Columbia hosted this year’s first Grad Expo event on Thursday, Nov. 20, for students to review their degree audits, take free professional photos and apply for graduation.
Hosted on the first and second floors of the Student Center, the Expo gave students an opportunity to begin feeling the excitement of finishing up their degrees.
Audio major Breanna Cooper, who took a gap year at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, said she’s relieved as she heads into her final semester.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to get here,” Cooper said. “I worked really hard.”
Although she has a mentorship program lined up after graduation in the spring, she is still nervous about the job market in general, calling it “very competitive.”
The latest jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which came out on Thursday, found that although 119,000 jobs were added to the job market in September, the unemployment rate has increased from 4.1% last year to 4.4%.
Chaya Ross, a senior film and television major who will graduate in the spring, said she was happy about her time at Columbia.
“I’ve been to Chicago for the temporary amount of time that I wanted to be here,” Ross said. “I feel like I fulfilled all my goals that I wanted to fulfill here at school, connecting with people, making over like 15 films. I’m done, man,” she said.
Ross said she plans on becoming an operations manager at her production company, On the Outside Films, which she started in 2022 with her friends. Currently she’s a project manager.
Columbia will hold its spring commencement on Sunday, May 17, 2025 at the Credit Union 1 Arena. The college typically holds another Grad Expo in the spring.
In 2023, the last year data was available, the college reported that 96% of graduates were employed within a year, according to a survey of graduates. The unemployment rate started to inch up that year but the labor market was still expanding.
Dance major Autumn Risbrook, who is currently an apprentice at Ayodele Drum & Dance, said she isn’t sure what she will do after graduation in the spring.
“It’s hard out here for us to be artists and to feel like we can make a real living off solely our art,” she said.
Lisa Creveling, a senior majoring in game design, said she will pursue an MFA in game design at DePaul University after graduation.
“I want more of that terminal knowledge instead of just kind of the operational knowledge,” she said.”
Creveling also said that she isn’t as worried about finding a job because she is a disabled veteran, but she is worried for her colleagues.
Senior fashion studies major Kyla Thomas said it’s been stressful trying to make sure she has enough credits to complete her degree and find an internship.
She’s also concerned about landing a job.
“I feel like there are a lot of jobs where they’re looking for people and they want people to hire, but they’re also very strict on who they want to hire,” she said.
Junior music major Anthony Curry has some time before he graduates. But he said he attended the Expo to support his friends — and for the free food. He said that seeing his friends there gave him a bittersweet feeling.
“Life moves on. I’m still gonna see them,” Curry said. “It sucks that we’re not going to be going to school, but it’s cool. I’m happy for them.”
Copy edited by Manuel Nocera
