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One year ago today I had just graduated college and I was in the midst of a desperate scramble to find a job before next month’s rent came due. The previous 5 years of my life had been devoted to my degree in architecture and now there were no jobs out there for architects. I was extremely disheartened to have graduated from a university that I felt couldn’t care any less about the well-being of its students only to find out that the world outside of the ivory tower didn’t value architecture (or even a college degree) as well.
I took the only job I could find on such short notice… I began scrubbing toilets at a local coffee shop. Since I had never worked in a coffee shop before I wasn’t eligible for a barista position, but the job did entail a bar-backing shift on Saturdays that I could gain some experience with—I would just have to work my way up.
To say that scrubbing toilets is miserable work doesn’t quite do the psychological mind-fuck I was experiencing justice. I kept thinking about all of the knowledge I had soaked up in school and how I thought I was better than this. Not to mention that I was now $30,000 in debt for a degree that didn’t offer me any employment leverage at a firm…scrubbing toilets was the cherry on top of this shit flavored sundae. And so I worked, and worked, and worked, and worked until finally I couldn’t think anymore about my situation. My plan was to work my ass off so I could be promoted up to a barista position ASAP, luckily for me at the end of that summer one of the baristas left and I was given his old position in addition to my cleaning duties.
One day in October, I received a phone call from an SPSU alumni offering me a temporary position at an architecture firm downtown building models, one of my classmates had given him my information. Having never seen my design portfolio or any photographs of my previous work I began working at the firm in late October. I was unsure how long this temporary position would last so I kept working both my jobs at the coffee shop just to be safe. By the time December rolled around I was offered the opportunity to interview for a full-time position at the firm. The interview went really well BUT…there was still quite a bit of uncertainty regarding the industry and if growth was going to occur. My only choice was to keep working at the architecture firm until conditions improved and I could get a full-time position so I began harassing people at the office to give me work and assigning myself to projects whenever I could. Now, 5 months later I have finally received a full-time offer for employment at the firm. I sign the paper work today.
Coming out of school I was young, timid, naïve, and arrogant. At SPSU I had been a big fish in a little pond and outside of there I was just another schmuck on the streets. I have learned quite a bit about myself and the world in general this past and as I result I am no longer afraid of life and its unknowns. The best approach to life is to roll with the punches and fight for something better than what you currently have.
Self-Portrait
In 2010 something unthinkable happened – student debt surpassed credit card debt as the largest form of debt in this country, passing $800 billion dollars. In 2012 more history will be made as the amount of unpaid student debt climbs to $1 trillion dollars, with an additional $1 million dollars added to that number every 6 minutes.
The ripple effect that this has on our economy is crushing: students and recent graduates are forced into low-wage jobs in order to immediately start making payments back to banks and lenders; instead of stimulating the economy by spending millions of dollars, students and graduates are pinching pennies to just try to keep up with the interest on their loans; and the privatization of colleges and universities are expedited as the same loan agencies use the profit off of students to lobby for lower tax rates, forcing budget cuts to higher education in an economy where recent graduates struggle to find jobs.
Imagine students not working two part-time minimum wage jobs as they struggle to get through school, allowing them more time to participate in civic engagement. Imagine recent graduates not being pushed into a job market where they are forced to intentionally keep wages stagnant, allowing them the ability to work for non-profits or local businesses.
If we do not solve the student debt crisis the students of today will suffer, but the students of tomorrow may never have the opportunity to a college education. A generation of students will pay the hefty price of their student loans; but we must not forget that we will also pay the debt of an entire country ignoring the burden placed on those working to better their lives and communities by obtaining a college degree.We are demanding that Sallie Mae, Inc. pay their fair share in fixing the economy by:
1. Forgive all student debt after 5 years of payments
2. Eliminate all interest on student loans
Evolution of Atlanta
U.S. - home to 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prisoners.
NPR - Prisons (retroactive “correction”) funded at the expense of education. [Listen Here]
And we’re using up 25% of the world’s daily oil supply, while only producing 2%.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption
We look like an awful, selfish police state. Oh, wait.
For poor communities of color, over policing and mass imprisonment is a reality that no one can afford to take for granted. To this day people of color are grossly over-represented in the population of incarcerated people. In Becky Pettit and Bruce Western’s study of mass imprisonment, they…
Slavoj Zizek en Occupy Wall Street
Gathering the architecture community on Tumblr.
Reblog this, so that we can see who’s who.
After a week or two, I’ll post every single blog that has an architect/architecture student behind it, or any blog that has something to do with architecture.
It will be a nice promo for everyone
