This past summer, Career Services sent their annual employment survey to 2006-07 graduates, asking them to list their job status. According to the survey, 99 percent of the respondents reported they were either employed or continuing their education. This is a 4 percent increase from the 2005-06 survey where 95 percent reported the same.

“Eau Claire students are more marketable when they start looking for their first career,” said Erin Leifker, career outreach manager at Career Services. Leifker said this is because so many take advantage of opportunities such as internships, studying abroad and service learning.

Junior Steph Collura, an elementary education major, said she was “definitely surprised by the percentage.”ÿ

According to the survey, 100 percent of elementary education majors that responded are either employed or continuing their education. Other majors that came back at 100 percent include journalism, sociology, accounting, economics, nursing and many others.ÿ The lowest result was 80 percent for Latin American studies majors.ÿ

Collura said the findings make her more hopeful about finding a job herself when she graduates.

Raven Herson-Ortolan, a junior who transferred to UW-Eau Claire this semester, said she had been skeptical.ÿ

“I’m an English education major, and I know it is so competitive to get into the school of education,” she said.ÿ

Out of the English graduates who responded, 100 percent are either employed or continuing their education.ÿ

“I had no idea it would be that high, but it makes me excited,” Herson-Ortolan said. “I’m really optimistic I will get a job after I finish school.”

Junior Meghan Wagner, another English major, agreed.

“Maybe now I will get a job right out of college now. It gives us some hope that there is life after college,” she said.

Herson-Ortolan said she thinks Eau Claire has such high job placement because of the students’ strong ambition.

“College students, especially at Eau Claire and what I have seen thus far, have a certain drive,” she said. “That is why we go to college, to get jobs afterwards. So, to see the percentage is really encouraging to us.”

According to the survey, 23 percent of Eau Claire graduates stay in the Eau Claire area after graduation.

Leifker said she thinks this is because “students become more aware of opportunities right here in the Chippewa Valley.”