/ GRADUATION GUIDE / THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM ALTERNATIVE PROGRAMS Wide range of options available for new graduates BY CLAIRE MCINERNY 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. Four years of classes and one degree later, some students do not know what they want to do post-coll rict 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. Gina Littlejohn, the campus campaign coordinator for Teach For America, said the program acco ments people of all majors, and apa 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. PEACE CORPS Like Teach For America, the Peace Corps is another way for 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. the Peace Corps was an attractive option for Wiechman because he did not have a clear direction for his future at the end of sol- UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN PAGE14 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 2011 Contributed photo Garrett Black (left) and Mike Robinson (right) work to clear away debris in Tuscaloosa, Ala., along with other atmospheric science students, who said their understanding of weather patterns helped inspire them to want to help out. SERVICE CONTINUED | 12 perspective. "It kinds of brings to life what we forecast," Huber said. "Sometimes when you're looking at a weather map you don't realize how devastating something can be just by looking at the red and greens." The students worked with Samaritan's Purse, a religious non-profit organization that has been aiding Tuscaloosa since the disaster. The first victim they aided had no basement and was taking shelter in a hallway when a large tree fell on his house. The group left the day after another devestating tornado swept through the city of Joplin, Mo., on May 22. families who lost everything put their jobs as meteorologists into perspective.