New Penn State Behrend grads hopeful as they enter uncertain job market

Yahoo

10-05-2025

More than 600 undergraduates walked across the stage this evening and walked off as part of the Penn State Behrend family.
Friday night, friends, family. Alumni celebrated as Penn State Behrend awarded more than 600 degrees at their spring commencement at Erie Insurance Arena.
Chancellor Ralph Ford said it's a special day to celebrate all their hard work as they graduate and go out into the world facing the challenges that lie ahead.
'I hear anecdotally our students are still actually doing pretty well. We had some really good career fairs. The students that I talked to seem to have jobs, but students that I have talked to have jobs, but it is definitely a harder time right now, so we'll see how it goes,' he said.
What about the idea of artificial intelligence taking away jobs from potential employees?
'The thing about AI is it is important for our students to have those skills and that is really why we are trying to make sure that we have moving forward in education. Employers are saying they will hire students. They need to be proficient in using AI and that is really important,' Ford said
Sophia DiPlacido has an internship lined up for the summer, then will look for a full-time position. What's her thoughts on the current job market?
'It's definitely really tough, but I think that Behrend has prepared students really well. I think that I have a lot of access to resources and people that are more than willing to help guide me through that to the next step, so I think that it's a really challenging market. I hope I will be able to use that to navigate it,' she told us.
Another graduate we talked to said it's great to be recognized and has accepted a job after she graduates.
'It's pretty good, we can get a lot of jobs. there are lots of different opportunities we can get a lot of jobs in plastics engineering and chemical engineering and all of those certain types of things so we can work to develop Polymer for compaines you could work to sell the Polymer you could work in a design position and have lots of different opportunities,' said Marley Persch, a polymer engineering and science major.
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