Ideas:
1. My first idea comes from seeing a lot of my friends who have recently graduated falling into a kind of depression after being thrust into the workforce or from not being able to secure employment with student loans looming over their heads. But for this assignment, I’m more interested in those who go on to law school, despite the recent negative connotations of doing so—no job prospects, even more debt, unhappy workers, low quality of life, etc. (Is Law School a Losing Game? in the New York Times is an example of this).
I myself was planning on going to law school after graduating Baruch but have recently decided to put that on the back burner because of the economy and my financial situation. I also worked as a court reporter and was around lawyers every day that couldn’t say a single good thing about law school or the life of an attorney. Almost every single person told me (begged me, really) NOT to go.
However, more and more people are applying to law school every year for different reasons and there’s now a huge excess of lawyers without work.
I’m interested in the lives of recent law school grads, current law school students, working attorneys, etc.
I think some cool multimedia ideas would be a video following a recent graduate around for a day searching for jobs or “a day in the life” of the attorney (hours worked, stress on the job, affects on family life) depending on what I decide to focus on. Also I think a timeline that shows how long it will take for their debts to be repaid would be interesting.
2. I am ALSO interested in people who have decided to forgo a college education in hopes of perusing a lifelong dream (can you guys tell I’m super stressed about life-after-college?). This could be young actors, dancers, artists, etc. who are very driven and decide to make their own path, something I have always been terrified to do myself.
I think this could totally lend itself to multimedia through videos depending on the people I end up interviewing. For example, if I find an aspiring singer, I could film a performance or if I find an aspiring artist, I could do a slideshow (including audio) of their work.