A recent article discusses the current job market and your average American college graduate. The article basically says "If all you know is Java, you are screwed." At UNI, the first language they taught us was Java. I learned Java from Ben Schafer, in my CS 1 and 2 classes. I attribute my current interest in programming to him, and the things he taught me in Java have been and continue to be the springboard to bigger and better things.