In the current job market, times are tough, especially if you're a recent college graduate. As they navigate life outside the Brandeis bubble, some grads are following paths they'd always planned on pursuing, while others have found employment and hobbies they never expected. This is the second in a series of articles about recent Brandeis graduates and their adjustments to life after college.Jess Kent '09, originally from Buffalo, N.Y., never saw herself as a potential "Southerner" because she had lived her entire life in the Northeast. Still, two weeks after graduation, she packed up her car and headed to Jackson, Miss. to work at the Institute for Southern Jewish Life.

The Institute for Southern Jewish Life is a nonprofit organization that offers resources for Southern Jewish history by preserving artifacts and providing lesson plans and education tools to Jewish schools and communities. The organization "is dedicated to providing educational and rabbinic services to Southern Jewish communities, documenting and preserving the rich history of the Southern Jewish experience, and promoting a Jewish cultural presence throughout a thirteen state region," according to its Web site.

During the week, Kent spends a normal 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. workday in an office, spending her days preparing lessons for Jewish schools throughout the South. On Fridays and Saturdays, Kent travels to Chattanooga, Jackson and Jacksonville, Tenn; Atlanta and Macon, Ga.; and Mobile, Ala. to consult with Jewish communities and help implement the lesson plans she prepared for these communities.

The job is a two-year fellowship, and Kent, who majored in Psychology, does not see herself working there past the fellowship. "My purpose in coming to Mississippi was to get a new type of experience. I wanted to use my skills in a new community," says Kent. She also wanted to learn more about Judaism in a different part of the country.

While the job does not necessarily expand Kent's career interests, as she is still undecided on what job to pursue in the long run, she said it expands her personal interests of learning about Judaism. Working at the Institute for Southern Jewish Life "won't bump me into [graduate school]. It's a nice way of learning about the real world before I go on to grad school," she says. She thinks she wants to attend grad school after the fellowship but is waiting to see where life takes her.

Kent is still thinking about what exactly she wants to study in grad school. "I really want to [ultimately work] in a high-power environment. That could be in public policy or more on a college campus," she says.

Kent says by that living in a new environment, she is experiencing new things.

"Brandeis really is a bubble, and it's a very different lifestyle [living on your own], where you don't know ... people's names, or you don't exactly [know] how things are run. At Brandeis, people know, '[If] I need my transcript, I go to the registrar.' Things [are] laid out for you," she says.

Kent had to make significant adjustments after moving to Jackson. She lives near the heart of the city in a house that was converted into an apartment building .

Currently she has two roommates whom she did not know until arriving but is in the process of moving into a house where she will live with a landlord. While she is getting along fine with her roommates, with whom she also works, she wanted to try living in a different part of Jackson to further her learning and familiarity with the area. "I had a new opportunity to get a different perspective, so I took it," says Kent.

Kent says living on her own is a challenge but that she enjoys the independence nonetheless. But, Kent says she is still "adjusting to the environment."

When Kent first moved to Jackson, she only knew one person in town, who was also a Brandeis graduate. She said that meeting new people and making friends is similar to making friends in college, as "you have to go out into the community." Her new friends are all originally from the South. They are also their late 20s and early 30s and therefore older than she is; however, she says that she does not notice the age difference.

Kent has gone to several "-young professionals events" to network. "One of the women I met [at a young professionals event] I've been friends with since," she says.

Kent has been assertive, which she says is key in meeting people. For example. one day Kent saw a man at the gym who was around her age. She decided to ask him what people their age did in Jackson, she says. He told her about the bars and local hangouts that young men and women go to in Jackson. Kent has had several encounters like this, which have enabled her to find things to do and to meet people her age. Kent says that telling people she is new in town has proved the best way to learn about community events like outdoor concerts and art showings. However, a lot of people respond to this by telling Kent to go to church.

"[There are] not too many . [people] my age in the city. The type of person living here is very different," says Kent.

Kent finds that gender roles are also more prominent in Jackson. Kent once tried to hold a door open for a man walking behind her once as she was entering a building, and he angrily yelled at her, saying that it was a man's job to hold the door, not a woman's. Kent was shocked.

While she says the South has a lot of culture and history, Kent wonders if she will ever become part of that culture or remain feeling like an outsider. "I wouldn't know it was America had I just been thrown here," says Kent. She says the way people walk and talk is so foreign to her and the use of American currency is sometimes the only thing she finds the same. "I walked into a restaurant the other day for lunch, and there were 200 people there, eating fried, buttered everything," says Kent. She says you can get anything fried, even Twinkies.

Despite the culture shock, Kent is discovering new things about herself by living in a new environment.

"You should be in an environment where [stress] doesn't prohibit you. Nobody will have a perfect job, and there will be a lot of challenges either way," she says. She recommends that graduates keep in touch with close friends from Brandeis because they are the only ones who will understand where you came from. It's also important to open yourself to new friendships, she adds.

"It's great to have that [Brandeis] presence in your life, [but] you also [have to] go beyond Brandeis. However, there's no point to Facebook every Brandeis student anymore. ... Creating distance is also pretty healthy, too," she says.