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GRADUATION GUIDE / THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
Wide range of options available for new graduates
BY CLAIRE MCINERNY
editor@kansan.com
editor@kansan.com
As some seniors are preparing for jobs and planning their lives after school, some students are experiencing a different scenario: the end of college panic.
er. One opportunity that enables students to make that happen is through Teach for America. Teach For America is a program that allows recent college graduates to teach in public schools in low-income communities. The assignment lasts for two years.
Wiechman spent his two years in Saint Lucia doing community development. He helped a farmers' cooperative develop a grant proposal to get funding for a composting project from the United Nations and also taught reading and music at a school.
a way to prolong having to find a job, but rather look at it as a way to find new opportunities and new ways for students to use their passions. She said a lot of politicians who now work in Congress were in the program and are now fighting for education rights.
Four yea degree late
The Peace Corps was an attract
for Wichman because
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2011
PAGE 20
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
RELATIONSHIPS
Facebook use magnifies, causes trouble in couples
BY MEG LOWRY
mlowry@kansan.com
When it comes to Facebook and relationships, it's complicated.
More than sixty percent of the 500 billion people who use Facebook have a relationship status listed on their profile. The site offers ten status options: single, in a relationship, it's complicated, engaged, married, divorced, widowed, separated, in a civil union and in a domestic partnership.
Facebook has been included in an increasing number of divorce cases, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial lawyers.
The effects Facebook has on relationships, however, aren't so simple.
"By definition, the format of the internet allows for problems to happen in a relationship more easily," said Kristine Johnson, a psychologist at Christian Psychological Services, 3510 Clinton Place.
In the U.S., only thirty-nine percent of Facebook users are listed as
Johnson explains that Facebook can highlight already existing problems.
"single." The majority of users, then, are in a relationship that may be impacted by their social networking.
"If someone is struggling to be honest, for example, the internet offers a new outlet
ters a new outlet for that," Johnson said.
Carson Levine, a senior, has been dating her boyfriend Drew for a year. A few months into their relationship, she said, they became "Facebook official."
A study conducted last year by Nielsen, an online analyst, found that in one month an average 135 million people will visit Facebook.
"I just figured if we didn't put it up, it would be weird," Levine said. "I thought it meant he was embar-
Mike Gunnoe/KANSAN
"If someone is struggling to be honest, for example, the internet offers a new outlet for that."
or more than 70 percent of American Internet users. Those who visit the site spent seven hours a month on it, compared to the average 2.5 hours a month on Google.
KRISTINE JOHNSON Psychologist
rassed by me. Looking back, it seems a little ridiculous."
When a couple "links" on Facebook, the status change is posted to their walls and to their friend's news feeds, making the change public knowledge.
"I was going to be
"I was going to be leaving town for a few weeks, and I think it made him feel a little better to know our relationship was public," Levine said.
Whether a couple chooses to
make their relationship Facebook official or not, Johnson said communication is key.
"Technology can really reduce intimacy and understanding between people," Johnson said. "It can lead to a whole new host of problems."
According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, an
increasing number of divorce cases have been including Facebook as evidence of infidelity. Photographs, messages and wall posts have all been presented in the courtroom by slighted lovers.
the platform as they do with just being a really bad choice." Levine agrees.
Johnson said social media can create an outlet for infidelity, but isn't necessarily the cause.
"If you one hundred percent trust the person that you are with and know you have the same feelings for each other, I don't see why it would be a problem," she said. "But if you are insecure in your relationship, it will be an issue."
"There is an idea that the internet is an efficient platform for secrecy," Johnson said. "But situations like that don't have as much to do with
Last year, thirty-seven percent of relationship status updates were pages being changed to "single." The update instantly alerts friends, family, co-workers and acquaintances of your heartbreak.
"It would suck for a while, I think," Levine said. "But at the end of the day, it's just Facebook."