Every college student anticipates “that day.” The day when they put on their cap and gown, shake the president’s hand and receive their diploma.
On graduation day, each student walks off that stage and steps into the real world where they each choose their own path to pursue their dreams.
For two 2010 Cabrini College graduates, the real world has led them in two different directions. While one has landed a new job, the other is going to graduate school before starting a career.
This is a choice many college students face: whether to start working immediately or to get a graduate degree first. Seniors weigh many factors when making that choice. Here are the stories of two who tell their reasons and how their choice is working out.
Sara Trzuskowski, a special education and elementary education major and 2010 Cabrini College graduate, recently accepted a job at Wood Services, a residential school for students with disabilities in Langhorn, Pa., as a teacher of severely autistic people.
“Just like any teacher, I teach the students during the school day and we go on different field trips and activities to allow the students to succeed and prepare for life after they are in school,” Trzuskowski said in an emaiil.
Trzuskowski attended Cabrini College for four years where she took classes in education and spent time student teaching to prepare herself for her own teaching job.
“There will be some things that are going to the be the same (as student teaching) but I think a lot will be different. I now have my own classroom. I am in control of the students and how the day progresses. The students that I will be working with now are different than the students that I had in student teaching, so that will be really different but exciting,” Trzuskowski said.
Trzuskowski began applying for jobs in March. She attended job fairs, interview screenings and networking groups. She applied to eight different schools. However, on her first interview she was offered the job and she accepted.
“I applied to everywhere and anywhere. I wanted to leave my options open. I applied to public, private and Catholic schools,” Trzuskowski said. “I was very fortunate though. The first actual interview I went on, I was offered the job right after the interview. It is a great school and I am very excited to work there.”
While Sara Trzuskowski chose to accept a job right out of college, Diana Trasatti, an English, communication and psychology major and 2010 Cabrini College graduate, decided to take a different path.
Trasatti will be attending the University of Pennsylvania in the fall to pursue a masters degree in counseling and mental health services.
She began applying to graduate programs early last fall in hopes of finding the school that would help her to reach her career goals. She applied to four graduate schools and was accepted by all.
“The process for applying to graduate school can be very tedious,” Trasatti said in an e-mail. “When you’re applying to graduate school you have to be on top of everything.”
Aside from the application itself, applicants must submit a writing sample, transcripts, GRE scores, an essay on their goals and objectives and three letters of recommendation.
After receiving a bachelor of arts degree from Cabrini College, Trasatti decided to apply to graduate school to receive her masters because she felt it would help her attain the job that she wants.
Although Trasatti said she thinks graduate school will be a challenge she believes it will only help her in the long run.
“I hope that my master’s degree and course work at Penn will train me to be an effective clinician and successfully meet the needs of my patients,” Trasatti said. “I do not want to just be good clinician, but I want to be exceptional, not for my own benefit but because I am going to be working with people and I want to be able to provide the best care to them possible.”
Both graduates made the best of their time at Cabrini and are now moving on to new parts of their lives. They will continue to move forward towards their new goals but will never forget what got them there.
I don’t think it has hit me yet that I have graduated still. I think it will hit me at the end of August when I would be normally moving back to school,” Trzuskowski said.
“It’s bittersweet to be done Cabrini and going onto a new school and meeting new professors and classmates. I am really going to miss Cabrini, but I feel so lucky for all the experiences I had and all the amazing people I met. All of that played a role in shaping me into who I am today and the career path I choose,” Trasatti said.
