Editor’s Letter

Everyone remembers looking for their first job out of college – buying a real suit; asking everyone (maybe even the salesperson who sold you that suit) to read over your resume; maybe even practicing your answers to interview questions in the mirror. The time it took you to land your first job out of school may have been longer or shorter than you expected, dependent upon personal circumstances and the economic climate you graduated into. So, what about today’s young graduates? There’s no doubt that they face a steep uphill climb. Employers are still reluctant to hire and, in many cases, job seekers with years of experience are having difficulty finding work.

Yet, despite today’s uniquely “challenging” job market (an understatement, we know), we keep hearing stories of young Barry grads who have beaten the odds, so to speak, and managed to find good, even great, jobs. So, after asking members of the Barry community to send us theses stories directly, we chose six young alumni to profile. We wanted to find out more about them and how they approached the start of their professional lives. Although we weren’t really surprised by their passion, determination, flexibility and punctuality, we were impressed. We think you will be too.

In this issue, we also feature our 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients, each of whom is a great role model for our young alumni. Honored for their professional achievements, contributions to the community and support of the University, each of this year’s winners has a long and impressive “resume” of professional and personal accomplishments. However, while working on this story we realized that we were equally as impressed by their patience, wisdom, humor and punctuality. We hope you enjoy finding out a little bit more about them and what makes them so successful; we certainly did.

Paige Stein, editor