Gina Campbell was set to finish her last semester of graduate school at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette the way she started out: hyper-focused on finishing.
At 39 years old and with a 4-year-old daughter, Sophia, the Lafayette native worked hard enough to finish her master’s of business administration with a concentration in finance and be named Outstanding Master’s Graduate at the Moody College of Business this spring.
But thanks to an economy that’s slumped due to the COVID-19 pandemic, none of those credentials are translated into employment. As unemployment in Louisiana and across the country soars, graduates like Campbell who are set to enter the workforce face a discouraging job search.
“(Grad school) all fell into place,” said Campbell, who worked part time at UL while her daughter was in day care there. “UL has a great day care. It really worked out. I was able to get started, get classes right away and get finished as quickly as possible. Everything was going good until this last semester.”
Spring graduates face a sobering professional reality, said Gary Wagner, Acadiana business economist at UL. The present state — just under 20% of the pre-pandemic workforce in Acadiana is now out of work — is bad enough, but this spring's graduates will likely get dinged throughout their professional lives.
Research has shown they will likely earn less than those entering the labor force when the economy is not slumping.
“It’s likely their lifetime earnings will be scarred by this,” he said. “It’s very bad.”
The coronavirus has altered career plans for several graduates, including four who spoke with The Acadiana Advocate for this story. The economy has made some pursue grad school. Or just keep plugging away at job opportunities.
UL will hold a virtual spring commencement at 10 a.m. Friday.
“Just being in the labor force and building some work history is important,” Wagner said. “The longer you stay out of the labor force, studies have shown how worse that is for your career. People may have to consider relocating, too.”
Amelia LaFleur
Amelia LaFleur
Age: 22
Major: Journalism
Amelia LaFleur’s dreams were to leave and be a writer, to start somewhere new. Her big dream was to write for magazines. But as graduation got closer and the pandemic grew larger, something started happening. And it wasn’t good.
The media jobs in Texas and New Orleans she applied for?
“None of them got back to me,” said LaFleur, a Ville Platte native who is completing an internship at Acadiana Lifestyle magazine in New Iberia. “I had a few emails saying they weren’t hiring anymore. I didn’t get any phone calls. I just figured no one was working at the moment. New Orleans was shut down.”
Once school was closed and the shelter-in-place mandates came, that’s when she had lots of free time and was able to determine her next move. She found a graduate position open, applied for it and got it. Now she’s going to graduate school and will pursue a master’s degree in mass communications.
She will work in the office of first-year engagement with freshmen who are new to the area.
“I am pretty happy with where I am right now,” she said. “I figured I was comfortable here and I might be here for a while. I found a (graduate assistantship) position and got in. I’m not sad at all.”
She’ll still be able to work in media once the master’s program is completed, perhaps as a content curator. That takes the sting out of not finding a job after getting a bachelor’s degree for LaFleur, whose dad died in 2012 and whose mom is disabled.
“She really wanted me to pursue higher education,” she said of her mom. “She’s really proud of me. My whole family is. I’ll be the first one in my whole family to get a master’s degree.”
Bailey Chenevert
Bailey Chenevert
Age: 22
Major: Psychology
Bailey Chenevert is quick to admit her road to a bachelor’s degree in psychology wasn't the traditional one. She spent time as a journalism major before switching to psychology and declaring journalism as a minor.
But when it came to take the labs for psychology in her final semester, COVID-19 nixed that when school closed mid-semester.
“One important thing I was trying to get on my resume was lab experience,” she said. “That was cut off when the stay-at-home order was put in. You can’t go to a lab and stay six feet apart from people.”
But she will stick with the psychology field – “a better basket to put my eggs in,” she said – and apply to grad school in the spring after taking some time off. She’ll in the meantime look for jobs to get by. Her campus job, student editor of the La Louisiane magazine, will end at the end of the month.
“I will try to find things that will pad my resume a little bit,” she said. “In my job search, a lot more things are relevant to the journalism and marketing side of my career. As far my experience in psychology, the opportunities are more slim pickings.”
Where it leads to? That chapter hasn’t been written. She’s already the first in her family with a college degree. She’s also a diabetic, which makes cautious about where she works and interacting with the public in general as long as COVID-19 is still out there.
“I’m hoping to get away,” Chenevert said. “I really like Lafayette. I wouldn’t be upset if I ended up staying here, but I’m looking to get away and see some new things. I’m just a kid dreaming of the big city, ya know?”
Gina Campbell is pictured Friday, May 8, 2020, at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Lafayette, La.
Gina Campbell
Age: 39
Major: Grad student, MBA
Gina Campbell’s plans have always been to venture out of her hometown of Lafayette. And she had two motivations: the international business course she took as part of the MBA program that’s opened her interests to working with new cultures, and the book “Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time.”
But COVID-19? That just altered her plans a few months, she said.
“We’re still doing well,” she said. “We’re still taking it day by day and making it work as we can. I am working part time right now and can continue to work part time through the summer. I will also take that time to get my resume out there and hopefully be able to travel again and get a job I can travel more with.”
Campbell, whose undergraduate degree was in video and film, hopes she can bring some unique talents to a potential employer. Yet it was some time after getting that undergrad degree that she realized how she enjoyed working the marketing side of things.
She’s being patient in her job search – most businesses have put hiring on hold – but is seeking to work with companies of other cultures.
“Working with people from different backgrounds and cultures appeals to my unique set of skills,” Campbell said. “Just explore new cultures, new people, different perspectives and see different things. I haven’t had much opportunity to get out and explore. My international business course really inspired me. I really think I would be good marketing and communicating with people of different cultures.”
Andre Boudeau
Andre Boudreau
Age: 32
Major: Management
Here’s how good life was for Andre Boudreau: He’s getting his bachelor’s degree in management and was named Outstanding Graduate in the School of Management, but that's not the best part.
His 11-year-old daughter, Julie, was named Student of the Year at her school for her efforts at not only grades but for being a leader among other students.
Take that, COVID-19.
“She’s not depressed by all this, you know what I mean?” said Boudreau. “ She’s the kindest person I’ve ever met. She was the first person at her school to be in gifted for theater. She had even started a book writing club and had a teacher sponsor. She did this all on her own. I had nothing to do with that.”
But back to that COVID thing. Boudreau had a job lined up last semester when he was offered a job to teach machine tools technology at South Louisiana Community College’s Crowley campus. With 10 years experience in the manufacturing industry as a warehouse manager, service technician and machinist, he welcomed the opportunity but was too close to getting a degree to walk away from school.
Now with school opening back up in the fall after the shutdown, the status of that position may be unknown.
“I told them I had one semester left,” he said. “I’ve heard too many times where people had one semester left (and quit). I didn’t want to put myself through that. I had applied because I always kind of dreamed of the position. It seems like a good steady pay with good steady benefits.”
If that opportunity doesn’t materialize, Boudreau will continue his side gig, Mow Green Lawn Service, a lawn care business that uses battery-powered equipment. Or if he does get a teaching job, he says he’ll try to hire a staff to continue the service, which he hopes to turn into one of the best of its kind in the South.
“I had school in the fall and the spring, and I could only work 20 hours a week,” he said. “Now I’ll be free from school. That’s what I’m hoping for at least this year – make enough to carry me over through the winter.”
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