Lindsey Conklin, right, a senior at Rhode Island College, is interning in the communication department at the United Way. Here, she is interviewing Anthony Maione, president and CEO of United Way, for a newsletter.

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

Tighe Flatley, 21, is unsure of his graduation plans.

The Journal / Andrew Dickerman

Amma Marfo, 20, wants to promote an artist or group.

Meet Lindsey Conklin, Tighe Flatley and Amma Marfo, three students in their last year at Rhode Island’s public colleges.

As seniors, these students are on the cusp of the end of their undergraduate experience and are trying to figure out what the next step will be. The decisions they make over the next few months have the potential to be among the most momentous of their lives. Not only will they attempt to figure out just what it is they want to do with their undergraduate educations — start a career, go to graduate school, bide their time — they will also have to turn that decision into reality.

Despite the uncertainty and consternation this next year might involve, all three of these students have agreed to let projoJobs chronicle their experiences, explore their successes and failures, and learn about the process of leaving school, finding a job, and taking the leap into being grown up.

Conklin, 21, a senior at Rhode Island College, has been in Rhode Island since the end of her sophomore year. Originally from Rochester, N.Y., Conklin began her college career out West, at Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff.

By spring of 2005 she had decided that Arizona was not for her and that she wanted to move to Providence, where one of her best friends was studying at Johnson & Wales. After a little research she decided she would apply to RIC and began taking classes there last fall.

A communications major, Conklin has been busy over the last year.

She founded RIC’s Communications Club, and is president of her college class. At the same time she has part-time jobs as a teacher’s aide at the Henry Barnard School in Providence, is a promoter with Big Fish Promotions, and is a public relations intern with the United Way of Rhode Island. She also managed to land a job with the Rhode Island Lottery, reading winning numbers on television twice a month.

“Transferring was like a complete transformation for me,” Conklin said. “In high school I wasn’t involved in much, just sports. I moved out here and I knew nobody, not one person. But, I made it work.”

Conklin said her ideal job would be to work as a producer for the Oprah show. But, she knows there is a long way to go to break into that kind of work. Over the next few months, Conklin said she plans to reach out to as many people as she can, circulating her resume and “seeing what’s out there.”

But, with $30,000 of college debt from her first two years in Arizona alone, Conklin said she also knows she’ll need a “real job” as soon as possible.

“I don’t want to graduate and get some part-time job like I did in high school,” she said. “I want to find the kind of job that will help me go somewhere. … Yeah, it’s scary because I don’t know what kind of job I want, but the fear isn’t there yet because there is so much time still.”

Tighe Flatley, 21, is a born and bred Rhode Islander, from South Kingstown. A senior in the honors program at the University of Rhode Island, he’s majoring in political science and doesn’t really know what he wants to do when he gets out of school.

“The whole idea of graduating is kind of strange as far as career plans go,” Flatley explained. “It’s a little bit overwhelming because it’s still the fall and the spring hasn’t hit yet, but you still know these days are numbered.”

Flatley works as a tour guide for URI’s admissions office, during the summer he’s a lifeguard for the Town of Charlestown, and during the school year he works at the Pump House, a campus restaurant. A brother of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity with a 3.8 GPA, Flatley said he studies hard but likes to have a good time and wants to make sure he enjoys himself over the course of the coming year.

With under $10,000 of college debt, thanks to scholarships and help from his parents, Flatley said he knows he has to find a job, but does not have the same pressure as some students do. In the fall of 2005 he interned for the Rhode Island attorney general’s office and realized, he said, that he probably doesn’t want to go to law school.

Instead, he explained, he is interested in a career as a writer, though he’s not sure what that would entail specifically. Time, he said, is short right now, given his course work and part-time jobs, so he has not had a great deal of time to think about his next move.

“I’ve never really had any prominent career goals,” he said. “I’ve always just known that I liked working with words rather than numbers. … I’m not looking for that perfect job right out of college. I’m interested in doing stuff that will help me learn and figure out what I want to do.”

Amma Marfo, 20, originally from Tampa, Florida, is a junior at URI who will be graduating in the spring. A communications major with minors in business administration and film media, Marfo is heavily involved in clubs that promote URI’s sports teams and campus events. She spent the summer interning at a radio station in Florida and is pretty sure that she wants to go into promotions.

She has already begun looking into different promotional companies around the country, doing the research that’s required before sending out a resume.

“The goal is to have a couple of options by May,” Marfo said. “I want to be able to not have to worry about it later in the year, and that is why I’m starting early.… A lot of my friends are a little alarmed that I’m starting this early.”

Like Flatley, Marfo has relatively little college debt, under $10,000, but at the same time, she said she knows she wants to start her career when she leaves school. Her ideal job, Marfo said, would be to work in promotions for a specific artist or group, managing tour dates and communications and getting to travel.

“The fact that I have experience in a lot of different areas,” Marfo said, “should help me, I think. I’ve organized lectures and promotions for sporting events. I’ve worked in radio and other areas.… I guess what I’m worried about is settling for something less than I’m capable of.”

Those who pay attention to this period in a student’s life know what these three have in store for them.

“It’s an extremely stressful time for a number of reasons,” Bobbi Koppel, director of Career Services at URI, said about the college senior’s job-search process. “If you are a senior, you are comfortable where you are.... At the same time, you know it’s a transitional period and you have one foot in college and one foot out the door. You are probably a little weary of being in school and ready to do a really good job search, but unsure of where you might want to go.”

Koppel is one of the many university administrators whose job it is to help students such as Conklin, Flatley and Marfo find their way. Over the next school year, projoJobs will check in with advisers, administrators, friends, mentors and family, all of whom traditionally play a major role in helping students blaze their trail. In addition, the series on college seniors will analyze job-search resources used by these students, such as job postings, networking events, professional associations and (of course) connections as the advisers work to influence the paths these students take.

The good news is that 2007 seems to be a good year to get out of college. While the Class of 2006 saw the best year in hiring that graduates had seen in four years, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2007 is expected to be even better.

A survey released by NASCE earlier in the school year said employers are expected to hire 17.4 percent more graduates this year than last, citing organizational growth, the retirement of senior employees, and high attrition rates.

“My step-dad tells me you are not going to find the job right when you get out of college,” Conklin said. “You have to work your way up.”