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Brianna Lucynski packed up her car, signed a lease and began her drive from New York to Oregon. She’d never lived so far from home before, but didn’t feel afraid. Years of hard work and discipline had led her to this moment, starting her “dream career.”

Then, she got the news. The Bureau of Land Management, where she was about to start work, was included in President Donald Trump’s Administration’s sweeping program budget cuts.

“Two weeks before I was supposed to start, they revoked my firm job offer, while I was driving to Oregon,” Lucynski said. “I’m stuck out here. I don’t have a job. I just signed a lease. What am I going to do?”

Lucynski is one of many Syracuse University and SUNY ESF graduates who have either lost a federal government job due to program cuts or are now questioning whether they still want to pursue public service after Trump’s efforts to reduce federal spending.

Lucynski attended the ESF Ranger School in 2023, then returned in 2024 to complete her forest resource management degree. She devoted two summers to the Pathways Program — an entry opportunity for students interested in federal service.

Once accepted to the program, Lucynski’s supervisors assured her they planned to bring her on full-time if she completed the required community service hours.

“Once you have your firm job offer and your entrance date, it’s pretty set in stone,” Lucynski said. “They tell you you’re set. You don’t have to worry.”

After hearing those words and 800 community service hours later, Lucynski never got to start the job she was promised.

“I just felt like it was out of my control,” Lucynski said. “I kept being like, ‘What did I do wrong? Why don’t they want me?”

Zoe Colman has also been forced to change her career plans following Trump’s funding cuts. The rising senior, a triple major in geography, political science and environment, sustainability and policy, said she had carefully mapped out her career.

She planned to finish her undergraduate career in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in December, take a gap year or two, then return to SU to earn a master’s in public administration. During the gap years, Colman knew she wanted to join the Peace Corps.

“I had been working with the Peace Corps, had multiple meetings … and talking to other alumni,” Colman said. “I was really, really excited.”

But, the Peace Corps’ future is now uncertain. It’s currently under review from the Department of Government Efficiency and is expected to face significant staffing cuts, leaving people like Colman afraid to pursue an opportunity where they could be fired.

Colman was inspired to join the Peace Corps and contribute to their mission. But, she said she must be realistic and acknowledge the uncertainty around government agencies right now. As a young person graduating this year, it’s a risk she said she can’t afford.

“It absolutely sucks that I’ve worked my entire life towards this moment,” Colman said. “Every time I open up the news and I see a new cut has been made, it feels terrible and terrifying. I feel like I’m going to be entering the workforce in a job that is not in demand, despite the fact that it should be.”

Colman finds comfort in knowing she isn’t confined to the United States for work or graduate school and that Trump’s leadership will eventually end. However, she is unsure about her next steps.

The reality Colman reminds herself of when she feels discouraged is that the climate crisis “isn’t going anywhere.” She’s determined to make a difference, using her education and passion for sustainability, she said.

“The thing that made me want to go into public service is Trump’s 2016 Administration, and his term now has reaffirmed that,” Colman said. “These are structures that need good people to support them, and I think it’s important to be a good person in them. That’s what I want to be.”

Emma Burke also wants to support the federal structures she believes in.

After seeing former President Barack Obama elected as a young girl, Burke knew her future was in public service. She has long dreamed of moving to Washington, D.C., to work for the federal government.

The graduating international relations senior doesn’t feel that way anymore, though.

“I have a vivid recollection of the American dream that was sold to me in 2008 under the Obama Administration, when it felt like a flag in this country represented equality and fairness,” Burke said. “But that American Dream is no longer, and it’s very quickly turned into a nightmare that I don’t care to be a part of.”

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Although Burke knows moving to D.C. and working for the government is still possible, she said the possibility doesn’t look as attractive as it used to.

The career doesn’t feel stable, and Burke doesn’t want to be laid off and looking for another job within a year, she said. But, more than that, Burke said if she went to work for the Trump Administration, she’d be working for a leader and government that doesn’t celebrate her diversity.

“The Trump Administration not only plays by their own rules, but makes their own rules,” Burke said. “I hate admitting this individual who doesn’t care about me is allowed to instill a sense of fear in me, but at the end of the day, I am Latina, Jewish and a woman, and so of course, I’m going to be scared.”

Echoing similar concerns, Lucynski explained how the Trump Administration is cutting funding for the Forest Service.

The Trump Administration cut 10% of Forest Service employees, with more firings expected, Politico reported. The cuts come as the summer wildfire season looms, and after the administration issued an executive order calling for increased logging production.

Lucynski said she’s confused by the cuts because foresters are essential in responsible logging, and cutting the department removes the people who could help achieve the President’s goals.

She fears these cuts will also worsen existing gender disparities in forestry.

“There’s only 25% women as field foresters in the federal Forest Service, is what my supervisor had told me,” Lucynski said. “That was a big thing for me, that support and inclusion being cut. It’s tough to enter a field where you’re not represented.”

Along with navigating changed post-graduation plans, Burke has dealt with other stressors since Trump took office. She had to discuss plans with her roommates in case the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement came to their home. Even as a U.S. citizen, Burke fears the day she is forced to prove it.

Burke said she often feels frustrated that her peers at SU only need to focus on coursework and finding jobs, while she has to be concerned about her personal safety. But, she said she refuses to allow her fear or frustration to dictate how she lives her life, on and off campus.

“My mom urged me to keep my passport on me, but I truly refuse to do that because I will not let myself visibly be scared in front of this administration,” Burke said. “I’ve never been scared to be a mixture of all these minorities, and so I’m not going to let him make me start being scared.”

Colman and Burke are both angry that, though they can still make a difference in their respective fields, their impact will exist on a smaller scale at the local level.

Burke plans to work for a city or state government, and Colman is still figuring out her plans, but is still committed to public service.

“It’s my friends, it’s my family and my city that are affected by all of these policies,” Colman said. “If I get to be the one to make those policies and make sure that all of the voices of those important to me get heard, and all the voices who haven’t been heard in the past get heard, then I’ll be that person.”

Burke said she felt similarly, and that more than any professional aspiration, she feels a duty to remain positive to ensure young people watching — like she did in 2008 — feel emboldened to pursue public service and revive the American dream.

“I do love this country, not in its current state, but I believe in its freedoms and its liberties, and I want everyone to be privy to that,” Burke said. “I just really hope that this administration doesn’t kill the hope of its future leaders.”

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Published on May 7, 2025 at 11:47 pm