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Student paths to graduation vary widely
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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Eric D. Fingerhut, Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, speaks to Youngstown State University graduates on many topics including the history and excellence of Ohio’s educational system to finding employment in uncertain times. Fingerhut received an honorary degree, joining more than 700 students in Sunday’s commencement in Beeghly Center.
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
Photo
Eric D. Fingerhut, Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, speaks to Youngstown State University graduates on many topics including the history and excellence of Ohio’s educational system to finding employment in uncertain times. Fingerhut received an honorary degree, joining more than 700 students in Sunday’s commencement in Beeghly Center.
YSU awards more than 700 degrees at Fall 2010 Commencement on Sunday
By Bob Jackson
YOUNGSTOWN
Brian Haughey wouldn’t be headed to law school if not for the education and direction he received at Youngstown State University.
Joseph Turner-Kerr is taking his YSU degree to Florida, where he’ll pursue a career in retail management.
Katie Winn hopes she won’t have to go that far to find a job, but said she’ll go wherever she must to land a teaching job.
And single mom Constance Massey hopes that her degree will serve to inspire her 10-year-old son that anything can be accomplished with hard work.
Haughey, Turner-Kerr, Winn and Massey were among more than 700 students who received degrees Sunday during fall commencement ceremonies at YSU.
Eric D. Fingerhut, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, was the featured speaker and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
Haughey, 22, of Austintown, received a Bachelor of Science degree in political science. He took the LSAT on Saturday and has applied to the University of Akron Law School, where he hopes to begin in the fall. He said he would like to eventually hang out a shingle and go into business for himself as a criminal-defense lawyer.
“It’s intriguing to me to go that route,” said Haughey, who works as bailiff for Judge Lou D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
“I like the idea of being able to work for myself.”
Haughey said he has been interested in law since childhood, but didn’t seriously commit until he received an internship at the common pleas court assignment office through the university.
“That’s what kind of got me started on the path I’m on,” he said.
Haughey, who said he’ll continue working at the courthouse during the day and attend law school at night, credited his YSU professors with encouraging critical thinking.
Massey, 42, of Girard, received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, even though that was not her original career choice. She started out in secretarial training at Southwestern Illinois University, but got interested in criminal justice because her then-husband was a military policeman with the U.S. Air Force.
“I actually had a change of life,” she said.
She moved here with her husband, who was working at the Air Reserve Base in Vienna.
When their marriage ended, she stayed here and finished her education at YSU. She works at Community Corrections Association on Market Street, and said she hopes to eventually move into the administrative side of corrections.
“It’s so surreal,” Massey said her the end of her educational trail. “Being a single mom and a nontraditional student, I’m just relieved and excited.”
She hopes that her honors degree will provide an example for her son, Daryl, that anything is possible.
Like Massey, Turner-Kerr had a change of career plans while at YSU. He started out studying education, but switched to business administration after getting a job in the retail industry.
He’s moving to Florida in January to be with his girlfriend,who graduated from YSU in the spring, and to begin searching for a job in retail management.
“It’s hard to believe it’s here,” the 24-year-old Austintown man said of his graduation. “I took 20 credit hours a semester and I made it.”
Winn, 22, of Salem, received her degree in education, which was her goal all along.
She transferred to YSU three years ago from Malone College in Canton, and said she’ll be looking for work as a substitute teacher for now because, “It’s hard to find a full-time [teaching] job in the middle of the year.”
She hopes to eventually land a teaching job in this area because her family is located here, but she’s willing to move wherever she must. She was glad to be graduating because it mea nt the end of three years of commuting to Youngstown from Salem.
“But I’ve always been a good student and a hard worker, so I’m very excited,” she said.
Fingerhut, who was appointed chancellor in 2007, told the graduates that now is an exciting time to be entering the work force, despite the economic recession over the past several years.
He said there is a worldwide need for a well-educated workforce and for centers of research excellence, both of which can be found at YSU.
“We live in an exciting, unfolding, competitive global economy,” Fingerhut said, encouraging the graduates to create opportunities for themselves and others.rather than sitting back and waiting for others to create opportunities for them.