Graduates

Brenda Small didn't think twice about taking out student loans to pay for nursing school in the late 1980s. She figured she could easily pay off the $20,000 bill - until an injury a few years later left her permanently unable to work. Her dreams of working in her chosen profession vanished, but not her student debts. Including interest and penalties, the 59-year-old Los Angeles woman now owes more than $39,000 and can't afford to pay the debt from a disability income of $1,234 a month.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - President Obama pushed back against the idea of U.S. influence being in decline - and against Republican criticism of his stewardship - telling the Air Force Academy's graduating class that around the world "there's a new confidence in our leadership. " Republican critiques hold otherwise, suggesting that Obama has "led from behind" in international efforts, cut the military and responded weakly to the rise of contending powers. But as he set off Wednesday on a two-day western tour, Obama used the commencement address to make a forceful argument for a policy that downplays unilateral American action in favor of partnerships with other countries, one that maintains "military superiority" even as it welcomes "the rise of peaceful, responsible emerging powers.

Reaching out to a 30,000-strong Christian crowd at Liberty University on Saturday, Mitt Romney delivered the school's commencement address, half congratulating the students, and half delivering campaign remarks. In the speech, Romney reiterated his opposition to gay marriage in the wake of President Obama's announcement of personal support for the issue, and made tacit references to his own Mormon faith. For Romney's full remarks, read below: For the graduates, this moment marks a clear ending and a clear beginning.

It's one thing to land a celebrity as a commencement speaker upon graduation. When you're Justin Bieber, however, celebs stage the entire ceremony. This was the case on Wednesday as Ellen DeGeneres welcomed the pop star to perform his hit "Boyfriend," and threw in a last-minute surprise: a cap-and-gown rite of passage to celebrate Bieber's completion of his GED requirements. "I know you graduated two weeks ago and you really didn't have a traditional graduation ceremony.

The job market for this year's college graduates appears to be on the upswing as economic forecasts show seniors will have a better shot at employment than in past years and more businesses are recruiting at campus job fairs this spring. Those positive signs were present at Cal State Long Beach recently when an event attracted more than 90 potential employers, about 50% more than last year. About 5,000 students, many of whom had swapped their T-shirts and sandals for a more formal look, handed out resumes and hoped to replace anxiety about their post-graduation employment prospects with the growing optimism that recent national reports project.

Harvey Mudd College students are among the country's brightest, but that did not make it any easier for a group of incoming freshman to break the ice at a recent orientation breakfast. The thaw finally came when one student complained that people thought he was saying "Harvard Med" when he told them where he was going to college. Others chimed in with "Harvey Who?" They had all heard that one dozens of times. Even "Elmer Who?" had a familiar ring.

As this year's crop of college graduates leaves school, burdened with high levels of debt and entering a severely depressed job market, they may be asking themselves a fundamental question: Was college worth it? And it's no wonder they're asking. Large numbers of the new graduates will face sustained periods of underemployment and low wages for years. Worse still, many of them were poorly prepared for the future, having spent four (or more) years of college with only modest academic demands that produced only limited improvement in the skills necessary to be successful in today's knowledge-based economy.

Cheers for Crispin Sartwell on "You Amount to Nothing, Then You Die" (Commentary, May 5). That's the best advice column I've ever read. Tom Tugend Sherman Oaks Sartwell failed to exhort graduates to always wear sun block. Barbara Hope Los Angeles

The unemployment rate dropped last month for men and women, blacks and whites, lifting hopes that the long dry spell in the jobs market may be coming to an end. But for recent college graduates and other young adults, the labor situation didn't just remain dire -- it got worse. For 20- to 24-year-olds, the jobless rate rose four-tenths of a percent to 16% in November, even as unemployment nationally slipped to 10% from 10.2%. And data from the Labor Department show that the unemployment figure for college graduates in that age group was 10.6% in the third quarter -- the highest since early 1983 and more than double the rate for older college-educated workers.

Many high school and college graduates get an "A" for social consciousness, having opted to wear "green" caps and gowns as they accept their diplomas this month. But what they're really getting is a postgraduate course in greenwashing, and the cynical ways corporations will exploit their desire to protect the environment. Local high schools, as well as prestigious universities such as UC Berkeley and Yale, are opting for environmentally friendly graduation garb made from recycled plastics or biodegradable materials.

College graduation is typically a time to tally accomplishments and to look ahead. But for many graduates, it is also a time to tally student loans and figure out how to repay them. About two-thirds of college graduates have some student loans to pay off, and their average debt is about $25,000 to $28,700, according to estimates by education experts and organizations. (About 10% of those with loans owe more than $50,000 or so.) Many college seniors say they had not thought much about their debt until they received summaries just before graduation.

Students at Locke High School are faring better than their peers in nearby traditional schools, but achievement overall remains low at the charter-managed campus near Watts, according to a new study. Still, the Locke students were more likely to graduate and to have taken courses needed to apply to a four-year state college, according to the UCLA-based National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. The ongoing research has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Reaching out to a 30,000-strong Christian crowd at Liberty University on Saturday, Mitt Romney delivered the school's commencement address, half congratulating the students, and half delivering campaign remarks. In the speech, Romney reiterated his opposition to gay marriage in the wake of President Obama's announcement of personal support for the issue, and made tacit references to his own Mormon faith. For Romney's full remarks, read below: For the graduates, this moment marks a clear ending and a clear beginning.

Brenda Small didn't think twice about taking out student loans to pay for nursing school in the late 1980s. She figured she could easily pay off the $20,000 bill - until an injury a few years later left her permanently unable to work. Her dreams of working in her chosen profession vanished, but not her student debts. Including interest and penalties, the 59-year-old Los Angeles woman now owes more than $39,000 and can't afford to pay the debt from a disability income of $1,234 a month.

The number of eligible California high school graduates entering the state's public four-year universities has plunged in the last five years, as budget-strapped institutions increasingly adopt practices to reduce enrollment, a new study has found. At University of California and California State University campuses, enrollment rates dropped by one-fifth, to fewer than 18% of all state high school graduates in 2010, from about 22% in 2007. The report, released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California, found that these declines have occurred even as demand has risen: The number of high school graduates in California reached an all-time high of 405,000 in 2010; the number of seniors who completed college admission requirements increased dramatically, as did the number of students taking and passing Advanced Placement exams.

Students traditionally have a soft spot for their alma maters. But as growing numbers of students run up debt in the high five and even six figures to pay for college, that may change. Especially when they discover their old school is actively blocking them from getting a job or going on to a higher degree. That's what increasing numbers of students are finding when they try to obtain an official transcript to send to potential employers or graduate admissions offices. It turns out many colleges and universities refuse to issue these critical documents if students are in default on student loans, or in many cases, even if they just fall one or two months behind.

Heavynle Ceasar headed to New York for college last week. She took one big suitcase, a tiny heart-shaped pillow for the flight and the boundless good wishes of countless strangers whose gifts are helping ease her passage through grief. Heavynle is the Lawndale teenager I wrote about in June after she lost both her parents in one torturous moment: One week before her prom, two months from graduation, Heavynle's father shot her mother to death and then killed himself in the family's condo.

After USC graduate students Ming Qu and Ying Wu were shot and killed earlier this month, the Chinese student community in America was saddened, shocked and frightened. The reaction back home was very different. The killings, which happened while Qu and Wu were sitting and talking in a BMW, unleashed a torrent of Internet vitriol in China, and it wasn't directed at the pair's attacker. A comment on the popular site 163.com was typical: "Studying in America, driving BMW, a male and a female, let them die. " Never mind that the BMW was a secondhand model and not the $60,000 luxury model the Associated Press erroneously reported initially.

Taking sides Re "Vatican says nuns' group must reform," April 20 Thousands of women who have given up marriage and money to work tirelessly to help the poor, the sick and the needy - just as Jesus asked them to - are being blasted for doing so. Just because they show Scriptural leadership and love rather than meekly pushing someone else's political agenda, they are being vilified by male Roman Catholic Church leaders. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we see remarkable, devout female leaders - Deborah, Miriam, Esther, Mary, Martha, Lydia and many more come to mind.