BYU–Hawaii students shared their stress of job hunting and not having enough money to pay for tuition, and Student Employment shared BYUH is offering on-campus jobs to help students with employment troubles.
“As a college student, you don’t have anything to fall back on. Some college students don’t have a savings account big enough to live for a few months without a job. Some college students are in debt,” said McKenna Fairbanks, a sophomore from Utah majoring in communications.
According to the Pew Research Center, the unemployment rate among American adults under 25 reached 25.3 percent in May 2020 and is higher than peak unemployment rates during the Great Recession in the late 2000s.
An article by Forbes speculated the high unemployment rate among young adults is likely caused by those under 25 having less work experience, seniority and fewer marketable skills. Additionally, many young workers are employed in industries that have been hit the hardest such as food service.
Student experiences
Jenny Velasco, a senior from the Philippines majoring in social work, shared she became unemployed this spring when the campus closed and she had to move to Florida to live with her father. According to Velasco, she used her job as a resident advisor on-campus to pay for tuition and living expenses.
“It’s been hard because we were still trying to pay off my tuition fees. And since my dad also has problems with his job, it affected my enrollment for the Fall Semester. I only got to enroll [recently] because we had trouble looking for money to pay off the Spring Semester so I can enroll for Fall.”
Velasco said as an international student, she is unable to work on the mainland due to student visa restrictions.
“[International students] are not allowed to work here because our contract as visa students is we can’t work anywhere else but the school.”
Fairbanks said she was starting her new job at Kualoa Ranch when the major tourist attraction closed mid-March.
“I hoped things were going to clear up, and it wasn’t gonna be a long-term thing because I knew if I didn’t have a job, I would have to leave Hawaii, and I didn’t want to leave.”
Fairbanks said she immediately started looking for work but was unsuccessful and had to return to Utah soon after losing her job.
“Moving home, I thought it would be more temporary than it has been. I thought I would be here for maybe a month until COVID cleared up. For that month, I was living at home, planning on coming back [to Hawaii], and looking for opportunities. When I started realizing this is going to be a long-term thing… and there’s still no job options available ... I started looking for jobs in Utah.”
While she was able to find a job eventually, Fairbanks shared the employment she did find was “in something I’m not passionate about, but just anything that would provide some income.”
Amanda Haverly, a senior from Illinois studying hospitality and tourism management, said she lost her job at the Polynesian Cultural Center due to it closing.
Since the Center originally announced its closure would only last through March, Haverly shared was not very concerned at first and saw the situation as some time off.
“It was all a lot to take in. But I’m thinking, ‘We’ll go back to normal next month.’ It was a huge thing for PCC to close for two weeks. But then they announced they were going to stay closed for another month.”
Haverly said because of the closure of the Center and BYUH, she started to feel uncertain about her financial situation.
“[I thought] how am I going to keep making money if [the Center] is going to be closed for all of April. And I still had to pay rent and had a wedding coming up.”
Haverly said she is lucky her husband has been able to keep his job, but she is still searching for employment months later.
Response from BYUH
Melissa Martinez, a human resource specialist overseeing student employment, said BYUH is currently offering projects for students searching for jobs in Hawaii.
“BYUH has added a COVID Work Project jobs that any student who is physically here can apply to if they need work. This is a work opportunity that will take place here on-campus in essential job functions,” Martinez said.
Martinez added how many students have been able to continue their work remotely from their homes.
Velasco said while she did receive some help from the school, she wished there was more communication between administration and the students regarding the COVID-19 situation.
“I just wish the school gave more detailed information about everything else that was happening. I feel like ... everything was really confusing. I and even my family and most of my friends are just hoping we could have gotten more information so that we could have prepared better for Fall Semester.”
Effects of unemployment on schooling
Fairbanks shared the loss of her job caused unexpected stress and negatively affected her coursework and finals.
“The time I could have been studying for finals was spent looking at my possible job options, looking at getting unemployment, looking at possible flights home and then jobs at home. The time I would have spent studying was instead spent looking for employment options.”
Velasco said the uncertainty of the circumstances and the transition into online schooling was the hardest part of coping with her unemployment.
“[The hardest part] is managing the stress of going through Spring Semester and trying to get yourself together, making sure you pass all of your online classes and trying to understand whatever you’re trying to learn. And then you don’t know what’s going to happen for Fall Semester, and your plans are kind of ruined.”
She added that she will have to return to the Philippines instead of returning to Hawaii because she is graduating in the Fall Semester.
“With the current situation and then the future situation, you have no idea what you need to do and how to make things better,” Velasco said.
For students who are struggling with stress and anxiety during these times, they can go to counseling.byuh.edu for help.