Great Recession builds youth integrity

By Matthew Boyle | mboyle@flagler.edu

Flagler College senior Dave Hiller admits he has to work harder to get into graduate school after he finishes his degree in December.

Since the start of the Great Recession, as I expect we’ll come to call this economic downturn in the near future, Hiller said he’s been facing fiercer competition to get better grades and build professional experience.

“A college or university is more likely to accept someone with a 3.5 GPA than a 3.2 or 3.1 [GPA],” Hiller said. “I’m just trying to get better grades.”

The Great Recession taught students like Hiller, who originally said he doesn’t think the economic downturn affected him, to be more responsible and build integrity if they want to achieve their goals in life.

Once the economic recovery settles, the hardworking cream of America’s crop will be rightfully awarded the top jobs in noteworthy professions while the lower grades of today’s youth will fill in the rest. The Great Recession casts negative light on handouts and promotes hard work.

Kerry Takach, a Fall 2009 Flagler graduate, who majored in communication, is already beefing up her job application process. She has applied for 14 public relations or newspaper jobs locally, but only heard back from two companies that said they were not hiring at this time.

Takach is getting more creative in how she applies for jobs. “I’ve gotten a little more daring in my cover letters,” she said.

She’s developing new writing skills, and, even though it isn’t a “requirement” for anything, she reads anything and everything about her dream field: fashion. Unlike the thousands of wannabes in the fashion world, who think they have the “eye” needed for the fashion communication business, Takach stays current on the industry’s trends and analyzes the field.

Takach radiates the positive effects of the Great Recession on America’s youth. She is down on her luck. She is a college graduate without a job or a job offer in her field. But, she keeps trying to put herself in a better position to get where she wants to go in life.

Flagler student James Tyer thinks the Great Recession will lead to some short-term positive societal changes, but doesn’t see any long-term improvements happening in America. He said greed is the root of all of American economic problems.

“We’ve seen how much this [recession] has affected people, so we’ll hopefully come out a little bit better off,” Tyer said. “The only way to solve our problems [in the long term] is a social reform of our values.”

Tyer thinks Americans should focus less on material goods and possessions and revert back to traditional capitalistic fundamentals like moderate spending.

I would love to see Tyer’s recommendations come through but, practically speaking, I just don’t think a complete social value overhaul is likely, or even possible. The way I do think the Great Recession’s back end will benefit America’s future, though, is by making us work.

The Great Recession brought the youth of America back to the fundamentals. If you work hard and are enthusiastic about your profession, then you will be rewarded. If you slack off then you will pay the consequences.

The economic downturn also taught us to spend our money wisely and make sound financial decisions, or at least better financial decisions than before.

“It [the Great Recession] was people pretty much taking out money they didn’t have,” Tyer said. “The economy really is a crazy thing.”

From America’s youth of the Great Recession, Wall Street’s bigwig bankers and Washington’s politicians can learn to stop spending Monopoly money and stop expecting everything to be handed to them.