Many students have ideas about what they want to do once they leave CSU Monterey Bay. Once a student graduates, it is time to put their education to work. Freshman Pedro Gonzales is thinking ahead about what his education will mean to his family. When he graduates he wants to,

Get a career in my major, ART. ....I'm not sure what kind of job it will be.. but as soon as I start, as soon as I get that job, I will try to make life easier for my parents. In other words,....helping them with their payments and ...encourage[ing] my brothers to keep on going...to the Universities.

Mario X replied:

I think after that [college] I'm just going to try to find a job, pay my college debts, and continue on for my Master's..... hopefully.

Senior, Jessica Haag commented on where she wanted to be five years from now:

I could either be working as a professor, or working on my Ph.D, or working at a child development center, or working for a school district on their education plan . But I do plan to be done with my Masters and out in the field working while slowly working on my Ph.D.

Another woman student has

...a lot of ideas for her future, but first things first. Sleep a long time, and then...I filled out an application to go into the Peace Corps for awhile.... Then I want to go back to college. I'm not done yet. I haven't learned it all. I think that's another thing that I've taken from this experience. When I was in high school and I was just getting into college, I was thinking "OK, I'm going to be one of those four years in-and-out kind of people. I'm gonna find out what I want to do and then I'm gonna get a job..., and that's it because I don't really want to do this for too much longer. I'm getting a little tired of this whole learning thing." And the more classes I took, the more I was enjoying myself and the more money I paid, the more I realized I really needed to get something out of this . And now I'm hooked. And I also realize that I'm never going to be done learning. There's always going to be so much more and there are so many more people that I can learn from.