More Than Ready...Loyola Ready?

    Careerism has become a national phenomenon, so much so that here at Loyola we changed our campus motto to express this. On campus you see signs that say "More Than Ready. Loyola Ready" it is this point and other resources such as career centers and business prep classes that tie people into focusing on their output/career from the beginning of the experience. Students are choosing their educational environment based on the products of alumni. Now is this just a number backed decision that if people like me liked it here I will to or is there a far more concerning pressure that focuses solely on monetary incentives rather than the pure joy and grasp for knowledge as self-fulfillment. 

    This article hits a little too close to home for me as both a STEM and Business Major. While reading I reflected inward on why I chose Loyola and quickly realized I am just like every other statistic Glassman pulls. "In the 2022-2023 academic year the number of students enrolled in a computer science degree program nearly doubled" (Glassman 1) I wanted to make money to improve my lifestyle and do better than my parents did. Now through utilizing the school's career center to my benefit I polished up my resume to try and get an internship for this summer. 

    Now I know if Freire were here, he would be looking on at me with disappointment. Reducing myself to a single, sterile, identically formatted sheet of paper. My mind shut to creativity and the reality around me, Soley focused or "regurgitating deposited information" (Freire 4) for an interview that I memorized questions for through AI practice sites. This loss of creativity ensures that companies receive workers who "are adaptable, manageable beings."(Freire 2) It is easiest for companies, especially larger firms as mentioned by Glassman to hire manageable predictable workers, as they know they can count on their work staff to never ask questions. The pay they receive for the completion of a repetitive, standardize task is enough to buy out their curiosity. 

    While careerism and Banking education are not the same thing, they are two sides to the same coin. Whether intended or not, they limit the student to one thing, which can ultimately lead to extreme stress and fear of failure. "The number of young adults ages 18-25 who have had at least one depressive episode has doubled" (Glassman 2) When students are shown they only have on path depression and anxiety increase. "Almost two-thirds of college students have reported feeling over whelming anxiety". Anxious to do well, and anticipation that fear of failure; as well as, when/if we fail that depression sinks in.