Walking home on Clark Street, an adorable dog pouted at me from a telephone pole below the word “Lost.”

I read the finer print: It wasn’t a puppy that was lost, but a “desire to succeed in life,” gone since January.

It was either a satire of our dire situation, or a support group. (I’ll never know, because e-mails to the address offering a “reward for responses” were never returned.) Either way, it resonated – from a senior Daily colleague who quit going to all classes to a friend who, failing to get an offer after his I-banking internship, plans to pave streets.

We are the Cursed Class of 2009, as the Wall Street Journal dubbed us in a May 9 article, where Sara Murray reported we’re “entering the toughest labor market in at least 25 years.” We are floundering in our own self-pity.

To ask the senior class to give back right now may seem backwards and irrational. But we should.

I am by no means a philanthropist; I ignore everyone who asks for money on the street, and my first and only other donation was $25 to the Obama campaign last fall. But last week I made my gift – a $20.09 donation through the University to the Daily.

Faced with a job wasteland, we may not be able to control the market, but we can control our market value – our grades, our connections and the worth of our degree. In U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings, alumni giving factors into 5 percent of the score, as an “indirect measure of student satisfaction.” Money improves the University, giving augments rankings and all of the above benefit our future resumes.

Maybe it’s not the best time to ask. We are the Entitlement Generation, the Millenials who expect immediate gratification from our education. (A recent study called “Self-Entitled College Students” found that 40 percent of us think we deserve a B just for doing required reading.) And some of us feel betrayed, with a bitter “thanks for nothing” attitude toward NU.

Scapegoats abound. Taking a page from Jamie Foxx, we blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-administration, like President Henry Bienen and Dean of Students Mary Desler. We lament a lack of school spirit, too-tough disciplinary policies, or unhelpful career services. And there’s always the recession.

I’m all for questioning authority. I was sent to the principal’s office in kindergarten, pierced my bunkmates’ ears and doctored my report card.

But this is on us, and our gift goes wherever we choose. Since I came to Northwestern, I am a very different person. I’ve become a Mac user, a sorority girl, an editor in chief, a coffee drinker and a yoga practitioner.

But I owe little of that to Northwestern. I wouldn’t give the administration credit for my successes any more than I would blame them for why I don’t have a job.

We could be pessimistic or we could do like my friends’ band Slow, Weird and Melodic who, in lieu of a job, picked up a hodgepodge of instruments – including a bongo drum, cowbell and egg shakers – and took their music to the Arch, handing out maracas to anyone who would take them.

Seniors – if 549 more of us give even $1, we will reach the 50 percent participation goal and boost NU’s rating. Now that’s a gift that gives back.

Medill senior Jen Wieczner can be reached at [email protected].