An editorial from The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — This weekend, thousands of students across our region will pass a life-altering milestone when they receive a college degree.
About 1,500 are set to graduate from Marshall University on Saturday, and commencements are scheduled over the next few days at West Virginia University, the University of Kentucky, Morehead State University, University of Rio Grande, Alderson Broaddus University, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Mountwest Community and Technical College, and Ashland Community and Technical College.
Some will continue their educations with graduate programs, but many will take their degree into the marketplace and look for employment.
Studies show that a college degree can greatly increase an individual’s lifetime earnings, but the payoff only begins with that first real job. Sadly, the recent recession and the lackluster job recovery have made getting started a lot tougher, and there continues to be a backlog of unemployed college graduates in many fields.
This spring, however, there are some signs of improvement…
