
friends, your employees, and Nizam Ali poses (center, front) with his staff behind the counter at Ben’s Chili Bowl.

eJournal USA 14
 He learned that the restaurant business is incredibly extraordinary neighborhood restaurant. The Alis received
hard work. “We’re open seven days a week and we only a proclamation from the city, which now hangs framed
close two days a year — Christmas and Thanksgiving,” on the restaurant’s wall. For the next two weeks, lines of
Nizam said. “During the week, we open at 6 a.m. and customers stretched outside the restaurant’s doors.
usually close at 2 a.m. On Friday and Saturday nights, “I went on vacation right after the 40th anniversary
[we close at] 4 a.m. Sunday is our short day — 11 a.m. event,” Nizam said. “But I was calling every day, and
to 8 p.m.” my family said the crowds were insane — unending.
Still, Nizam didn’t know what direction to take in So literally the day I came back, I came straight to the
life. His oldest brother, Haidar, urged Nizam to list his restaurant, and I’ve worked ever since. I never considered
goals: owning his own company, seeing the world, and not helping and I’ve never regretted it.”
having a wife and family. Then they discussed how to Nizam says the 40th anniversary made him realize
achieve them. “Haidar was convinced that law school was the great love that so many people have for Ben’s Chili
the vehicle to accomplish all the goals,” Nizam explained. Bowl. “We were receiving all these accolades, and I knew
The University of Maryland School of Law accepted Ben’s had to continue,” Nizam said. “Also I realized that
Nizam, but he worried about whether he had the drive my brother could not run the restaurant by himself.
to complete three more years of study. His brother was Someone has to be here every day to maintain the quality,
resolute: If you have the opportunity and the means to go the integrity, and the cleanliness. Even now, we both
to law school, then you have a responsibility to go. work six days a week.”
Going into the family business was not Nizam’s plan,
Celebration and Discovery but he knew in his heart that it was the right thing to do.
His father, Ben, is more conflicted. Part of him regrets
Nizam passed the Maryland bar exam and was that Nizam is not practicing law, while another part is
sworn in as a lawyer in December 1996. He practiced really proud of his son for helping carry on the business.
law in Maryland in 1997 and early 1998. As summer Now Nizam and his wife, Jyotika, have a three-year-
approached, Nizam realized that August 22, 1998, would old son, Tariq. His brother Kamal and his wife have
be the 40th anniversary of his parents’ opening of eight-year-old twins. Nizam says he hopes one of the
the restaurant. children goes into the family business.
Nizam wanted to commemorate the 40th Earlier this year, the Alis celebrated the restaurant’s
anniversary. “By this time, Dad was 71 and Mom was 50th anniversary with a gala emceed by Bill Cosby, a
65,” he said. “I had an idea: Why don’t we close the street street party, and a concert to thank the customers, and all
in front of the restaurant and have a press conference. the events were free of charge.
We’ll invite the mayor and city officials to do a tribute According to Nizam, some aspects of the restaurant
to Mom and Dad for Ben’s Chili Bowl, for surviving all should never change. “Our staff is like family. Our
the adversity and maintaining this place.” Nizam and his customers are like visitors to our home. We get to know
brother Kamal set to work on plans, phone calls, press them,” he said. Many people have suggested that Ben’s
releases, and posters. Chili Bowl could become a franchise, but Nizam says
But what Nizam and Kamal didn’t know was that no time soon. He and Kamal also have to think about
one of their customers would also publicize the event. their own quality of life. “If we franchised Ben’s, we’d be
“He thought the history of Ben’s Chili Bowl made a great millionaires, but would my son know who I am?” Nizam
story, and his wife worked at CNN (the Cable News asked. “It’s about so much more than money.”
Network),” said Nizam. So shortly before the anniversary, “Ben’s is the flagship,” Nizam says. “My biggest fear
CNN reporters came to Ben’s Chili Bowl to interview the is that someone who knows and loves the restaurant will
Ali family. They also interviewed the restaurant’s most say Ben’s is not what it used to be. Our respect for the
famous fan, comedian Bill Cosby, about the Alis’ historic legacy is why people love Ben’s so much.” 
restaurant. The resulting story ran repeatedly on CNN
and Headline News.
“Suddenly, an event that had started out as a The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or
policies of the U.S. government.
humble thank-you had grown into something much
larger,” Nizam said. It was a huge success. Officials
and customers came together to celebrate their

eJournal USA 15
 Making Memories To Make a Living
Walter Scheib

© Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Walter Scheib is seen here in 1994 with then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, as they promoted a diet with fruits and vegetables.

Begin with one measure talent. Add one measure dedication, of lamb, I noticed she was chewing on one of the rib
two measures preparation, and half a measure luck. Blend bones. Three days later, they offered me the job as
thoroughly, and allow the mixture to age. White House chef.
That’s the recipe American celebrity chef Walter Almost 20 years before that moment, I took my
Scheib followed to advance from the kitchen staff in small first steps to become a professional chef, and my father
restaurants all the way to the position of White House chef. just about threw me out of the house. After one year at
Walter Scheib was White House chef from 1994 to college, I told him I was going to drop out because my
2005, serving the families of Presidents Bill Clinton and goal was to become a chef. He told me I had to start
George W. Bush. He now speaks and consults about the paying rent, or move out.
hospitality industry in his business, The American Chef. My father was a nuclear engineer, a very academically
oriented man with multiple degrees from prestigious

I
served a rack of lamb, curried red sweet potatoes, and institutions. Some time early in my own college days, I
braised Swiss chard when I cooked one of the most realized I didn’t want the kind of life he had. It just wasn’t
important meals of my career for the first lady of the interesting to me. I didn’t want to be a suit-and-tie guy; I
United States. wanted to be a white-jacket guy.
All you have to do is look at the plate to tell whether So I entered the cruel world of American capitalism,
people like your cooking or not. An empty plate means learning a trade, making a living at it, bumping around
they like the food. If it’s not empty, that means they don’t for a few years. I worked as an assistant manager and a
like it so much. manager at a steakhouse chain in the Washington, D.C.,
I looked at the plate in front of Hillary Clinton that area. I worked as a chef in a number of small restaurants
day and saw that not only had she eaten the entire rack and at various places belonging to corporate chains,

eJournal USA 16
 That’s the attitude you need for the restaurant or
hospitality business. If you don’t love— and I mean love
— making people happy, you’re in the wrong business.
The conditions are brutal. It’s a 10- to15-hour day, late
nights, early mornings. If you don’t like to see people
smiling, then you are in the wrong business. Our goal
is to have people say, “Wow! That was wonderful.” The
secret is to be part of a moment, to make people really
enjoy what they’re doing right at that moment.
A few years out of the culinary institute, I got a great
opportunity at the Greenbrier, a famous old luxury resort
in West Virginia. That’s where I was when the White
House job came open. After I applied, I learned about
4,000 other folks had too. Then the field was narrowed
down, and I was one of about 10 invited to actually cook
for the first lady, a luncheon audition.
What was I going to do? It was the biggest challenge
of my professional life. I listened to everybody. “You
should do this, do that, do the other thing.” In the end,
the best idea was to do what I really did best. If I had
tried to do something else, or to be pretentious or fancy,
© AP Images/Wilfredo Lee

it wouldn’t have worked. Food that was simple but very

intense really represented what I was. It’s a take on a
country style that I was doing at the Greenbrier resort –
basic sweet potatoes, greens, and lamb. It’s a very regional
cuisine, but I made it upscale in the presentation and the
flavor components. That’s what made the difference to
Scheib (foreground) is shown at work in the White House kitchen.
Mrs. Clinton.
I told her that day that we could bring contemporary
learning what the business side of it was like. I didn’t American cuisine to the White House, not just for
learn much about cooking from them, but I learned a her private dining but for all the great and grand state
whole lot about systems management, how to manage dinners and public receptions. She recognized that
people, and how to work with folks. American cuisine was ready to replace the European style
I recognized that I wanted to be in the hospitality haute cuisine that Mrs. Kennedy [First Lady Jacqueline
industry as a professional and I was going to need more Kennedy] had introduced to the White House in the
training. I went to the Culinary Institute of America in 1960s. Mrs. Clinton directed me to bring America’s
New York, America’s preeminent culinary school at the cuisine to America’s home at the White House. So I
time. It was about a 20-month program where you spent formed a team to bring that style of food to the White
seven months in the institute, then worked in the real House, and it was a tremendous professional honor to do
world for some months, then went back to the institute. that.
I discovered I was in the right business when I was And, of course, it was a great personal honor to cook
working as an assistant banquet chef on one of those for two unique and distinctive American first families.
apprenticeships away from the institute. One day when You got to see them offstage, as the true people they are,
a banquet was done, the big chef said, “OK, we’re going regardless of their politics.
to be introduced to this crowd in the dining room.” So
the banquet staff goes out there, and 1,200 people in The author’s Web site is http://www.theamericanchef.com/
tuxedos and gowns get to their feet and give us a standing index.asp.
ovation. I actually remember getting goose bumps. It was
the coolest thing I’d ever seen.

eJournal USA 17
Congraduations, Dude
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger:
It Can Be Done

D on’t listen to the naysayers. How many times

do you hear people saying it can’t be done?
I have heard this my whole life: It can’t be done. It
can’t be done that I come to America; it can’t be done

© AP Images/Eric Risberg
to be a bodybuilding champion; it can’t be done to
go into movies; it can’t be done to run for governor.
Especially, I remember when I ran for governor: “It
can’t be done,” they said. “You know, you are an actor.
What do want to do? Two months before the election
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is
you’re going to decide that you’re going to run for greeted by elementary school students as he pays
a visit to a neighborhood in Santa Rosa, California.
governor? Are you out of your mind? It can’t be done.
First you have to run for mayor, then maybe for city
council, or maybe for assembly or for senate, then for lieutenant governor. You have to work your
way up the political ladder. That’s the way it works in politics.”
I said, “I’m not going after a political career. All I want to do is be governor. And fix the
problems of California, turn the economy around, protect the environment, reform education,
reform our health care system. That’s what I want to do.” And I went out and I talked to the
people directly and had one town hall meeting after the other, did one interview after the other.
And the rest is history. The people sent me to Sacramento [the capital of California]. So don’t
listen to those kind of things: “It can’t.”

this excerpt is from a commencement speech delivered at brentwood School in los angeles, california,
in 2008. arnold Schwarzenegger was first elected california’s governor in 2003, after a career as an
actor and a professional bodybuilder. He is a native of austria who became an american citizen in
1983. (excerpt used with permission.)

eJournal USa 18
 A Gamer Goes to “The Darkest of Days”
Bill Wadleigh

Courtesy of Susan Brown-Wadleigh

The author is seen here in his office with some of the games he’s worked to develop.

Information and communications technologies have been respected U.S. television network broadcast]. Well, that
among the nation’s most rapidly expanding and dynamic didn’t work out, and I don’t regret it at all!
industries in recent decades. A producer of video games Television was a good place to learn a lot of skills
explains how he rode the wave from TV to MMORPGs and that helped me do other things down the line. My
FPS’s – and if you don’t know what they are, read on. first jobs were at universities in the Washington, D.C.,
Bill Wadleigh is vice president of gaming at Phantom metropolitan region, producing video versions of
EFX, a developer of casino games and video games for both classroom instruction. After a few years, I became very
personal computers and next-generation consoles. skilled at working on complex technical projects where
you juggle a lot of elements — camera operators, talent,

I
’ve always been a gamer. Back when I was a teenager, content, a schedule, and a budget.
I played a Star Trek game on a college mainframe I like to say, when you are good at pushing buttons,
computer. But that was 1975, when few people they make you king of the button pushers. I was
were even dreaming that computers would become a promoted and became responsible for managing the
home appliance, much less that somebody could have a projects rather than actually creating them. I learned how
career making games for computers. So I was at college, to deliver programs on time and on budget.
majoring in television production. My secret ambition In 1994 I took all these acquired skills, headed in a
was to be the director of the CBS Evening News [a new direction, and changed careers. It was the time of

eJournal USA 19
the Internet “bubble,” a time when everyone and their Today this is normal, but in the days of the 9600 baud
grandmother was coming up with ideas to make a million dial-up modem, it was truly a breakthrough that gave the
dollars on the Internet. company its competitive edge.
A friend told me there was an opening for a project I served as the producer for VR-1 Crossroads® and
manager at a bleeding-edge [ahead of its time] technology later worked on Fighter Ace 1.5® for Microsoft, a series
company called VR-1 Entertainment. The company of e-mail games for Hasbro Interactive, and an Xbox
started as an ISP, an Internet service provider, one of launch title. Then the company went the way of so many
many during the early-Internet era. Each ISP was trying that sprang on the scene during the dot-com bubble.
to entice more subscribers by developing exclusive It downsized and scrambled for survival but eventually
features to make their service better than the competition. closed.
VR-1 had a games division, but they had no one with After leaving VR-1 in 2000, I worked for some of
experience managing complex technical projects. That’s the biggest corporate players in the gaming industry. I
where I came in. Having been a big gamer all my life and worked in several roles as I was promoted from producer
knowing a little HTML programming and a lot about to director of game studios for slot machines, gambling
managing complex projects, I got the job. devices, and online gaming. All told, I was responsible
It was a start-up company, so it was a high-risk, high- for nearly 100 different games that made millions of
reward situation. It might have led to a windfall financial dollars for the companies. Along the way, I also became a
gain, but, at the very least, it was an opportunity to make patented inventor of new gaming ideas and products.
video games. So I left a safe career path and jumped In 2007, I joined Phantom EFX in Cedar Falls,
into this brand-new thing. It was a little scary to make Iowa. I lead an international team of artists and computer
all these changes, sure. My wife had just given birth to programmers making video games. We develop casual
our son, and that’s a time in life when “normal” people entertainment, one of the largest growth areas in the
settle down and stay put in their careers. But I am often software world. We make card games, poker, slots, and
reminded of a saying that describes my career experiences table games.
and path: “A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what My first project here is a First Person Shooter (FPS)
ships are built for.” [William G.T. Shedd, 19th-century Darkest of Days™ for PC and Xbox 360 that will be
American theologian and author] released in early 2009. It’s another technological challenge
The world of video games in 1994 was completely for me, working with a new team using a new, custom-
different than today. Everquest®, World of Warcraft®, built graphics engine to make a state-of-the-art game. I
and the other common massively multiplayer online use all the skills, experiences, and tricks I have learned in
role-playing games (MMORPGs) were only risky ideas, this job. I am in my element.
not the huge successes they are today. The challenge in I have been riding technology all the way. For me,
making online games was to make small, downloadable the exciting thing about the road I’ve taken is to work on
games, with high replayability and a social component products that are just on the other side of the horizon. I
so players could chat with one another.VR-1 had a tool found my dream job; it just took me a couple of decades
called Conductor, which allowed hundreds of players to get here. 
around the world to play together in a single game.

eJournal USA 20
 A Tribute to Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous Jobs
An Interview with Mike Rowe

Rowe: My name is Mike

Rowe. And this is my job: I
explore the country, looking
for people who aren’t afraid
to get dirty — hard-working
men and women who do
the kinds of jobs that make
civilized life possible for the
rest of us. Now get ready to
get dirty.
That’s the mission
statement for the show.
We’re finding people who
are doing work that most
of us go out of our way to

Courtesy of Discovery Channel

avoid. I spend a day with
them as an apprentice,
try to keep up with them,
and have a few laughs.
The success of the show, I
believe, is a result of those
underlying themes about
Mike Rowe takes a break from his assignment for the day, a trash dump in St. Louis, Missouri. work that we constantly
come back to, not just
An unlikely television program has become a surprising because of the exploding toilets and misadventures in
success with a devoted fan base. Dirty Jobs on the Discovery animal husbandry.
Channel, now entering its fourth season, has been one of the
network’s top series in the United States since it began in Q: There are a lot of things going on in your show. You
2005. In every episode, host Mike Rowe goes to a different introduce the audience to jobs that are unseen, even
job site, rolls up his sleeves, and works side by side with unknown, for the millions of Americans leading nice,
people who perform these tasks for a living every day. By clean suburban lives. At the same time, you highlight the
design, the show seeks out people who do jobs that are very skill, the dignity, the humor of the people who do these
dirty, unheralded, and sometimes almost unimaginable to jobs. Is it intentional that you have those dual themes?
people in cleaner lines of work.
Mike Rowe had an almost 20-year career in Rowe: It was very deliberate. The show started as a small
performance and television before he conceived of Dirty Jobs segment on a local show in San Francisco. I was able to
and successfully convinced the Discovery Channel to back experiment quite a bit with what audiences responded
the project. He spoke to eJournal USA’s managing editor to before I ever took the program to a network. I learned
Charlene Porter. from doing these smaller profiles that there was a real mix
between the interest the audience would have in the job

Q
uestion: You have a set introduction for every itself and in the people who are performing the work.
show. Recite it for me and explain what it says There is no dignity in work alone. The dignity is in the
about your regard for dirty jobs and manual people. You can’t do a show about work that highlights
labor.

eJournal USA 21
 Q: I heard you say on the program once, “As my
grandfather said, never trust a fellow with clean shoes.”
Did he really say that? What did he do?

Rowe: My grandfather is the reason Dirty Jobs is on

the air. He had a seventh-grade education but was
one of those fellows born hard-wired with an innate
understanding of construction and technical trades.
He built my first car. He built the house I was born in
without a blueprint. By the time he was 50, he was a
master plumber, master electrician, a bricklayer, a stone
mason. At the base of his brain, he just knew how stuff
worked mechanically and technically.
I didn’t get that gene.
He was a naturally smart guy who was always
dirty, always fixing things, always tinkering. My earliest
memories are of him and my father, who worked as his
apprentice, starting the day clean and coming home dirty
and solving some kind of problem along the way.

Q: It’s clear in your words and your voice that you had a
Courtesy of Discovery Channel

great deal of admiration for him.

Rowe: Yes.

Q: But some people today might look down on people

with dirty shoes. Why is that?
Rowe helps extract this military truck from the mud.
Rowe: After doing a couple hundred jobs myself, I have
the good parts of it unless you also include a show about formed a few theories about that. I don’t think anybody
people that highlights the good parts of them. ever set out to disparage the worker, but as a society we
have declared kind of a Cold War on the traditional
Q: How many different dirty jobs have you done since notions of manual labor. We do it in a lot of different
the show has been on? And can you give me a list of some ways. On TV, I first noticed it with Lifestyles of the Rich
of them? and Famous, the first show that deliberately embraced the
opposite of the Puritan work ethic. Today, you can see the
Rowe: I finished my 200th a couple of months ago. portrayals of working people in prime-time television in
We’re now in the fourth season of the show, and when a predictable way. Plumbers weigh 300 pounds and their
we began the intention was to do 12 programs, 12 jobs. I pants are falling down. Delivery drivers are enormous,
ran out of ideas around 50, and ever since, we’ve turned lazy people who are the brunt of the joke.
the programming of the show over to the viewers. Most Then the advertising industry pitches the message
of the ideas come in from people who actually watch the that the reason we’re not as happy as we could be is that
show. we have to work too hard. We work too much, and we’re
I’ve done everything from road-kill picker-upper, chicken constantly reminded we want to get to the weekend a
sexer, artificial cow inseminator, bricklayer, tannery little faster, punch out a little early, and enjoy retirement
worker, roofer — anybody who works with hot tar and a little sooner.
asphalt deserves a medal. The list includes anything that So the traditional notions of work have become a
would pop into your mind immediately, then a whole lot target. A war on work has casualties — declining trades,
of things you never even dreamed of. a crumbling infrastructure — and those are things that
affect us all.

eJournal USA 22
 Then there are larger national trends: policies Joan Rivers; then I’m a freelancing travel guy; then I’m at
that lead to the outsourcing of thousands of American the Discovery Channel.
factory jobs, the invention of the microchip and other The big irony for me is that after 18 years of
technological tools that replace the traditional toolbox. freelancing in television, I finally have a hit on an
international network that is the leading provider of
Q: You mean the transition from a production-industrial nonfiction entertainment in the world. All I had to do to
economy to an information-based economy. get this job was to go back and embrace the precise things
that I spent my adult life running from.
Rowe: Exactly. So we’ve redefined what a good job looks I ran from that because I didn’t want to fail in front
like. It’s not that people with muddy boots are considered of my dad and my grandfather. Now whatever success
bad. They’ve just been marginalized. We no longer I have has a very specific price. That is, my willingness
celebrate guys like my grandfather. We don’t denigrate to fail every day, not just in front of them, but in front
them necessarily; we just ignore them. of millions of people in 173 countries. The only way to
Hard work needs a public relations campaign, so pay tribute to a really good landscaper, for instance, is to
I’m getting a Web site started to focus some attention on put a novice landscaper next to him — that’s me — and
these issues. I’m calling it MikeRoweWORKS™ [www. let the viewer watch the two of them do the same basic
mikeroweWORKS.com], and I’m thinking along the lines job. That’s how the show pays a tribute to these people.
of “Rock the Vote,” only more like “Back to Work!” Watching me doing the job with the landscaper — or
whatever worker we’re featuring — viewers can connect
Q: You have been an actor, a singer, a TV performer, all the dots and realize that most jobs are harder than they
pretty clean jobs. When you were at the age of deciding look.
what to be when you grew up, did you make a conscious
choice to get a clean job? Q: You also have said on the show that some of the
happiest people you’ve ever met go home every day
Rowe: I made a deliberate choice when I was 18 years smelling bad because they work with stuff like sewage
old. My grandfather lived right next door to us, and he and garbage. Are you saying that workers you meet in
was as present in my life as my dad. I couldn’t do all the dirty jobs are generally happier people than you meet in
things that my grandfather could do, so I simply got sick cleaner professions?
of failing. I had an appreciation and respect for the kind
of work he did, but I decided to go as far from it as I Rowe: It’s a generalization, but I’ll stand by it. Happiness
could and try and find something that came as easily to is a tough, subjective thing to define. But I will say that
me as construction came to him. after a couple hundred of these experiences, the thing I
find is balance in the lives of people I’ve met. People with
Q: What do you mean failing? Your grandfather gave you dirty jobs have a balance in their lives that I don’t see in
a hammer and you couldn’t hit the nail? my friends who are actuarial accountants and investment
bankers. They start their day clean; they wind up coming
Rowe: I could get the nail in the wood; it’s just that it home dirty, but somehow they seem to be having a better
wasn’t easy. I can hang drywall; it just takes me longer. time than the rest of us.
I was constantly struggling to do what they did with I have a lot of theories on that, but at base, it has to
ease. I got sick of that. I didn’t know anything about do with the sense of completing a task. So many “good”
entertainment; I didn’t know anything about performing, jobs these days don’t give you a sense of closure. For a
but I did know that it was going to require a completely lot of people in office work, the desk looks the same at 6
different part of my brain. As [American poet] Robert p.m. as it did at 6 a.m. How do you know when you are
Frost said, “Way leads on to way” [from “The Road done?
Not Taken”], right? Next thing I know, I’m dressed like People I work with — hey, they got a dead deer
a Viking, and I’m singing in the national opera. Then in the road. They do their work and it’s gone. You got
after that, I’m selling stuff in the middle of the night on a ditch to put in. In the morning, it’s not there. In the
QVC [a cable television shopping channel]. Then I’m evening, it is. People with dirty jobs live in a world of
producing a show for American Airlines that airs on all constant feedback. For better or worse, they always know
their flights. Then I’m working with Dick Clark, then how they’re doing. That matters.

eJournal USA 23
 man-to-man, I got to level
with you.”
“Yeah?” I say.
He said, “This is going
to hurt. You’re not going
to die, but this is going to
hurt like hell, and you need
to know that.” It was an
amazingly sober moment
because in that second he
put personal accountability
and awareness squarely on

Courtesy of Discovery Channel

my shoulders [see box].

Q: It’s going to hurt, sharks

are knocking you around,
snapping at you, and
Jeremiah does it anyway,
Rowe has his share of mishaps on the job, as on this day at a yak ranch in Montana. day after day?

Rowe: Every day.

People in the building trades — the stone mason Interestingly, the places where I’ve been that you
who can walk through town and point to structures he mention, rightly, as dangerous – they have a very low
created. That’s a legacy. Even skilled factory work is really incidence of injuries and accidents on those work sites
a rewarding thing when it is mastered. That’s the exact because workers in these places have this sense of their
thing we don’t portray fairly in our culture today. Most own personal safety. They aren’t lulled into a sense of
manual work is now presented as some form of drudgery. complacency about it. I think that can happen in a
We shouldn’t try to draw a stark line between clean factory or workplace where management hangs banners
and dirty, hard and easy. These aren’t opposites; they’re about “safety first.” It becomes a platitude, a buzz phrase,
different sides of the same thing. People with dirty jobs and that’s when people can get hurt. Your own safety is
seem to have an innate understanding of that — and a your own business, and you can’t lose sight of that.
better balance in life.
Q: Looking back on the winding path of your career,
Q: Besides dirty jobs, you do dangerous ones too. I’ve what do you say to someone on the verge of adulthood
seen you swimming with sharks, grabbing alligators, trying to figure out what to do in life?
hanging off of cable cars at the top of a 3,000-meter cliff.
You do these jobs for a day and hope your luck holds Rowe: There is a term in Greek literature for a reversal of
out. But what’s your sense of the motives of people who fortune. It’s called peripeteia: when the character realizes
perform dangerous jobs day after day? he was wrong about everything, when Oedipus realizes
he’s been sleeping with his mother. Bruce Willis realizes at
Rowe: I’ll tell you a story. You mention swimming with the end of The Sixth Sense that he’s been dead the whole
sharks. I was working that day with Jeremiah Sullivan, the movie. That’s a peripeteitic discovery. So I’d say to a
guy who invented the shark suit, which divers can wear 19-year-old that it’s OK to realize that you are completely
to get in the water where sharks are circling and come out wrong about something.
with all their limbs. So I’m standing at the end of a boat I had one of these moments a couple of years ago:
with Jeremiah, about to dive into a shark feeding frenzy. Everything I thought I knew about work has been wrong.
I’m wrapped up in this protective shark suit, which is What I saw growing up was right. I realized how I had
kind of like chain mail that a medieval knight wore. I’m overreacted in my intent to get as far away from it as I
scared to death, by the way. Right before we jump in, could. Now through fate, luck, or serendipity, I’ve been
Jeremiah says to me, very matter-of-factly, “Look, Mike, pulled back, and I’m completely surrounded by the

eJournal USA 24
 very people I grew up with. I spent 20 years avoiding
something that seems destined today, and it’s all fine.
Swimming with Sharks Everything is happening the way it’s supposed to be
happening.
So the practical advice that comes from that to
mike rowe shares a story about one of his most somebody who is 19 years old is, don’t limit your options.
dangerous jobs. Don’t do it. Today, a lot of people 18 and 19 years old
aren’t being told that they could have a lucrative career

T he job of the day was to make and test

a “shark suit,” a steel mesh contraption
consisting of several hundred thousand tiny,
in the technical trades. It’s not part of the path that most
parents assume their children should take. The college
route, the “ideal” jobs, the “ideal” clothes, the lifestyle
metal rings that must all be welded together by — everything we celebrate in this culture doesn’t really
hand. To test the suit, I headed out to sea. I was redound to the plumber, the electrician, the steamfitter,
accompanied by Jeremiah Sullivan, a dyed-in-the- or the pipe fitter. There are opportunities in all those
wool lunatic who fears nothing and should have areas. Their ranks are depleted in the United States
his own TV show. today. Our infrastructure is crumbling. There is a real
Jeremiah and I proceeded to create a massive opportunity to master a trade and either strike out on
pond of blood and tuna bits. Many dozens of your own, or be employed by a decent company, make
sharks appeared and surrounded the boat in a a good living, raise your kids, coach their baseball team,
frenzy of uncontrolled dining. The water was a and have a balanced life.
boiling mass of gray skin, red blood, and white You may look at that life and say, nope, I’d rather
teeth. Then wearing full scuba gear and shark be a corporate executive. Fine. All I’d suggest is that you
suits, Jeremiah jumped directly into their midst. look at all your options before you make those kinds of
I followed. Together, we descended 50 feet [15 decisions.
meters] to the bottom. I knelt next to him as he I want this Web site, mikeroweWorKS, to really
opened a bait box full of bonito [a fish in size help kids in making some of those decisions, presenting
and characteristics between mackerels and tunas]. those options about opportunities in skilled labor. I’ve
Sharks love, really love, bonito. Within moments, already received lots of great feedback, much of it from
the pandemonium that had existed on the surface parents who want a place where they and their kids can
was transferred to the ocean floor. We then began investigate career options that aren’t necessarily college-
the actual job, which was to test the effectiveness dependent. So I want kids to be able to do that, and
of the suits we were wearing. In other words, get plumbers, electricians, and all kinds of contractors say
bit by sharks. On purpose. that they would like a place to chat, exchange stories
When I say that we were completely and experiences. Eventually, I see mikeroweWorKS as a
surrounded by dozens of ravenous sharks, I robust place where people can gather to share, educate,
am not exaggerating. When I say that we were and celebrate the business of working. 
bitten, rammed, and slammed into the sandy
bottom time and time again, I’m not engaging
the opinions expressed in this interview do not necessarily reflect the views
in hyperbole. And when I tell you that I was
or policies of the U.S. government.
profoundly frightened for my life, I am not even
kidding a little.
I was bitten four or five times. Jeremiah,
many more. We’re both fine, albeit bruised.
Shark suits work. Hallelujah.

mike rowe blogs about many of his experiences

on http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/
dirtyjobs.html.

eJournal USa 25
Congraduations, Dude
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice
Stephen Breyer: Our Choices Write a Story

T he best advice I received when I

was your age was from a former
law school dean, Bayless Manning. And I
shall repeat it. Bayless understood that I,
© AP Images/Josh Reynolds

like you, was anxiously wondering: What

comes next? He pointed out that when
we make an important personal decision,
we rarely know more than 10 percent of
all we would like to know. We know that
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer talks with students at
Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
our decision will open certain doors, but
we often cannot know which ones it will
close. We agonize over the decision, but sometimes agonizing does not help. Sometimes we must
simply choose. Once we reach a decision, our lives then shape themselves around the choices that
we make. Those choices then write a story — and that is a metaphor I have found useful. Every
person’s life is a story of passion, with its moments of joy and happiness, of tragedy and sorrow.
And each person’s story is different, each from the other….
What we do and how we explain our choices tell us who we are. We cannot escape the
negative meaning that a failure of integrity — a failure to live up to our own standards of right
and wrong — will give to the stories we ourselves shape. I agree with the philosopher who said
that money can vanish overnight, power can disappear, reputation can evaporate, but character
— personal integrity — is a rock that stays secure.

Justice breyer spoke to the graduating class of the new School University in new York city in 2005.
(excerpt used with permission.)

eJournal USa 26
 Choosing a Career in Changing Times
Phyllis McIntosh

© AP Images/Damian Dovarganes
The City of Los Angeles, California, operates a Metro Job Service where job seekers can hunt for openings online.

Rapidly advancing technologies and economic realignment have jobs more frequently. To this generation, loyalty between
brought significant upheaval to the U.S. employment market, employer and employee is a bygone concept.
changing the way young people make choices as they move from
school into the workplace. Cyber Surfing for Careers
Phyllis McIntosh is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance
journalist with extensive experience covering employment issues. No development has had a greater impact on how
Americans search for jobs than the Internet. In the past,

I
n some ways, it has never been easier for young graduating students had no choice but to attend career fairs,
Americans to pursue a career. A wealth of information meet with company representatives, and peruse reams of
about education opportunities, potential employers, information at the campus career center in order to learn
and specific job openings is as close as the nearest computer. about job possibilities in their field. Today, students can,
Yet, many young people today are taking longer than at their own convenience, research potential employers via
previous generations to complete their education, find a company Web sites and even apply for jobs online.
job that suits them, and settle onto a career path. They “Many students find it more comfortable to explore in a
are choosier about jobs they accept and likely to change passive way,” says Edwin W. Koc, research director for the

eJournal USA 27
National Association of
Colleges and Employers
(NACE). “The
disadvantage is that this
makes it more difficult for
employers to judge the
student as a job candidate.
Employers here in the
United States still rely
very much on face-to-face
contact. Our surveys show
that students who landed
jobs earliest were those
who combined a Web
search with direct meetings
with employers.”
The newest online
tools for job seekers are the

© AP Images/Al Behrman
popular social networking
sites, such as Facebook,
MySpace, and LinkedIn,
which enable users to let
hundreds of people know
instantaneously that they Students at the Cincinnati State Technical and Community College can look for job opportunities posted on
are in the market for a bulletin boards around the campus. Many state-sponsored community college systems place special emphasis
particular kind of job. on training students for job specialties needed by particular employers in their area.
Employers seeking to fill
jobs also are turning to these sites. In Koc’s surveys, about Postponing Adulthood
16 percent of employers say they use the social network
sites as part of their recruiting, and 7 percent of students While the job search itself may be easier, young
say they have been contacted by an employer directly Americans seem to be having more trouble charting their
through their social network site. The downside for job course in life. Indeed, many stumble into a career rather
applicants is that many more employers — 44 percent than pursuing their education with a clear-cut career
— use the sites to check the personal profiles of potential goal in mind, according to John Flato, vice president
job candidates, according to a survey by www.Vault.com, of research and consulting at Vault. Half of all college
a Web site that focuses on careers. More than 80 percent students change their major during their first year. And
of these employers say that seeing something negative in while more than 40 percent of freshmen plan to go on
a job candidate’s online profile would affect their decision to graduate studies or professional school, that number
to hire. drops to 20 percent by the time they are seniors. An
The Internet also is making it possible for more NACE study showed that most college students elect
and more Americans to earn college degrees online, a major because they enjoy the course work. Except in
a convenience especially for older students with jobs fields such as engineering, where undergraduate work is
and family responsibilities. However, in a Vault survey, strictly designed to prepare students for a specific career,
63 percent of employers said they would favor a job students do not connect their major with what they will
candidate with a traditional college degree over one with do when they graduate, Koc says.
an online degree. On the positive side, 83 percent of Perhaps because of all this uncertainty, it now takes
employers and hiring managers consider online degrees college students an average of six years to complete what
more acceptable now than five years ago. used to be a four-year degree, says Flato. One reason, he
notes, is that colleges are anxious to retain students and
do not allow those who change majors to take an extra

eJournal USA 28
course load in order to graduate in the traditional four- world. They gravitate also to employers who provide a
year time frame. variety of workplace amenities, such as fitness centers, on-
Nor does graduation from college automatically site health care and child care, barbershops, laundry and
launch young people into adulthood. Overall, they are dry-cleaning services — anything that makes it easier to
marrying later, and for economic reasons many move balance work and personal life. In several recent surveys,
back home. Doting parents are content to provide some college students asked to name their ideal employers gave
continuing financial support, and some stay deeply top billing to the giant search-engine company Google,
involved in their adult children’s lives — even to the famous for its free gourmet cafeteria and other amenities
point, say career experts, of accompanying them to job for employees.
interviews or calling an employer to find out why their For a significant number of young people, geographic
son or daughter wasn’t hired. location is a major deciding factor in job acceptance.
To many young graduates, the first job is merely a Some are seeking a certain lifestyle in or near a major city
stepping stone; half change jobs within 12 to 18 months. or a specific region of the country. Many also prefer to
“In some ways, the exploratory process that used to occur stick with the familiar and will decline a job offer because
in college is occurring during the first years in the work it is too far from home, according to an NACE study.
force,” says Daniel H. Pink, an author and lecturer on Despite their choosiness, recent college graduates
issues of careers and employment. “A certain amount of can expect their employment opportunities to remain
stumbling [into a career] is inevitable and I think healthy relatively strong, experts say, as the U.S. economy pulls
when you have a labor market that is hard to predict.” out of recession. Young hires are attractive to employers,
because they are less expensive to recruit and more
Shifting Trends receptive to on-the-job training than more seasoned
employees. As workers born in the years following World
One of the most significant trends in the United War II — the so-called baby boomers — begin to retire
States is the disappearance of long-term loyalty to in the next few years, large numbers of jobs will open up,
an employer. Young people recognize that changing especially in government and education, Koc predicts.
jobs is the fastest way to advance in both salary and He adds that overall job prospects will remain good for
responsibility, and unlike their parents and grandparents, business majors — the most popular college major in the
few expect to stay with the same company for decades. United States — although many jobs in the finance sector
Nor do they expect long-term loyalty and job security have disappeared as a result of the late-2008 turmoil in
from employers. “People are seeing their friends U.S. markets.
and family going through layoffs, terminations, and As more and more routine tasks are assigned to
acquisitions, so they’re saying if companies are going to computers, “skills such as artistry, inventiveness, empathy,
do that, I’m going to look out for myself,” notes Flato. and big-picture thinking, already at a premium today,
For their part, employers are making it easier than also will become even more important,” says Dan Pink.
ever to change jobs. Health insurance coverage for new One thing is certain: In today’s economy, nothing
employees usually starts immediately, with no waiting is more constant than change, both in the way young
period, and traditional company pensions have been Americans approach careers and in the kinds of jobs they
replaced by 401(K) retirement plans. Employees make will occupy. As Pink says, “Some young people can expect
their own contributions to these plans, and keep the to land jobs 10 or 20 years from now in industries that
funds even when they leave a job. might not even exist today and have job titles we might
More than any previous generation, young not even have the vocabulary for today.”
Americans are searching for meaning in their work.
Surveys show that they seek out employers who are
environmentally friendly and socially responsible, and The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or
policies of the U.S. government.
they want jobs where they can make a difference in the

eJournal USA 29
 Giving Public Service, Gaining a Career
Siobhan Dugan

A
meriCorps members are known for helping others.
They run after-school programs, build trails in
national parks, face down forest fires, and respond
to national disasters ranging from the September 11
terrorist attacks to Hurricane Katrina. The people they
serve are overwhelmingly grateful for these efforts. But
when an AmeriCorps member ends a year-long term of
service, what then?
Many AmeriCorps members agree that their service
helps them develop skills that ready them for future careers.
They also report that AmeriCorps helps them figure
out which careers they want to pursue. Those beliefs are
backed up by Still Serving: Measuring the Eight-Year Impact
of AmeriCorps on Alumni, a 2008 report that analyzed
the impacts of AmeriCorps service on a group of 2,000
members eight years after their service, compared with a
control group of similar individuals who did not serve.
The study, the most rigorous ever conducted
about AmeriCorps’s impacts on members, conclusively
demonstrates that AmeriCorps exposes members to new
career opportunities and is beneficial to them in the job
market. About 80 percent of members reported that their
service exposed them to new career options, and more
than two-thirds of the former members reported that their
Courtesy of CNCS

service was an advantage when job hunting after they

completed their AmeriCorps service.

Serving Youth
AmeriCorps members serve with numerous nonprofit organizations to
address social needs, such as building homes for homeless people.
Take Brian McClendon, 29, who grew up in New
York City’s Harlem and has been associated with what is
For more than 40 years, the U.S. government has sponsored now called the Harlem Children’s Zone since high school.
programs that engage young people in public service. These These days he oversees AmeriCorps members and works
programs are widely supported for the contributions that closely with the children served by the community service
participants make. The young volunteers also leave the program, never forgetting that he was once in
programs with a new view of their talents, their capabilities, their situation.
and their futures. Serving as an AmeriCorps member provided
Siobhan Dugan is a public affairs specialist at the McClendon with the framework for his current
Corporation for National and Community Service, the parent management duties. “Without that basis,” he said, “I don’t
organization of AmeriCorps, which offers 75,000 opportunities think I would be successful.” AmeriCorps also gave him
each year for adults to help meet critical community needs “the opportunity to work with families, with children in
across the country. the community, and polish my social skills. Dealing with
so many different personalities, addressing their needs, it’s
been a wonderful experience.”
AmeriCorps service introduced him to a host of new

eJournal USA 30
 system. I wouldn’t have
decided to do that if I
hadn’t had the AmeriCorps
experience.”

Protecting Water

Halfway across the

country in Colorado,
Torie Bowman, a current
AmeriCorps member, is
planning to take her life

Photo by M.T. Harmon/ Courtesy of CNCS

in a new direction when
her service ends. Like
McClendon, AmeriCorps
has provided Bowman an
introduction to a different
career, one that will continue
the work she is doing now.
Bowman, 25, is an
AmeriCorps VISTA team
Torie Bowman worked on watershed projects in U.S. western states. Service in AmeriCorps has inspired leader with the Western
her to pursue a career in environmental law.
Hardrock Water Team,
working on water quality
skills, including conflict resolution, mediation, and issues, particularly those impacted by mines. The
classroom management. “Most of all, it gave me the program focuses on getting groups concerned about
ability to serve as a leader in my classroom, my schools, preservation of the watershed to start working with each
and in my community,” he said. other across political boundaries, such as state lines. By
Serving also gave him new career plans. As a child focusing on the watershed level, Bowman is striving to
and teenager, he had set his eye on a future in law unite groups on common issues.
enforcement; his undergraduate degree is in criminal As a team leader, Bowman recruits more VISTA
justice. AmeriCorps changed his goal, he says, but there members to help reach other watershed groups. She
is a connection to his new goals in community service. started her VISTA service last year with the Appalachian
He sees his role as “preventing problems and heading Coal Country Watershed Team in West Virginia. Her
them off.” By the time police get involved in a situation, work has focused on watersheds in small historic mining
“it’s too late, the law’s been broken.” Instead, McClendon communities, where the mining industry has negative
said, working with young people early in their lives, effects on the watersheds. “I do a lot of site visits and
especially during early childhood, “gives kids a fighting networking, partnership building around the state,”
chance. It’s a much more powerful influence.” she said. She also plans events for training sessions and
Although he still feels a strong respect for the VISTA gatherings, and she does plenty of grant writing.
criminal justice side of the equation, he views his career The experience has prompted Bowman to take the
choice as having a “more profound impact” on those Law School Aptitude Test, with the ultimate goal of
served by Harlem Children’s Zone. The organization working in environmental law. She worked as a white-
has been providing education, social-service, and water rafting guide for two years before signing on with
community-building programs to children and families AmeriCorps. “My career and service terms have been a
living in Harlem since the 1970s. huge transition for me, to use my brain and not just my
These days, he’s also working on a master’s degree body,” she said.
in public administration, which will “give me extra teeth Bowman received a bachelor’s degree in religion and
[credentials] in the area of managing the public-service art history from Wake Forest University in 2005. “The
degree is definitely part of why I looked at VISTA,” she

eJournal USA 31
said. “The degree didn’t give me an idea of what my “One of the greatest things I learned from NCCC
practical skills were. I wanted to do some intense work was interpersonal skills,” Moya said. “My team was
that would allow me to develop those skills.” very diverse, with a lot of different personalities. We
She has definitely achieved that goal. “For me, pretty had strong personalities. That’s one of the challenging
much everything I know about myself personally is from things but one of the best things about my experience.”
my service experience. I’ve learned that I enjoy working Because working with diverse people is a given in most
with people. I can handle the paperwork, but more than workplaces, Moya recognizes the need for flexibility. “I
that, I love matching people up, and networking and think I’m a little more open minded now,” she said.
partnership building. It’s forced me to understand issues Moya worked in a variety of locations on vastly
and be a well-informed person, especially about water different projects while with NCCC. In Lake Charles,
quality issues.” Louisiana, where residents are still grappling with
Bowman finds, though, that working in a nonprofit damage from Hurricane Rita of 2005, her team served
organization can be limiting. “Law school stuck out as on a Habitat for Humanity project, building a house
a way I can be more effective, especially in water quality on 4.2-meter (14-foot) stilts to protect it from future
work.” Colorado has been a good place to become hurricanes. In Ketchikan, Alaska, her team renovated a
involved in water quality issues, according to Bowman. 100-year-old building to turn it into a youth community
Water quality is important everywhere, but water center. On another posting to Louisiana, the team
quality and quantity are tightly managed in this Rocky worked at a Habitat for Humanity warehouse, delivering
Mountain state because of resource scarcity. materials to homes under construction.
Bowman is currently applying to law schools, In addition to her role as a team member, Moya
targeting the top environmental law schools as her first served as a media liaison for her team. “Before NCCC,
choices. She also wants to study Native American law the communication studies [experience] was so broad, I
issues, an interest that was sparked by studying Native needed to narrow it down. Now I have this background
American politics and spirituality in college. in community service, and developed an interest and love
for it, so I want to continue. That helped me solidify my
Communicating in Communities future plans and career path.”
Although AmeriCorps service provided these three
Angelina Moya, 23, is now job hunting in her members with experience that will help them achieve
native Aurora, Illinois, and nearby Chicago, after success in their careers, none of them see that as the most
finishing a term of service with AmeriCorps National important aspect of the program. AmeriCorps members
Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) in July. She holds have a huge impact on those they serve. As Brian
a bachelor’s degree in communication studies and wants McClendon put it, “I think we saved a lot of lives; a lot
to use the combination of her education and community of lives needed to be saved. I’m on the front line.” 
service experience to find a position in the nonprofit
sector. AmeriCorps is a program of the Corporation for National
“I’ve found that [job hunting] is a big challenge,” and Community Service, a federal agency that improves
she said. “The Chicago market is competitive and lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement
organizations are having money issues.” through service and volunteering. Each year the corporation
That aside, she said that her NCCC service provided engages more than 4 million Americans of all ages and
her with a wealth of experience in critical areas. NCCC backgrounds in service to meet local needs through its Senior
members are assigned to teams of 10 to 12 people that Corps, AmeriCorps, VISTA, NCCC, and Learn and Serve
serve together for a year and live together in dormitory- America programs. For more information, visit www.
like settings. nationalservice.gov.

eJournal USA 32
 Empowering a Community
Gwen Moore

Photo by Jeffrrey Phelps, Courtesy of Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Published with permission

Congresswoman Gwen Moore kisses members of a dance troupe who performed the evening she was first elected
to congress in 2004. She was elected to her third term in 2008.

Before Americorps, there was VISTA (Volunteers in Service I went into VISTA because the neighborhood where
to America), created in 1965 as part of the War on Poverty I grew up had lost its way. I was a board member of the
initiated by President Lyndon Johnson. About 10 years later, Midtown Neighborhood Association in my hometown
a young African-American woman joined VISTA to help her of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and we were struggling to lift
neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and began a lifetime people out of poverty.
of service. I was a lifelong resident of Midtown, and I could see
Gwen Moore is a member of the U.S. House of the financial quicksand that was sucking the community
Representatives, elected in 2004, and the first African down. People who earned very little money to begin
American to represent the state of Wisconsin in Congress. with paid unreasonable rates for loans and insurance.
Prior to her congressional service, she was an elected official in Traditional financial institutions didn’t want to serve poor
state government for 14 years and was recognized as VISTA urban neighborhoods. Businesses crumbled and closed.
Volunteer of the Decade 1976-1986. On the association board, we knew that the lack of
“ banking resources was a key element in the decline of

W
e will either find a way, or make one.” our neighborhood. Institutions were not investing in the
That was the motto when I was sworn neighborhoods around us, and opportunities commonly
into Volunteers in Service to America in the available elsewhere were just dreams. My neighborhood
1970’s, and it became my personal mantra. group realized the community needed a local financial

eJournal USA 33
 prove that Cream City could become a valued
community institution.
When we were finally able to open
Cream City’s doors, I was mesmerized by the
effect it had on the community. People were
able to start thinking about building assets
instead of just making ends meet. They could

© 1982 Courtesy of CNCS

invest in the community by getting a home
or small business loan, then give back to the
community by hiring residents or improving
their small part of the neighborhood.
Economic activity in Midtown began
to buzz. Groups formed that eventually
Moore (first row, second from the left) was among this group of VISTA members brought in a coin-operated laundry and a
completing a training program in 1982.
health clinic. Cream City created an economic
momentum that led to housing development
institution to provide a foundation on which to build a and an improved quality of life. Other businesses
stable future. followed, the community developed a new pride, and the
The association board asked me to become a VISTA neighborhood experienced a renaissance.
[volunteer] and organize a financial empowerment Too many people believe that where you start out
initiative. Our project was to establish the Cream dictates where you end up. That didn’t happen to me,
City Community Development Credit Union to offer and it shouldn’t happen to anyone. VISTA — now
basic banking and loans for projects that created jobs, known as AmeriCorps-VISTA — made the difference
cultivated local businesses, and contributed to the for me and the community where I grew up. Now,
development of Milwaukee’s inner city. more than 30 years later, the Midtown area is thriving,
We had to start from the very beginning. We growing, and proud. The Cream City Federal Credit
didn’t have staplers, pens, paper, or desks. We begged, Union led the way for this poor inner-city community
borrowed, and negotiated rock-bottom prices for office to take control of its destiny. Cream City eventually
furniture and supplies. My colleagues and I worked morphed into another institution, and today my family
almost every night, weekend, and holiday to transform still does its banking there.
our dream into an enterprise. Through my VISTA experience, I learned the value
In early November of my first year, we learned about of self-help, coalition building, interracial cooperation,
a federal government loan program that might provide and mobilization. I gained self-confidence, patience, and
some operating capital. The November 30 application faith, as well as financial, networking, and organizational
deadline was less than a month away. We worked day skills. Above all, I realized that great things can be
and night pulling together the necessary documentation accomplished with the collective strength of community,
and forms. Days before the deadline, we worked through thus strengthening my commitment to community
the Thanksgiving holiday, gathered around my dining service. Now I serve on the Financial Services Committee
room table to finish our application and business plan. in the U.S. House of Representatives and have the
Completing that work with turkey and cranberry sauce opportunity to help other struggling communities.
on the side is still one of my fondest holiday memories. Without my VISTA service, I doubt I would have been
Our diligence paid off and we received a $10,000 loan, able to attain this position.
which provided the initial capital we needed to open the But my VISTA service wasn’t about empowering
credit union. me — it was about empowering the people and the
Then we had to win over the residents of the community. Projects like Cream City Community
community. By going door-to-door, we convinced Development Credit Union are VISTA’s legacy because
residents to open accounts at Cream City. The minimum they blazed a trail that others followed. That trail leads
account opening balance had to be $50, which was a the way out of poverty. 
lot of money in a community where the majority of
people were on welfare. But we got enough accounts to

eJournal USA 34
Congraduations, Dude

Recording Artist Billy Joel: My Job

Became My Friend

I congratulate you all for staying with your

academic pursuits. I couldn’t do it. And
now I wish I had studied more myself. It
would help me in my own musical efforts these
© AP Images/Alex Brandon

days. I’m asked often why am I changing, why

am I doing different kinds of music. To quote
from Bob Dylan in a song called “It’s Alright
Ma”: “He who is not busy being born, is busy
Singer-songwriter Billy Joel sang the national anthenm at dying.” And that’s why I’m doing it.
the 2007 Super Bowl, one of the biggest sporting events of
the year. I am only certain of one thing in my life.
I knew what I loved to do, and I did what I
loved to do. And at this point in my life I’m still loving what I do. I never did it to make a lot of
money. I did it to make a living. And in doing so, I made a life. I guess what I’m saying here is that
my job became my friend, my fortune, and my great love. And that no matter what lofty personal
goals I set for myself, life came along and whacked me upside the head and sent me in directions
I never intended to go. But I learned to adjust. I used the survival lessons as substance for future
material. To borrow another great line from Bernie Taupin and my good friend Elton John: “I’m still
standing.” And I’m still standing here on Long Island where I came from in the first place.

Billy Joel spoke at Southhampton College, Long Island University, in 2000. A classically trained
musician with decades of hit recordings, he is enrolled in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame. (Excerpt used with permission.)

eJournal USa 35
 Every Call Is Different
Andrea Clark

Courtesy of Andrea Clark

Andrea Clark in full gear at the City of Fairfax, Virginia, firehouse.

A female firefighter recalls how she gave up a career in college, so I decided — you know what? — it’s time to
engineering to enter a lower-paying, high-risk profession. switch careers.
Andrea Clark is a 15-year veteran firefighter and I enrolled in a two-year fire science program at a local
paramedic. She told her story to freelance journalist Phyllis community college and began to go through the written
McIntosh. and physical testing process to be hired as a professional
firefighter. I got job offers at the same time from the City

I
was just over a year into my engineering career when of Fairfax and the County of Fairfax in northern Virginia.
I decided this wasn’t for me and I wanted to pursue It was a big decision, but ultimately I decided to go with
becoming a firefighter. I graduated in 1991 with a the smaller, two-station, 65-person city department. It’s
bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering and went to a family environment. We all know each other and see
work for the Department of the Army in its night-vision each other more often, as compared to the larger county
laboratories, where I worked mostly on contract agreements department, which has 41 stations.
for development of specific cameras. My supervisor kept I was just the second woman hired by my
wanting to put me through all these classes so I could department. One thing I learned is, never say you can do
continue to move up, but I’m an active person and don’t something you cannot do. I understand my limitations
like to sit around. I was already familiar with firefighting and was not afraid to ask for help or clarification. The
because I had been a volunteer firefighter since I was in guys respected that.

eJournal USA 36
 In the meantime, I
had two children, now
11 and 6, and I decided
I needed to go back to
shift work so I could
spend more quality time
with my family. A captain
position opened up, and
that’s where I am now.
That means I am station
supervisor when I am on
shift. I work a 24-hour
shift, then have 24 hours
off, and cycle that over
five days. Then I have
a four-day break. I can

Courtesy of Andrea Clark

often take my kids to
school and pick them up,
and we do things in the
afternoon. It’s easy to visit
their school.
Clark’s work schedule as a firefighter allows her more time for her children, Benjamin and Kendall, ages 3 I’m 40 years old now,
and 8 in this 2005 photo. and I’m very happy with
what I’m doing. I hope
I love being a firefighter because every call is to retire at age 50 with 25 years service. The next step
different, whether we’re answering an emergency medical in my career would be battalion chief, a job that can
services call, a fire alarm, or actually going to fight a include commanding a fire scene or accident scene. I
structure fire. It’s a very physical job. But I’ve always been don’t want to be in that position yet, but in five years it
a physically fit, active person and played sports when I might be different.
was growing up, so staying active has kept me interested When people ask me about making a career change,
in the job. I tell them, go with your heart. If you don’t like what
This is an inherently dangerous job, but that’s usually you’re doing, you’re not going to want to go to work
not the first thing that crosses my mind. If I crawl into every day. I took a $15,000 pay cut when I made the
a building that’s on fire or we go to a car fire, to me it’s switch, but then money didn’t mean anything to me. I
exciting. wanted to be happy. I was only 25 and had no children,
In my 15 years with the department, I’ve moved up so I also had the time and energy to pursue a new career.
through the ranks. I started as a firefighter, became a I don’t always feel fulfilled when I go home from a
paramedic, and after that I became a lieutenant and spent shift. Certainly, we don’t always have fires to fight. But
five years as a fire marshal. I inspected city buildings to there are days when we deliver a baby, or save the life of
make sure they were in compliance with the fire code. a man who is having a heart attack, or simply provide
When there was a fire, I would investigate and determine sand bags to a woman scared that her house will flood
if it was accidental or purposely set. I had police powers during a storm. That woman was so grateful that she
to make an arrest if necessary. gave me a tearful hug and later sent a wonderful thank-
you note. That’s why I do what I do. 

eJournal USA 37
 Getting to College

Courtesy of College Summit

Students involved in the College Summit program write personal statements to strengthen their college applications.

A growing U.S. organization is working to help young people But parents who didn’t go to college have a
get into college. disadvantage as they try to push their kids toward college.
And the kids in those families often don’t see themselves as

H
ere’s one of life’s really big questions: college-bound, even when their grades are good enough for
How or where do you find success in life? admission.
And what is it anyway? That’s the job College Summit has taken on. It’s a
Philosophers and advice gurus might spin all kinds of nonprofit organization that started out 15 years ago when
answers, but there’s one really easy answer for somebody four teens in a low-income neighborhood in Washington,
who is 16 or 17 years old in the United States: college. D.C., went to a counselor at a community center and
U.S. government surveys show that a person who has asked for help getting into college. That counselor was
a college degree will earn $1 million more over a lifetime, J.B. Schramm, and today College Summit is working with
on average, than a person who has a secondary school secondary schools in 10 U.S. states, serving 17,000 senior-
diploma. level students who need a boost getting into college.
The answer may be easy, but then comes the hard part. With a special focus on students from low-income
How do you get into college? Which one do you pick? backgrounds, College Summit works with students
Which one will pick you? How do you pay for it? throughout the senior year to reach all college admission
Just getting into college takes a lot of work and deadlines. An equally important part of the program is
research. Most young people who do it successfully have a helping secondary schools build a college-going culture
parent guiding them and prodding them along the way. among all their students. The organization’s leaders figured

eJournal USA 38
 College Summit employs one
strategy used in the military in
getting students ready to propel
themselves toward college: boot camp.
In military-speak, boot camp is an
intensive period of basic training in
which civilians learn to be soldiers.
For College Summit, boot camp
is a four-day period of immersion
in which instructors help young
people see beyond a high school
diploma and envision themselves as
college students, and even as college
graduates.
As College Summit has
demonstrated its success and moved
into broader partnerships with
schools and school districts, the goal
is to establish higher expectations
in secondary schools. While the
high school diploma has long been
a goal in itself, College Summit and
its partner schools want students
to look at secondary school as
only the launching pad for further
achievement.
In order for seniors to see
college as the next step following
graduation, College Summit schools
put tools and curriculum in the
hands of all students to navigate
the postsecondary planning process.
© AP Images/Toby Talbot, File

College Summit and partner schools

build time for those activities into the
school day and provide training so
educators can provide counseling and
encouragement for students’ college
aspirations.
Students on the campus of the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont.
The College Summit philosophy
is not that all students may choose
out that when kids see other kids go on to college — kids a university, but that students shouldn’t lose the chance
a lot like themselves — everybody begins to believe they because a secondary school program didn’t prepare them.
have a shot at making it. “Our goal is to have every student find the path
That ripple effect sets in motion huge waves, says that makes sense for them,” Schramm said, “whether it’s
Schramm. a four-year college, a two-year degree, the military, or
“The young person who is the first in his family to occupational certification.” 
get a college degree has basically ended poverty in his or
her family line forever,” said Schramm, the founder and The organiztion’s Web site is http://www.collegesummit.org
chief executive officer of this organization.

eJournal USA 39
 Open Your Eyes
Eldon Harmon

environment remains a very clear memory for me. She was

a wonderful influence on us growing up, but when it came
to planning what to do after high school, she had limited
experience with the college application process.
In high school, my grades were average and I wasn’t
sure what I wanted to do next. With a ratio of about 500
students to every one college guidance counselor at my
school, I wasn’t getting a lot of help in researching the
options that might be open to me. Leading up to my
senior year in 1997, I heard about College Summit, and I
Photo by Frank Abbruzzese/ Courtesy of Deloitte LLP agreed to attend their summer writing workshop because
it offered the opportunity to get out of my neighborhood
in Brooklyn for a few days during the hot summer. And I
wanted to see what the program was about, including what
it would feel like to be on a college campus.
I arrived at Connecticut College, not knowing what to
expect. The first night, we had a “rap session,” which was
an opportunity for us to talk about the obstacles we saw
standing in the way of getting into college. Many of the
other kids were like me: They would be the first in their
families to go to college. During the session, we really had
to open up about what our hopes and fears were for the
future and the challenges we had faced in the past.
Essayist Eldon Harmon is pursuing a successful career with an
international corporation after raising his aspirations in the College Gathered together that first night of the workshop,
Summit program. what struck me most was our rap director’s telling us to
open our eyes and see that we were actually privileged to
be in a position to go to college. Generations of people
A successful young professional recalls a decisive moment in before us couldn’t have dreamed of the opportunities that
his life when College Summit showed him how to look for were within our reach. I had never thought of myself as
opportunities to move past secondary school graduation, on to privileged, but when the rap director explained it so
college, and into a career. clearly, I understood I had a responsibility to work hard
Eldon Harmon is now a consultant at Deloitte LLP, one and do my best.
of the world’s leading professional services organizations, where My level of optimism about the future changed at
he works in the Enterprise Risk Services practice. Harmon that moment. After that night, my thinking changed
is also a volunteer at College Summit, working with young dramatically. Before then, I mostly focused on just getting
people in search of their future. by or doing what needed to be done. After that night, I
wanted to prove that I was above average, maybe even a

M
y mom was a single parent who wanted the best leader. The possibility of going on to college and attaining
life for her sons, and she gave us all the love a great career finally seemed more of a reality. It motivated
and support possible. There was a possibility me to get through the college application process and begin
that we could encounter violence and drugs around every vigorously interviewing with various colleges.
corner, so raising two boys in East New York, a section of Returning to high school for my senior year, I
the Brooklyn borough of New York City, is no easy task. felt lucky to have a jump start on what I needed to do
Her commitment to provide for us and protect us from our to get into college. I applied and was accepted to the

eJournal USA 40
Environmental
Science and Forestry
program at the
State University of
New York for my
undergraduate degree.
I went on to pursue
a master’s degree in
telecommunications
management at

© AP Images/Moscow-Pullamn Daily News, Geoff Crimmins

Syracuse University.
At first, college
was difficult. I felt
academically behind
and at times thought
about giving up. My
plan was just to study
hard to catch up, but
I quickly learned there
was more to success
than working on my
own. I needed to get
involved and become A student crams for final exams at the University of Idaho library.
a part of the academic
community, join study groups and other clubs so I could As the students walked through the door, I thought
learn from others to improve myself. That is a lesson that back to my own experience of having no idea where I
has stayed with me till this day. wanted to go, and no clue on why I should put in the
Now I work at Deloitte as a consultant who helps effort. I challenged those kids as someone had challenged
large organizations deal with security risks, and it’s a me. I asked them to open their eyes, to dream big about
huge coincidence that the company I joined — Deloitte what they could do if anything in the world was possible.
— provides monetary and pro bono services to College These big-idea conversations helped us identify what was
Summit. Its employees are encouraged to contribute important to them and their futures so we could work
their skills as well. I had been with the company for only together to find the colleges that fit their needs.
a few months when I learned this, and the knowledge Being a College Summit alumnus really helped me
of its relationship with the organization that helped to relate to my students. Not only was I able to see a lot
me so many years earlier solidified that Deloitte was of myself in them, but I think they were able to see some
the right place for me. The relationship between the of themselves in me, as they kept saying “if he could do
two organizations is so strong that Deloitte is College it, so can we.” I hope that young people considering
Summit’s largest source of corporate volunteers. Last what to do after high school consider my story and know
summer I volunteered as a counselor at a College that opportunities are there and waiting if they just open
Summit workshop and worked one-on-one themselves up and work hard to seize them. 
with 14 students.

eJournal USA 41
 A Journey of Revisions
Maggie Leffler
disbelief than that of the boy who hoped to
play baseball for the Baltimore Orioles [a
professional team].
My mother and father were physicians,
my grandmother was a novelist, and at
an early age I’d been inspired to do both.
Later on, after the death of my parents, I
realized the two professions were linked by
my own looming mortality. I wanted to
save myself and my loved ones by acquiring
medical knowledge, but I also wanted to
write something that would live longer
than I would. In time, I just hoped to reach
people while I had the chance. This was
the most powerful motivation calling me to
medicine and is probably the most powerful
motivation that compels me to write.
From the time I learned to read, I loved
to put my own words on paper, forming
my own small truths into a story. As an
elementary school student, I started writing
with what I called “The Big Five” short
stories, modeled after a less-dysfunctional
version of my family. In middle school, I
moved on to Judy Blume-inspired novellas;
Courtesy of Katherine Brown

in high school, I wrote a screenplay; and the

year after I graduated from the University
of Delaware, I finished my first unpublished
novel. I cannot remember a time in my life
when I wasn’t writing.
Medicine, on the other hand, was a
The author appears at a book-signing upon the release of her first book.
conscious decision that presented me with
two large obstacles: science and standardized
Choosing a career is hard. Choosing two careers must be tests. The former — including chemistry, physics, and
harder. But this essayist writes that choosing to be both a organic chemistry — did not come easily to me. The
novelist and a physician was the only choice that seemed right. latter — including Medical College Achievement Tests
Dr. Maggie Leffler is a physician, practicing family [MCATs] — actually induced panic attacks and palm-
medicine in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her first novel, The sweating so profuse that, in the days before computerized
Diagnosis of Love, was published in 2007. Her second novel, board exams, I found it hard to even hold a pencil. Despite
The Goodbye Cousins, will be released in June 2009. this, I pressed on through the required “weed-out” courses,
through 16 weeks of summer school hell, and through

I
have a distinct memory of Career Day at my MCAT review classes. In the fall of my senior year of
elementary school: the nine-year-old, pig-tailed me college, I applied to medical school.
raising a hand and volunteering that I wanted to Backpacking through Austria that spring, I used a
be a doctor and a writer. My dream was met with more youth hostel pay phone to call home, only to learn that

eJournal USA 42
 traveled by proteins separated by a gel, all the while
feeling as if I were measuring the minutes of my own
life. During the downtime, as we waited for reagents
to boil or timers to go off, I was busy writing. Soon,
the principal investigator gave up asking me about
medical school and instead just asked about my novel,
which I took as a sign of double failure. After all, I’d
sent out even more query letters to literary agents than
applications to medical school. None of the agents
were interested in reading my manuscript, much less
representing me. It seemed possible that I could spend
my life writing words that no one would read and
pursuing a profession that no one wanted me to enter.
Six months later, on a cold January day, I got on a
plane for the island of Grenada to start at St. George’s
University, an off-shore medical school that dared to let
me in, and — equally astonishing — that I had dared
to attend. Life in a developing world country was a
time of discovery, the most important one: that I was
smart, something I’d been doubting in the months since
I received my undergraduate degree. At St. George’s,
I got the idea for a new book, which I finished before
graduation. During my family practice residency in
Pittsburgh, I rewrote the novel — and then rewrote it
Courtesy of Bantam Dell

again once I got out in private practice. The year that my

son was born, The Diagnosis of Love, was picked up
for publication.
These years in the hospital have taught me that
writing and medicine are not so very different. Every
After years of work, Leffler’s first novel was released in 2007 by day, patients privilege me with rambling stories, which I
Bantam Dell. sift through for the important points, constrained by my
job to sacrifice the details I love for the ones that really
I’d been rejected from the 27 medical schools where I matter to the story of their condition. I’m honored to be
had applied. Maybe I’d focused too much on American the necessary ghost editor for their histories.
literature during college; maybe I hadn’t appeared It has been a journey of revisions — both in my own
scientific enough. stories and in my personal expectations: I never planned
Somehow, my mother spun the grim facts into an on leaving the country to become a doctor, but it did
opportunity: “Now is your chance to really dream. What give me something to write about. And in the medical
would you do if you could do anything?” she asked profession, as in writing, revisions of thought and ideas
over miles of telephone wire. “I want to write books never end. Each day, choices are made: What outdated
that people will read and re-read,” I said. I was really concepts can I let go of; what can I keep? Medicine is
thinking, “I would be a doctor.” about refinement of an elusive ideal; in writing, there is
It was time to get my first “serious job”: at always another draft.
the University of Maryland doing bench work in a I have become what I wanted to be when I grew up,
windowless lab that I secretly called “The Dungeon.” but I am still becoming. 
Under the direction of my principal investigator, I
performed lab techniques — measuring the micrometers

eJournal USA 43
 Additional Resources
Books, articles, Web sites, and films on choosing a career

Books Pink, Daniel H. The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The

Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need. New York, NY:
Bolles, Mark E. and Richard N. Bolles. Job-Hunting Riverhead Books, 2008.
Online: A Guide to Job Listings, Message Boards, Research
Sites, the UnderWeb, Counseling, Networking, Self- Pink, Daniel H. A Whole New Mind: Moving from the
Assessment Tools, Niche Sites, 5th ed. Berkeley, CA: Ten Information Age to the Conceptual Age. New York, NY:
Speed Press, 2008. Riverhead Books, 2005.

Bolles, Richard N., Carol Christen, and Jean M. Sutherland, Anne and Beth Thompson. Kidfluence:
Blomquist. What Color Is Your Parachute? For Teens: The Marketer’s Guide to Understanding and Reaching
Discovering Yourself, Defining Your Future. Berkeley, CA: Generation Y: Kids, Tweens, and Teens. New York, NY:
Ten Speed Press, 2006. McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Brooks, David. On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now Books by Contributors

(and Always Have) in the Future Tense. New York, NY:
Simon & Schuster, 2004. Rennicke, Jeff. Treasures of Alaska: Last Great
American Wilderness; photographs by Michael Melford.
Danziger, Sheldon and Cecilia E. Rouse, eds. The Price Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2001.
of Independence: The Economics of Early Adulthood. New
York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007. Scheib, Walter and Andrew Friedman. White House
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/08/0505/econ/ Chef: Eleven Years, Two Presidents, One Kitchen. Hoboken,
NJ: J. Wiley, 2007.
Erickson, Tamara J. Plugged In: The Generation Y Guide
to Thriving at Work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, Articles
2008.
“Briefing Strategies: Generation Y: Marketing to the
Fields, Bea, ed. Millennial Leaders: Success Stories from Young Ones (18-26s),”
Today’s Most Brilliant Generation Y Leaders. New York, Euromonitor International, September 2007.
NY: Morgan James, 2008. http://www.euromonitor.com/Generation_Y_Marketing_To_
The_Young_Ones_(18_26S)
Gavin, Michelle D., ed. A Work in Progress: The
Prospects and Potential of the World’s Youth. New York, NY: Brooks, David. “The Organization Kid,” Atlantic
International Debate Education Association, 2008. Monthly, vol. 287, no. 4 (April 2001): pp. 40-54.

Howe, Neil and William Strauss. Millennials Rising: The Farrell, Andrew. “The World’s Richest Dropouts,”
Next Great Generation. New York, NY: Vintage Books, Forbes, June 30, 2008.
2000. http://www.forbes.com/businessbillionaires/2008/06/30/
billionaires-education-college-biz-billies-cx_
Huntley, Rebecca. The World According to Y: Inside the af_0630billiedropouts.html
New Adult Generation. Crows Nest, New South Wales,
Australia: Allen and Unwin, 2006. Internet Resources

The Millennials: Americans Born 1977 to 1994, 3rd ed.; Government

by the New Strategist editors. Ithaca, NY: New Strategist
Publications, 2006. Americorps
The national youth service program.
http://www.americorps.gov

eJournal USA 44
Career Voyages Universum
A joint effort of the U.S. Department of Labor and With a focus on marketing and branding, this company
the U.S. Department of Education offers career-related does an annual survey of college seniors in the U.S. and
posters, brochures, and information about occupations around the world to determine trends in employment
and industries. choice.
http://www.careervoyages.gov/index.cfm http://www.universumglobal.com

EDU411 Filmography
A U.S. government site that serves as a portal to a variety
of information on higher education and career selection. Clerks (1994)
http://www.edu411.org/programs/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109445/
Finding Yourself: Top Personality and Career Tests on the Producer: Miramax Films
Web Synopsis: A day in the lives of two convenience store
http://www.edu411.org/featured_articles/Finding_Yourself:_ clerks named Dante and Randal as they annoy customers,
Top_Personality_and_Career_Tests_on_the_Web/ discuss movies, and play hockey on the store roof.
Running time: 89 minutes
O*NET Resource Center
The Occupational Information Network (O*NET), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
a government-sponsored site, offers a broad range of http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104348/
information about occupations. Producer: New Line Cinema
http://www.onetcenter.org/links.html Synopsis: An examination of the machinations behind-
the-scenes at a real estate office.
Associations Running time: 100 minutes

Association of Career Professionals International The Graduate (1967)

This association specializes in all aspects of career services, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061722/
including career management and transition, assessments, Producer: Embassy Pictures
coaching, talent retention, and organizational consulting. Synopsis: Recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock
http://www.iacmp.org/index.html searches for direction in life and becomes ensnared in
romantic entanglements.
College Summit Running time: 105 minutes
This nongovernmental organization works to give
promising but underprivileged high school students a Ladder 49 (2004)
boost into adult life by sponsoring college boot camps, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0349710/
coaching them, and preparing them for application, Producer: Touchstone Pictures
selection, and financial aid. Synopsis: Under the watchful eye of his mentor, a
http://www.collegesummit.org/ probationary firefighter matures into a seasoned veteran
at a Baltimore, Maryland, fire station.
EdVenture Partners Running time: 114 minutes
This organization provides real-world professional
marketing experience to college students by partnering Working Girl (1988)
with actual corporate/government/organizational clients. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096463/
http://www.edventurepartners.com Producer: 20th Century Fox
Synopsis: When a secretary’s idea is stolen by her boss,
National Association of Colleges and Employers she seizes an opportunity to steal it back by pretending
(NACE) she has her boss’s job.
NACE connects employers with schools and students and Running time: 113 minutes
does extensive surveying of college students.
http://www.naceweb.org

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