Thursday, April 22, 2021
What’s next? Seniors navigate post-COVID-19 job market Jennifer Maupin, O’Colly contributor Forty job applications and two interviews later, Emerson Williams is unsure what he will do after graduation. COVID-19 upended the job market, specifically impacting the travel industry, entertainment and any field that requires face-to-face interaction. Record-level unemployment has college students struggling more than usual to find a job. “[The job search] has not been very fruitful,” Williams said. “I’ve been applying a lot. I went to the career fair and met people and contacts. I went through everything and got a couple interviews, and they didn’t really go anywhere.” Williams will graduate with a 3.6 GPA in aerospace and mechanical engineer-
ing from Oklahoma State on May 8. After his graduation, graduate school is Williams’ worst-case scenario. “There’s a group of nine of us who had a semester project last year,” Williams said. “We all keep in touch and the only person with a job has a dad who works [at the company]… Of the nine
Office of Institutional and Analytics. The number of students admitted to OSU’s graduate school rose from 1,321 to 1,599, a 21% increase. Breanna Gallagher, a career consultant for the university, noticed this increase and said students should have several plans for after graduation in case one doesn’t work out. “With graduate school admissions, there are more and more fish in that pool,” Gallagher said. “It depends on the program and the Unsplash school you are applying to, but sometimes it is really of us, more than half are going back to OSU for graduate hard to get into [graduate school] right now because school.” there are so many people tryThe move to apply for ing to get in.” graduate school is increasThe College of Arts and ingly common among seSciences Career Services niors. From the April 17, hosted an event on April 15 2020 to April 16, of 2021, OSU saw a 16% increase in students applying to graduate programs, according to See What’s on pg. 3
Unforgettable journey Pokeapella remembers their 2019 journey to New York Justin Hughs, the vice president of Pokeapella, said this was the group’s firstever concert. He said that they had mainly performed for small Sheyenne Mitchell-Brown events and other misLifestyle Editor cellaneous occasions, One email gave 12 but this would be the college guys the opfirst time the spotlight portunity of a lifetime. was only on them. Pokeapella was going They called it “A Jourto New York. ney Down the Strip.” In the fall 2019 All their efforts semester, Pokepella paid off. They were off was requested to sing to New York. the national anthem in Jack Moffatt was the Barclays Center for a freshman and new to the Oklahoma State the group when all this v.s. Syracuse baskethappened. He said it ball game. All the was almost by chance guys knew this was a that he was able to join life-changing moment Pokeapella, and he in their hands, but must have been in the there was one problem: right place at the right money. time. The trip did not Being new to the cover any expenses and group and younger the group had to find than all the guys was a ways to finance the challenge for Moffatt at trip. How they did so first, he said. However, make friendships easier to create. was through a concert, being stuck on a bus, “ It was kind of a GoFundMe page and shoulder to shoulder, all a blur,” Moffatt a good community. for 20 hours tends to said. “It was awesome.
Provided by Pokeapella.com
Just in the van, we were just singing songs and making jokes everywhere. I mean, it was awesome.”
Moffatt said he initially picked the worst place to sit on See unforgettable on pg. 5