Like the last vestiges of winter giving way to spring, graduation is an annual rite of passage in Wisconsin. As our staff developed The Wisconsin 100’s Education Issue, we decided the best way to showcase the feelings, thoughts and hopes that accompany graduation season should come from recent and upcoming graduates themselves.

St. Norbert College student-athlete Fiona Hehir will be entering the workforce as an elementary teacher after graduating this May. During her time at SNC she played for the women’s soccer team, where she learned soft skills like time management and organization, built strong relationships and eventually found a familial unit on campus – something Hehir values.

In the fall of 2016, Emma Baumgart, Corporate Communications ’18, found her dream career path thanks to a new major offered at Marquette University. The Environmental Studies major allowed Baumgart to combine her creative, communications-focused interests with her passion for environmental issues.

A professor once told me, “College should be four years of not knowing what to do with the rest of your life and loving every minute of it.” Too many students enter college with a great big four-year plan and worry endlessly about falling short of their goals.

With a one-way ticket to Croatia in hand, adventure awaits Sam Lepak when he graduates from UW-Whitewater this month. Lepak says he caught the travel bug in 2017 while studying abroad in Sweden.

One of the first things Douglas Pierce liked about the Medical College of Wisconsin was the family environment he felt during his initial interview.

For more than a decade, junior and senior students at Eleva-Strum Central High School have been taking on contract machining work from commercial customers, learning CNC machining, welding and other manufacturing skills. Technical education instructor Craig Cegielski has built the Cardinal Manufacturing program from the ground up, a model for how to develop basic skills state employers seek.

For years, employers have been trying to figure out what younger workers value in the workplace. Do millennials and now Gen Z really want things that are that different than baby boomers and previous generations? Yes and no, are the short answers to that question.

There’s no place like home … or at least that is what Notre Dame graduate Rachel Lauterbach believes.

Shuyi Wong, 24, is a graduating senior at Marquette University from Malaysia. The hefty doses of snow and freezing temperatures presented some personal challenges but did not stop her growing affection for Milwaukee.

This May, about 2 million college graduates nationwide will enter the workforce. While many seek different cities offering new opportunities, Marquette University senior Brendan Flanagan is looking in the city he’s called home as an undergrad.

Each semester, Branigan Communications welcomes an intern to the team to assist with a variety of tasks and experience agency life. It’s always rewarding to see how students progress during this preview of life in the “real world.”