Shu-Chen Chiang graduated with a Ph.D in Workforce Development and Education on March 18, 2012.

After my graduate school training in education, I was a middle school teacher for five years. Although I got along well with students, I came to realize that I wanted to fulfill myself by doing something different. Returning to school for a Ph.D. was a big change in my life and I am glad that I made it finally!

Due to my background and training, I am extremely interested in youth school-to work transition. My big question was “What is the value of college education? Moreover, what is the connection between college education and  job opportunity? Given today’s workforce situation this question was very intriguing to me.

To further expand this line of inquiry, I applied event history analysis in my dissertation and learned that the third year is a threshold year both for remediated and non-remediated college students. Given that, schools can develop timely strategies to help students success.

With the completion of my doctoral degree, I was offered a post-doctoral research position with the Center of Educational Policy and Evaluation at National Taiwan Normal University. I plan to be a post-doc researcher for two years  to enrich my research skills, preparing me to move forward to a tenure track faculty position. Currently my research assignment includes an investigation of the labor market outcomes of higher education graduates. I am very excited as this is a good fit with my research interests!

I am indebted to the training by our department, Workforce Development and Education (WDE), especially the mentoring by Dr. Hawley and Dr. Stein. So long, all my friends in WDE, hope to meet you at a conference or see you in somewhere very soon!