UCF hospitality students worry for careers as tourism world is ‘turned upside down’ by COVID-19

Googling “colleges around Disney” is how Corey Clancy ended up in Orlando as the theme park industry seemed invincible and he dreamed of a career working for The Mouse.

Clancy seemed to be doing all the right things: Taking classes at UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management in the I-4 tourism corridor and working part-time at Disney’s BoardWalk Resort on the side.

Then the coronavirus pandemic struck, and his beloved Disney World, along with the rest of the tourism industry, got “turned upside down,” he said.

Now, Clancy is one of many Rosen seniors preparing to enter a job market that looks drastically different from when they first arrived at the University of Central Florida. Even so, many of the students express hope they can still pursue a career in what they love even if they have to adjust their dreams temporarily.

Clancy said he lost the part-time Disney food and beverage job he had since late 2018 as the Walt Disney Co. announced it was laying off 28,000 people across the theme parks division, including about 18,000 people in Central Florida.

“I don’t want to negate the fact that it has been hard — and it has been difficult — it’s caused me to reevaluate and rethink my whole life,” said Clancy, 21, a South Carolina native. “The headspace I’ve gotten myself into is one of, let’s do this, and let’s figure out what’s next.”

That message of staying flexible comes from Rosen faculty as they help students find internships and jobs in what might have been unexpected areas before the pandemic.

“They’re very resilient,” instructor Jessica Wickey-Byrd said of her students.

Disney and Universal are in layoff and furlough mode, but outside Orlando, other parks are hiring Rosen students at attractions such as Ohio’s Cedar Point, Pennsylvania’s Hersheypark and Tennessee’s Dollywood, said instructor Steve Brinkman.

The Orlando area’s unemployment is 11%, one of the worst in the state, according to the latest August figures.

But at Rosen, about 75% of her 600 students in the internship courses are employed now, said Wickey-Byrd, calling it a remarkable turnaround from this summer when the opposite was true and about 70% of her class was jobless.

With the Orange County Convention Center essentially shut down and many weddings canceled, some event management students are finding a new twist in work that’s fitting for 2020, Wickey-Byrd said. They work for companies coordinating virtual meetings and events, she said.

Just before the pandemic shut down Orlando’s theme parks, Rosen held an in-person job fair in early March with nearly 100 companies recruiting students for internships and jobs.

Orlando’s parks and hotels have been slow to rebound with consumers’ fears over traveling. But outside Florida, many employers were looking for Rosen students to hire as interns.

Rosen for the first time held a virtual job fair in late October where students could get 10-minute interviews by Zoom with about 25 companies hiring, Brinkman said.

“Marriott really came through,” Brinkman said as the hotel company was looking to hire 70 interns at the job fair as it opened new properties out west. “We even had a resort company out of Bar Harbor in Maine, one of the most northern points of our country."

Rosen is also reminding students that their hospitality degrees could lead them down other paths.

Wickey-Byrd acknowledges she has had tough conversations with some students to open up their possibilities and plan long term instead.

Distribution and retail companies, for instance, are recruiting Rosen students because they have the patience and people skills to work with the public and are known for their work ethic, said Alan Fyall, a Rosen associate dean.

Rosen also started a new bachelor’s degree this summer in senior living management, Fyall said, pointing out senior communities full of amenities and activities are sort of like resorts. Only about 10 students are enrolled in the new degree program, but the college expects it to grow up to 200 students within the next two years.

Like many, Caitlin Walsh took a moment to reflect. Given the pandemic, did she want to remain a Rosen event management major?

The Orlando 21-year-old native thought of how much she loves working with people.

“I’ve learned I definitely want to be in this field,” said Walsh, who graduates in the spring. “For the most part, students are like, ‘Oh, no,’ looking at everything that’s happening. But we’re also just hanging in there and taking it one day at a time."

Mariya Vlasova knows she is running out of time.

The international student from Ukraine is set to graduate in December, but to stay in the United States for a year afterward under visa requirements, she needs a job.

“How I feel about everything? I’m a little bit, to be honest, scared, that there’s not a lot of job opportunities right now,” said Vlasova, 21. “I’m just trying to try to stay positive and do as much as I can to be more confident in myself and my knowledge and to not lose this passion.”

During the pandemic, Vlasova found an internship, networked online and attended webinars, all to help her boost her resume. Meanwhile, she keeps applying for jobs. She worries about the fierce competition among the unemployed when it takes a long time to hear back on her applications.

For Clancy, it was always about Disney. The theme parks were that escape, where his problems were far away. How could he not end up there for his career?

“Don’t get me wrong, Disney is still always the goal for me,” Clancy said.

But Clancy is applying for summer internships at Hersheypark, an opportunity to gain more experience throughout the industry. He also wants to continue on with his master’s degree in themed experiences afterward, which could give the industry more time to improve.

He said is open to other options that could eventually help him get hired at Disney, whenever that will be.

He knows that fairytales, like the Disney stories he loves, often have several chapters.

grusson@orlandosentinel.com

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