The median income for full-time workers between the ages of 22 and 27 in 2021.
$52,000 $30,000
with a bachelor’s degree with a high school diploma only
ENROLLMENT ● Down nationally nearly 10 percent over the past two years, a loss of 1.4 million students pursuing degrees. ● The percentage of teens considering a four-year degree: 71% in May 2020 to 51% in 2022. Washington has followed the same pattern. 51% drop from 2019. drop from 2019 to 2021. of the state’s classes of 2020 and 2021 enrolled in a two- or four-year institution within a year of high school graduation—a 9% The decline was sharpest among Hispanic or Latino students, with a 14%
Ronee Jones
enjoyable and engaging. Think about what you want and need in your career and explore your options.” Ronee Jones (’22) also wants her family to follow in her educational footsteps. Jones worked in operations at a telecom company for 20 years. When her position was cut, the company offered her retraining funds. “I'd been trying to get a degree for years, but me having kids, it was kind of to the back burner—I'd take a class every so often to try to get there,” Jones said. “This kind of kick-started me. Like, ‘OK, well, you’ve got nothing else to do,’ since my kids were grown.” Jones fell in love with accounting at Renton Technical College and transferred to Central to earn her bachelor’s. With the encouragement of P.R. O’Shaughnessy Executive Professor of Accounting Jenny Cravens, she met employers through Central’s Accounting Career Event. Shannon and Associates hired Jones as a part-time associate accountant, and she continues to work at the firm while earning her master’s at Central. Her next step is a doctorate—and encouraging her five grandchildren to earn at least master’s degrees. And she hopes her story reaches even further. “I want to be an example for people—especially, honestly, Black and Brown people,” Jones said. “You don't see a lot of us in accounting. There was nobody that was my nationality in any of my classes, as a professor, none. That can be disheartening. People may think, ‘Can I really do it? I don't see anybody. I don't see any examples.’ So, I want to be one of those. I'm like, ‘Yeah, you can do it, because I've done it.’”
Sources: (Top) A Newsweek analysis. (Bottom) A September 2022 Newsweek article. The article cites a survey by the nonprofit ECMC Group. And a March 2023 analysis from the Washington Student Achievement Council.
ADAPTING FOR THE FUTURE Higher education has a responsibility to adapt in response to students’ and employers’ changing needs, Stinson said. Part of this is making the four-year degree more flexible. For example, many universities are creating short-term certificates and stackable degrees—like the College of Business’s new agribusiness minor/certificate programs . Higher education curricula should change in line with the world, Stinson said. A degree can prepare people to change, too. “We have to make sure students are getting technical competency, but we also need to make sure that we're teaching them to learn how to learn, and that they're going to have to be lifelong learners, that the skill that we just taught them has probably got a shelf life on it, with the advances in technology and the advances in industry,” Stinson said. “They've got to be able to upskill and transition throughout their life. We can give them the skill sets and the confidence to do that.”
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