Most workday mornings, Eddie Cascella is too busy to get depressed about his career.
From behind the counter at The Coffee Exchange on the East Side of Providence, the 26-year-old environmental scientist serves bags of coffee beans to a steady stream of customers.
鈥淲ould you like that ground or whole bean?鈥� he asks each customer.
But in quieter moments at work, his mind tends to wander. 鈥淎nd I just think about what could have been鈥r what [has] been totally derailed,鈥欌�� he said in an interview.
Cascella was on track for an exciting career when he graduated last December from the University of Rhode Island with a Masters Degree in Environmental Science and Management. He鈥檇 piloted a that uses satellite imagery to the health of salt marshes along the Fire Island National Seashore off Long Island. And he was being recruited for a job managing scientific research permits for the National Park Service.
But since President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration has fired , and frozen funding for the sciences.
And like , Cascella鈥檚 job prospects, along with the money budgeted to pay for his research evaporated.
Now, Cascella works part-time as a barista. He lives in a spare room at his mother鈥檚 house in Warwick. And he is applying for jobs outside the country. He recently interviewed with a university in Spain for a job monitoring salt marshes along the Mediterranean coast.
鈥淚t feels weird to say out loud,鈥欌�� he said, 鈥渢hat some of the most viable options are exploring moving abroad.鈥�
And the opportunities for scientists abroad appear to be growing. The Netherlands is to attract top scientists fleeing the U.S. The top executive of an is calling for to top U.S. scientists. And a university in France has created a website called a .
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey is already warning about a potential brain drain. Healey said earlier this month at a at Boston Children鈥檚 Hospital that recruiters from China, Europe, and the Middle East are looking for researchers and scientists to lure overseas.
鈥淲e鈥檙e giving away assets to other countries,鈥欌�� Healey said, 鈥渋nstead of training them, growing them, supporting them here.鈥欌��
Kris Lewis, an assistant professor at URI鈥檚 Graduate School of Oceanography, said that she is reluctantly advising some students to look abroad because that may be their best shot.
鈥淲e have incredible talent here in the U.S.,鈥欌�� Lewis said, 鈥渁nd I鈥檓 really scared that we鈥檙e going to lose it.鈥�
The loss of opportunities in the U.S. feels especially painful for young people like Drew. He鈥檚 25 and was recently placed on from his job at the Environmental Protection Agency in Narragansett. (The Public鈥檚 Radio agreed to use only his first name, because he worries speaking publicly could hurt his chances to work in government again.)
Drew recently moved to Rhode Island from outside of Boston. He bought a car 鈥� a 2009 Honda Civic 鈥� and signed a lease on a $1,200-a-month apartment in South Providence.
Now, Drew is back on the job market. Only this time, he鈥檚 also looking for work abroad. He said it鈥檚 ironic when he thinks that his own father immigrated to this country from Jamaica to earn a living.
鈥淵ou know, my dad left his home and his family for a better life and for opportunity, right?鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to go through that, necessarily, but I think that if I have to, I will.鈥欌��
Drew has even started looking for jobs in Australia.
This story was originally published by . It was shared as part of the New England News Collaborative.
