09/30/2025
Ophelia Wilson graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 2022 with a degree in education. She’s worked at a Starbucks in Waterloo, Iowa as a manager for the past two and a half years.
“I had been looking at jobs in the education field before I fully graduated. I had done my student teaching and then had an additional semester that I had to do after that,” Wilson said. “During that additional semester, looking at the jobs that were around me, is kind of what I decided that I wasn’t fully invested into going into that field.”
Wilson, diverting from her original career path, is relatively stable in her position, but not without worries. Starbucks recently began closing stores across the country, laying off over 900 employees in the process.
“It’s sort of a lot of hesitation among people, like working within stores,” Wilson said. “Is that going to eventually affect our own staffing, or are locations going to start closing due to sales not being high enough?”
Even within her initial plans for a career, Wilson claims job security is no better. Wilson’s mother works as a teacher and has to suffer from intense work demands and budget cuts due to the Department of Education removing 50% of their staff, with over 1,300 workers now jobless.
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