Editor's note: This is the final article in a two-part series. The first article appeared in yesterday's paper.
Tufts' Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) aims to make it easier for students to pursue nonprofit and government-service careers. But funding restrictions and limits on mobility have led many to consider these dead end options for graduates.
"The public interest sector is a poorly-funded one and its organizations cannot afford to pay highly-educated young people anything like what they would command on the open market," William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, recently told the Washington Post.
LRAP's sponsors, who come from across the university, acknowledge these difficulties but still feel that there is room for success.
"Tufts grads continue to find very satisfying and challenging opportunities in the nonprofit and government sector, though of course they experience significant frustrations and financial challenges," Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service Dean Robert Hollister said.
President Lawrence Bacow, who had the idea for LRAP, agreed, noting that public sector jobs serve crucial purposes.
"I don't believe that all nonprofit or public service careers are dead end jobs," he said in an e-mail. "Public service is a noble calling. We depend upon the nonprofit and public sectors to provide essential services to meet the needs of those most at risk in society."
Tufts alums in these fields shared many of the same thoughts.
Jessica Bruso, who graduated from Tufts in 1996 and later received a degree from the Friedman School of Nutrition in 2003, admitted that things were difficult directly following graduation.
"I've done a lot of temp work in between different jobs," she said. "It was hard for me to find positions around Boston."
For Bruso, debts from student loans were problematic.
"In between undergraduate and graduate school, income was an issue since I needed to pay off my loans. After grad school, I needed to get some experience, and decided as long as I had some income it would be okay, though it would have been easier to get more entry-level experience if I could have taken non-paying positions," she said.
For this reason, Bruso said that had assistance from the new LRAP program been available to her, these struggles would certainly have been mitigated.
Another concern is that entry-level employees in the nonprofit and government-service world are subject to frequent horizontal movement.
Bruso, who most recently worked for the multinational organization Action Against Hunger, said her personal experiences validate this concern.
"There aren't many opportunities for advancement in Action Against Hunger," she said. "But once a position you hold ends, there are many opportunities to change to other positions in the organization, usually in other countries."
Tara Herlocher, who graduated in 1985 with degrees in French and international relations and is now the director of educating and training for the Peer Advanced Competency Training (PACT) Project at Harlem Hospital, had similar experiences.
"I have changed jobs more often than most people I know," she said.
But with the exception of one pay cut, she has experienced only increases in income. "Everything else has been moving up in money and responsibility. It's just that you never get that high," she said. "You do make enough to get by."
In terms of mobility, Hollister pointed out that movement is not always within a single sector, but can be from one to another, allowing for more diverse opportunities.
"Sometimes [people] stay with a particular sector or organization, ... but very often you find that people's careers have moved back and forth from private business to government and nonprofit and I expect that pattern to continue," he said.
Barbara Clarke (LA '88) followed this path when she moved from a lucrative private sector career to become the executive director of The Children's Room, a nonprofit center in Arlington, Mass. for grieving children and teenagers.
She made this change to pursue a personal passion.
"I basically said that I retired from the for-profit world," she said.
Ultimately, it may simply boil down to one's definition of success. Herlocher, for one, said her decision to enter the nonprofit sector was not a blind one.
"Obviously, if you go into nonprofit you don't go into it for the money," she said. "I for one have no resentment because it's what I chose."
Director of Career Services Jean Papalia said that, in her experience, many other alums working in nonprofit or government service are successful according to their own standards.
"I would cite the number of alumni who return to Tufts annually to speak to students about their work in nonprofits and what they feel they have achieved," Papalia said in an e-mail. "Nearly 800 alumni in the Tufts Career Network represent the nonprofit sector, and have made themselves available to discuss their careers. This seems to indicate that some Tufts graduates are pleased with the decision to enter this world."
In addition to working within the established nonprofit and government service network, qualified Tufts alums have also succeeded in reforming and improving these sectors.
"Because Tufts alums are often so talented and committed, ... they are playing and can play the leadership role in developing better nonprofit career ladders," Hollister said.
For example, Vanessa Kirsch (LA '87) created and organized a national organization called New Profit Incorporated which raises funds from private philanthropists to help other nonprofits grow and expand.
Despite such innovations, many feel that public sector jobs are undervalued. Herlocher feels that this is the root of the low salaries for these jobs.
"[Today], there's so much more of an emphasis on business and making money in a different way than there was when I was in college. ... It's really important that people value this kind of work [because] it's not valued enough," she said. "That's why the agencies don't have enough money. ... They expect that you're doing it because you want to, not for the money."
Even so, Herlocher's passion for her work trumps any of the difficulties she has faced.
"There's plenty of frustration, but we don't wake up one day and say, 'Oh my God, everything I've done is meaningless," she said. "When I turned 40, I was like, 'I did amazing things and I'm really happy with that.'"
