• After graduating from Yale, I moved back in with my parents in a low-income building in Brooklyn.
• When I was growing up, I became close with all my neighbors who struggled with poverty.
• Returning home after living on an Ivy League campus has been confusing.

Four years ago, when people asked me which part of college I was most excited for, I always said having my own room.

Yale's dorms were a welcome change from the living conditions in my Brooklyn neighborhood. On the outside, the place my parents rented looked like any other two or three-family house, but inside, every floor was leased out to multiple families.

My upbringing was many things: love and a chorus of voices that included a Vietnam War veteran, four children, and an expert crocheter. They were all my neighbors — many of them low-income. Every evening, we gathered for communal dinners, sharing stories and laughs. But privacy was never part of the equation.

I left that environment for the private world of the Ivy League, living in dorms that radiated privilege.

And then I blinked, and last May, I graduated. After four years, I stepped out of the privilege, access, and relentless ambition that Yale had afforded me and returned to my family's Brooklyn home.

Moving home after college was a jump back to reality

When I arrived at my apartment after graduation, the first thing I did was hug one of the younger tenants, a 10-year-old girl I consider my sister. She waited for me at the door with flowers — a belated graduation present, she said. Later that evening, with her mother's permission, we took the N train to her favorite spot: Coney Island Beach and Boardwalk.

We had to make a pit stop at Coney's Cones, of course. Inside, she stood on her tiptoes, squinting at the selection of gelato and sorbet. "Eyeglasses," I wrote in my notepad of things to buy for her. I leaned down and whispered, "Don't look at the prices. Get anything."

Once we were seated, I asked how things had been. She told me that they were the same. At school, she enjoys math but dislikes writing, and the staircases in the projects still reek of cigarettes, but at least the neighbor's cat comes by once in a while to play with her.

"It's kind of lonely without you here," she suddenly blurted.

I tried to explain that I had to leave for college, that it wasn't about her. I wanted to say something — to fix her loneliness, her abandonment — but my mouth was just a home for my teeth. I reached for her hand, and we exited the café, heading toward the line to purchase Ferris wheel tickets.

I couldn't help grow solemn. The sad reality of building relationships with other tenants is that there is nothing more we wish than to see each other leave the situation we find ourselves in. No one wishes to live in the projects forever. This means saying goodbye at some point — and leaving loved ones behind.

I'm now thinking more about what it meant to be at Yale

An elite education doesn't guarantee stability or a sense of belonging, especially not for first-generation graduates navigating the job market. We often lack a safety net and carry the weight of family responsibilities. What my Ivy League education does offer is a chance: the foundation to build a future for myself and my family.

Still, many of my neighbors and friends remain where they've always been, caught in cycles of poverty, domestic trauma, and systemic injustice. The pandemic only further crippled those living at or under the poverty line.

College was never the finish line. It was the beginning of a more complicated story — one in which I must navigate ambition with memory, privilege with purpose, and personal advancement with a renewed commitment to support others in my community through their struggles, especially those without access to open doors.

But the truth is, it took a village for me to get to Yale, and many of my greatest supporters were not related to me by blood.

I'm trying to reconcile my future with my family's and neighbors'

Inside the Ferris wheel gondola, just as we were about to reach the top, my apartment-mate proudly took out a fluffy purse that I had bought for her 8th birthday. It was heavy, full of coins. She told me that her mother began paying her 50 cents for taking out the trash or washing the dishes, and one of our neighbors occasionally hires her to water his plants.

"Wow, you're rich," I said, nudging her playfully.

We laughed, and the setting sun caught our faces. In the distance, the waves rolled back and forth, and I wondered how many more times I'd get to share these moments with her before the world pulled us apart again. I won't let it.

• Handshake data seen by BI reveals federal job interest dropped 40% after a wave of executive orders.
• Meanwhile, interest in state and local jobs grew over 30% year over year in the second half of the school year.
• Some job seekers initially interested in government roles are also going back to the private sector.

A year ago, the hashtag "government jobs" was trending on TikTok, with videos of employees hyping up the stability and perks of the field and explaining best practices to get a job.

Interest in the industry was surging. Not so much anymore.

In a highly competitive year, federal employers were the only industry that saw year-over-year applications decline in the second half of the school year, according to Handshake data shared with BI.

The federal government lost more application share than any industry year-over-year, aside from tech, the platform said.

Government roles, including state, local and federal sectors, received about 4.4% of the Class of 2025's total applications, down from about 5.5% for the Class of 2024 last year, according to Handshake's Class of 2025 report released Thursday.

Last year, the hiring platform reported a significant uptick in job availability and interest from college students to work for the government. At the time, stability was the top priority for graduating students, and government jobs delivered exactly that.

"People presumed at the time, there's nothing more secure than a government job," Handshake chief education strategy officer Christine Cruzvergara told Business Insider in an interview.

Cruzvergara said the class of 2025 was on track to follow and surpass that trend until a series of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump hit the federal workforce in January.

Around mid-January, federal jobs were drawing 2.7 times as many applications as state roles or local roles, despite state and local roles outnumbering federal roles over six to one, Handshake told BI.

But by early April, state employers were receiving 1.5 times as many applications as federal employers, and local employers were just below, the platform told BI.

"January hits and, all of a sudden, government lost a ton," Cruzvergara said, adding that the federal government specifically "lost a ton of applications."

Increased interest in state and local roles

While federal job applications dropped 40% year over year in the second half of the school year, local roles increased by 31% and state roles by 35%.

Cruzvergara said there's essentially been "a flip" between the government sectors. Prior to the executive orders, students were more interested in federal jobs, and there was some interest in state and local roles. This year, interest in state and local jobs went up after mid-January.

That's not a total surprise. Trump implemented a federal hiring freeze just about as soon as he got into office. He also created DOGE, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, which has been on a mission to reduce the federal workforce and dismantle agencies.

Meanwhile, states like New York, California, and Virginia released hiring campaigns within their local and state governments for federal workers. Cruzvergara said that students who were really set on working in government likely ended up looking at state or local positions instead.

The priorities of this year's graduating class may have also influenced their interest in state and local positions. While stability was the top priority last year, it came in second this year, behind location, Handshake said in its report.

State and local roles allow job seekers more flexibility to choose where they want to work.

Back to the private sector

Cruzvergara told BI that some job seekers from the class of 2025 who had high intentions of entering the federal government are shifting back to the private sector. Handshake told BI that there was an increase in applications to roles in tech, finance, healthcare, and consulting among seniors who had previously applied to federal roles before the executive orders.

"You've got students that are going back into finance, back into tech, back into some of the areas that they were leaving to go to the federal government last year," Cruzvergara told BI.

Cruzvergara said that there have also been increases in applications to nonprofits, law, and even real estate, which can also intersect with state and local policy.

The choice to reconsider the private sector often came down to practicality, Cruzvergara. The Class of 2025, in particular, is less rigid about sticking to one path and more open to using their skills across different areas.

Handshake's report found that out of 57% of the Class of 2025 who started college with a "dream job" in mind, fewer than half still have the same goals.