Harvard Grads Choose Public Service Over Big Bucks

Students from elite American university look for ways to help others

26 May 2010

Jessica Ranucci began volunteering in her first year of college and plans to pursue a service career.

It's college graduation season in the United States.

Even in today's weak economy, students from prestigious Ivy League universities like Harvard have an extra advantage on the road to financial success. However, not everyone in Harvard College's Class of 2010 is striving for a lucrative career.

Career choices

Graduation is just days away, and Robin Mount is even busier than usual.

The director of Harvard's Office of Career Services is matching her students with the right employers and career opportunities, often in the fields of education, international development and public service.

"A lot of our students want to work in orphanages, micro-finance projects, AIDS [care] delivery 'on the ground,' global public health," she says.

Graduating senior Wes Howe intended to become a mainstream journalist, but he became passionate about social justice while working as a reporter during summer break.

Passion inspires career path

Howe wrote a news article about a man who spent his savings on a house trailer that turned out to be defective. The circumstances pointed to criminal fraud by the seller, but the man had little recourse to get his money back. Howe was outraged, but felt that, as a newspaper reporter, there was little he could do about it.