University of Kentucky

College Aspirations following Hurricane Katrina

This project seeks to determine if the career aspirations of college students at Mississippi colleges changed as a result of Katrina. This project seeks to discover whether college students are likely to switch their focus from learning for learning�s sake to focusing on a more immediate need for �job training� following a disaster. It is important to understand how college students respond within their communities, and whether they are more grounded in issues of place (i.e. rural vs. urban) and more compelled to change their long-term career aspirations/life goals to organize around a response to Hurricane Katrina. We will also examine the changes in career aspirations and life goals across socioeconomic groups.