USD Magazine, Summer 1995

• moving on

By Jill Wagner '91

Since the first colonists reached the shores of the New World, Americans have been willing to move away from familiar territory to seek opportunity. Today, the ever-changing workplace has many people moving at least once in a lifetime. Others average moves as often as every two years. Still others essentially relocate once a week when they commute hundreds of miles between home and work. Whatever the frequency, however, it's clear that Americans are on the move.

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Ducharme is what Anne Hendershott, USO associate profes– sor of sociology, calls a "corporate kid" in her recently pub– lished study, "Moving for Work." As a successful banker with an international firm, Ducharme's father was repeatedly asked to relocate his family. The family never hesitated because there was little choice, Ducharme says. "I guess you could say, 'I don't want to advance in my career,' but that's not really a viable option," she says. In studying corporate trends, Hendershott found that, more often than not, relocation is enticing for a family because it means financial gain and better job status. Relocating is not limited to "corporate gladiators" however, especially in tough economic times. Sometimes, moving at the corporation's request is the only alternative to unemployment, Ducharme notes. "When you sign on with a national corporation, if you want upward mobility you know you're going to move," Hendershott says. "It's an implied part of the contract." But what do frequent moves mean for children? This ques– tion prompted Hendershott to write a book after she spent sev– eral years as a family counselor in a school district that attracted a highly mobile population. She ran a support group to help

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ach year, more than 45 million Americans decide to move; half of those people relocate for a job. USO

senior Carrie Ducharme and her family have learned to make the decision without hesitation. The family has pulled up stakes 11 times that Ducharme can remember. The 21-year-old economics major recalls three moves in the two years between eighth and 10th grade as the most difficult. In those critical teen-age years, Ducharme, her mother, father and two sisters left St. Louis for Puerto Rico, moved to Miami nine months later and headed west to Phoenix within 11 months.

:I.& I u s D

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