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YSU fall graduates turn roadblocks into new opportunities
By Bob Jackson
YOUNGSTOWN
Tammie Rae Chasser went from living the dream to a nightmare when the steel mill where she’d worked for years closed its doors more than two years ago.
When she walked across the podium Sunday afternoon to receive a diploma during fall commencement ceremonies at Youngstown State University, a new dream began.
Chasser, 48, had worked for years at R.G. Steel in Warren, where she was an overhead crane operator, specializing in molten steel and iron. She’d actually left college to work at the steel mill because she needed a job with enough income to support herself and her children.
“I walked into the mill and I looked up at that giant crane, and I thought to myself, ‘I want to run that monster,’” she said.
But when Chasser and some 1,000 other plant employees received pink slips in 2012, her world turned to black.
“It was like [going through] a death and a divorce in one,” the Niles woman said of losing her steel mill job. “I loved it that much.”
Chasser said that when she was unable to find another job after the steel mill shut down, a representative at the Trumbull County One-Stop employment office suggested that she go back to school and pursue a computer-related degree, which she reluctantly did.
“I was forced into this,” Chasser said of the road that led her to YSU. “I had my dream job, and I lost it. My [One-Stop] representative in Warren told me that computers are the future, so here I am. I’m the last fossil they’re dragging into this age of technology. I hate it and I love it.”
Chasser, who received an associate degree in applied science, said her new degree will take her “wherever my destined path is supposed to take me.”
Samuel Bowser, 28, of Sharon, Pa., said a crossroads of his own led him to YSU, where he accepted an associate degree in mechanical engineering technology.
Bowser said he got a job out of high school working as a CNC machinist at a machine shop in Sharon. But after seven years, “I just felt like I was at a roadblock and I needed to make a change.”
He enjoyed the manufacturing end of his job, but wanted to expand on it, so he enrolled at YSU and began pursuit of his degree. About a year and a half ago, his connections through YSU led him to a design engineer job at L.M. Cases in Youngstown, where he continues to work and intends to stay.
“I worked full time the whole time I’ve been in school, so it’s been tough,” Bowser said.
Erika Aulizia has yet to experience the job market, or a job search, but she’s anxious for the challenge. The 23-year-old Warren woman sported a red apple on top of her mortarboard with “Miss Aulizia” written in silver glitter across it.
“I’m going into early childhood education, so I thought it was appropriate,” she said, smiling.
Aulizia, who graduated magna cum laude, said she just completed her student teaching at Maplewood Elementary School, and is now ready to start looking for a full-time teaching position.
“I cried,” said her mom, Kay Aulizia, of seeing her only child graduate from college. “But right now, I’m thinking of her journey here at YSU and how proud I am of her. She’s wanted to be a teacher since she was a little girl.”
Lisa Sayers said she hopes her pursuit of a college degree, which took 14 years to complete, will serve as an inspiration to her daughters, Elise, 21, and Isabella, 7.
“I came back to school when I was 28,” said Sayers, 42, of Warren. “I stuck with it because getting my degree was something I always wanted to do. I wanted to finish what I started. This was really, really important to me.”
Sayers said she works as a photographer at a portrait studio but plans to pursue a teaching job with the degree she earned Sunday in art education. She’ll take substitute teaching jobs for the remainder of this school year, and then start looking for a full-time job to start next year.
Sayers had decorated the top of her mortarboard with red and white duct tape, arranged in a crisscross pattern to create a checkerboard look.
“I knew we were going to have to wear a lot of black today, so I wanted to brighten it up,” she said.
The featured speaker was Tom Humphries, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. Richard Wetzel of Poland was the student speaker.