DE Campus Life 16

For many SIUC students, December is a time for Christmas shopping and celebrating the holidays, but Tiffany Burns is more concerned about walking down the aisle and receiving her diploma than looking under a Christmas tree.

Burns, a senior in industrial technology from Cairo, is one of many students who are graduating from SIUC in the University’s first Fall commencement at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 20 at SIU Arena.

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With graduation lurking in the near future, some SIUC students already have jobs lined up for when they finish college, but many December graduates are not so sure.

I don’t know what I’m going to do, Burns said. I guess I’ll have to find a job.

Burns said it does not matter where the job is because she is willing to relocate.

I’ll go anywhere in the United States, she said. I’m not stressing because I can always go to graduate school. I have a sever case of senioritis, so I’m not stressing. I’m just really looking forward to graduation.

Nichole Holmes, a senior in radio and television from Marion, said her December graduation is not making her nervous because she is going to take her time and find a job.

I’m going to just relax for a couple of months before I start working, she said. There is no spring break in the real world.

However, Holmes is going into the tough business of entertainment television and is planning on going to Hollywood.

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I’m a little nervous about that (Hollywood), she said. But it will be worth it for my career.

Unlike Burns, Holmes said she is not going to attend the December ceremony, is excited about ending her college career.

There are just so many different things that I can do, she said.

Many students are focused on December commencement, but they are not the only seniors who are making plans for the future.

Kelli Rander, a senior in education from Evanston, is graduating in May and is actively seeking her future.

I think I’m prepared to go out in the real world, but the future is so uncertain, she said. I want to be an administrator, but teaching comes first.

Rander said the final semesters of college are more pressure-filled than the ones early in her college career.

You can’t just say, If I mess up on this one I have time to make it up,’ she said. Because if you fail a class or get a bad grade in a major class, you can’t make it up.

Terrence Boyd, a senior in administration of justice from Washington, D.C., is neither excited nor nervous about his December graduation because he is staying in school to complete a second degree.

I want to work for the secret service or the FBI, and with two degrees I have a better chance of making it, he said.

Boyd said it is not difficult to find a job after college if students research jobs and give themselves plenty of time before graduation to find work.

Boyd said students give up the safety net they had in college when they graduate.

There’s not too much pressure in college, but when you get out of college, people expect you to be responsible and adult, he said.

Burns said she will think about what comes after college after she graduates.