It's graduation season, and thousands of students are walking across the stage this month at Illinois colleges and universities.
Jack Whitsitt graduated from Illinois State University last weekend with bachelor's degrees in finance and political Science.
“I feel pretty prepared, honestly. And talking with my friends and everyone else, I think we’re ready," he said.
The nationwide unemployment rate is historically low, currently at 3.6%. Whitsitt said that number should be encouraging to his fellow graduates, despite many still searching for jobs.
“When we were growing up, the unemployment rate was so bad, and now it’s finally getting back to a reasonable place and we’re jumping into the real world,” he said. “So I think it’s encouraging.”
Whitsitt’s class of graduates includes mostly members from the tail end of the millennial generation. Despite stereotypes like being lazy, selfish, and tech-obsessed, Whitsitt said millennials have a unique work ethic vital to any workplace.
“We’re very, ‘Let’s get to the point.’ If we don’t have to take much time (to complete a project), we’re not going to take that much time,” he said. “And we’re very tech based, which is where we’re going in the future.”
Whitsitt is one of the lucky ones. He graduated with a job lined up at the Alpha Sigma Phi headquarters in Indianapolis.
While enrolled, Whitsitt was vice president of ISU's Student Government Association, a co-founder of the School Street Food Pantry, and secretary and professionalism director at Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity.
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