Teresa Schuster / Staff Writer
New and current FIU students face choices about their future careers, as their jobs, internships, and classes have been halted and industries such as tourism suffer due to the coronavirus pandemic.
With this, some may reconsider their career choices and majors. Following the 2008 financial crisis, STEM and health science majors became more popular among US students, and it remains to be seen how the coronavirus situation will impact enrollment once FIU students return to campus in the fall.
The College of Arts, Sciences, and Education is not currently experiencing any large changes in enrollment, said Jacqueline Diaz, director at the Center for Advising and Student Success at CASE.
“Biology and Psychology continue to be our largest programs. Many of these students are interested in professions in the health and medical fields, which follow normal trends. Exploratory students interested in nursing are still a large and growing population,” Diaz said. “In some cases enrollment is up, but it’s too early to determine actual impacts to enrollment.”
Nurses and other healthcare workers have been in the spotlight during the pandemic, which Yhovana Gordon, associate dean for academic affairs at FIU’s Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing and Health Sciences, thinks will have a double effect on students considering careers in healthcare.
“Nurses are being highlighted as heroes,” Gordon said, pointing out that 2020 is designated as the year of nurses. “But then the question is, who wants to be a hero?”
Gordon believes the pandemic will cause students to reevaluate their reasons for pursuing a career in healthcare, although the amount of people interested in nursing will probably not change and many who have always wanted to be nurses will continue.
“There will be a few that will not because this brings a whole different perspective that they may have not been ready for, but maybe others [from] other areas or other fields are looking and saying ‘wow, there’s something about that, that attracts me,’” said Gordon.
The hospitality sector has also been significantly affected by the situation, due to social distancing rules and travel restrictions.
The biggest impact for FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism has been the loss of internships and jobs for students and alumni, according to Diann Newman, its vice dean.
Enrollment at the Chaplin School has not changed for the Fall 2020 semester. Although Newman said it’s too early to assess the long-term impact on enrollment, she’s optimistic about it.
“Enrollment tends to go up at large urban educational institutions after a crisis. We’ve heard from students who were going to school out of state and are now home in Miami,” said Newman. “They are re-assessing their future choices.”
Newman is confident the situation will improve, and believes this is a time to be “innovative and creative.”
“This pandemic is not forever — the hospitality industry will be booming again,” Newman said. “People want to travel. They want to go out. They want to share experiences again.”
While lost internships and jobs have set back many students’ career plans, Nelly Leon, assistant director for career development at FIU’s School of International and Public Affairs, believes this doesn’t have to be the case.
It’s important for students to fill these gaps in their resumes by further developing their skills and learning new ones, according to Leon.
“[Students] can’t just sit on the couch and be doing Tik Tok and Instagram,” Leon said. “They have to be adapting to this change.”
Networking through Linkedin and FIU Handshake, and attending virtual career fairs are good ways to do this, said Leon, as well as using the time to take courses via Lynda or learn a new language. FIU’s Talent and Career Services also offers many resources to students, such as paid micro-internships and help with their resumes.
And not all industries have reduced hiring: Leon said she’s seeing job market trends in government, think tanks, and nonprofit organizations, for example.
Leon thinks students are likely to recover from the economic crisis.
“In the long term. It’s not probably a big impact it’ll make for them, because we know that this situation is going to turn around,” said Leon. “We hope it will.”
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