Without ceremony, new college grads step into an uncertain workforce
From first-generation scholars helping to support their families to first-time nurses jumping into pandemic-stricken hospitals, these students face a graduation like no other.
It was 11 p.m. on a Friday night in March when I drove to New Jersey to bring my brother home from college. It felt like an evacuation mission, of sorts; two days earlier, Princeton University students had been told not to return once they’d left campus for spring break. That’s when the goodbyes began.
By the time I got there, the campus was already half-empty; the few students who shuffled by looked dazed, many of their eyes bleary from so much crying. As I helped my brother hoist his bicycle onto the back of our car, a handful of friends solemnly gathered around. “I’ve just gotta hug you,” one senior said to another as they parted, making an exception to
