Key Takeaways:
- Elijah Dyer graduated from the University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC) in 2026 with a Bachelor of Arts in Human Resources Management.
- He was just a few classes away from completing his degree when he was laid off from his job of nearly six years.
- Despite the layoff, he refused to step away from his education and used his available PTO and newfound time to finish his degree.
- Today, Elijah is an HR manager, homeowner, and UAGC graduate.
- He credits UAGC with helping him develop leadership and professional skills that remain relevant to his career.
- His family served as a critical support system throughout his education, layoff, and career transition.
- Elijah compares his experience to the foundation of his new home: a setback can create a frightening crack, but with the right support, you can reinforce the foundation and continue building.
--
UAGC Alum Elijah Dyer Built a New Foundation While Navigating a Layoff
Elijah Dyer can vividly remember the night his family gathered around for game night, and he and his wife shared some unexpected news: In less than two weeks, they would be leaving the state of Arizona for Missouri. A new job was waiting for him in Kansas City, and with it, the promise of a fresh start.
The news came after a few difficult months. Before earning his Bachelor of Arts in Human Resources Management from UAGC, Elijah had been laid off from his job of six years, forcing him to navigate an unpredictable job market while figuring out how to provide for his family and finish the degree he had worked so hard to earn. Now, he was asking his family to trust him as he took another leap of faith.
“It was definitely a mix of sadness and excitement,” Elijah reflects. “At first, everyone was so shocked that there wasn't much time to be sad. But later that night, when we started saying our goodbyes, it really sank in that we were leaving. Thankfully, my excitement about the opportunity seemed to make everyone excited, too. The whole night was filled with this mix of emotions — sadness about saying goodbye, but also so much excitement about what was ahead.”
Today, Elijah is an HR manager, a homeowner, and a UAGC 2026 graduate. He’s also a builder, and his latest project is building something he didn't always have: a foundation for the future.
“UAGC has been fundamental to the doors in my life,” he shares. “I don't think that I could be where I am today had I not started with UAGC.”
Facing a Layoff Before Graduation
Elijah had just three classes left at UAGC when he lost his job.
He knew layoffs were coming. But until about a week before his own, he assumed his position was safe.
“Not only was I a supervisor, but I was supervising the specialty program, so I thought they can't get rid of me because they want me around to take care of this thing,” he explains.
He survived the first round of layoffs. He didn’t know there would be a second.
“It was just sort of the, ‘Oh, oh, no. What do I do now?’” he recalls. “I’m suddenly off the job market, and I’m thinking, How do I update my resume? How do I explain this to a new employer? What happens to our benefits? How are we going to take care of ourselves and make sure we stay healthy? I had all these questions running through my head, and I didn’t have the answers.”
His and his wife's families began making calls, pulling whatever strings they could to help Elijah find work. But behind those efforts was a more personal fear: What would losing his job mean for the life he had built?
“UAGC has been fundamental to the doors in my life. I don't think that I could be where I am today had I not started with UAGC.”
Elijah was the family's sole breadwinner. His wife stayed home with their children, something he had been proud to make possible.
“I've been very happy and delighted that I am in a place where she doesn't have to work,” he says. “I'm so glad that I've been able to afford that life for her, and then, of course, suddenly losing my job, the first question she asked is, ‘Do I need to go get a job?’”
That wasn't the future Elijah wanted for his family. And the timing only amplified the uncertainty. Their daughter was preparing to start school, which meant new expenses. They also had to figure out what would happen to their health insurance.
“There are just so many pieces that you take for granted right before a child starts school that suddenly flashed before my eyes.”
After nearly six years away from the job market, Elijah wasn't sure what he was walking back into.
“You see all these people on LinkedIn and on social media being like, ‘I've been unemployed for eight months,’” he explains. “’I've applied to 10,000 plus jobs, and I've never heard back from any of them.’ So, it was very nerve-wracking to suddenly be another number, essentially.”
Open to Work
With his PTO to lean on, Elijah decided: He would stay in school.
As a teenager, Elijah had made a very different choice. He dropped out of high school to enter the workforce. Now, he saw an opportunity to make a different choice.
“My education was already paid for, and I was so close to the finish line,” he says. “Instead of crumbling under the pressure of unemployment, I chose to lean into my education because I knew it would pay off. And it did. I knew that stepping away would not be helpful.”
He could have poured his whole self into the job search. Yet, after a steady momentum of balancing work and coursework, he knew that stepping away from his education would only make an already uncertain situation harder. Elijah was determined to finish what he had started — and build a more stable future for himself and his family.
He used the unexpected time to focus on the classes standing between him and his bachelor's degree. He also recognized that finishing his education could give him an advantage in the job market he was entering.
“I knew I had enough, at least, to get my foot in the door,” he says. “But the job that I know I'm destined to get, I needed to finish my school so that I can say, ‘Look, I have the experience you want, and I have what you'd prefer me to have, too.’”
Elijah tailored his resume for position after position, took jobs to help pay the bills, and changed his LinkedIn profile to “Open to Work.” Then he took a bigger gamble: He applied for a position in Kansas City, where his wife had family.
"I chose to lean into my education because I knew it would pay off. And it did. I knew that stepping away would not be helpful.”
Something that felt like a shot in the dark turned into a reality.
“When I got the job offer, the first thing I did was call my wife,” Elijah says.
After the initial excitement, Elijah did what came naturally to him: He started planning. When he got home that day, he and his wife immediately began working through the logistics of moving their family across state lines. There was a new job to prepare for, a new state to navigate and, with less than two weeks to make it happen, a lot to figure out.
His Degree at Work
Looking back on his graduation day, Elijah remembers scanning the crowd and seeing the two people who had been beside him through it all: his wife and daughter. He had watched them throughout the ceremony, waving and blowing kisses whenever he could. Then, before he crossed the stage, he finally got to hear their voices. They were shouting at the top of their lungs, “You did it! I’m so proud of you!”
“Even at the end, my daughter said, ‘You were really fast on that stage,’” Elijah laughs. “‘Well, I'm just trying to get back to you. I gotta get back,’” he told her.
Today, Elijah is carrying what he learned at UAGC into his career.
“My degree definitely helped me land this HR director position; for this role, a degree is required,” Elijah says. “After I was hired, I talked with my manager, and he said my degree, plus my listed experience, was a huge bonus, so much so that he said I was the ideal candidate.
“The skills I learned from UAGC are very in demand for my field, especially the skills I learned through the Honors Program, as they really helped me to establish myself as a leader,” he says.
Some of those skills include how to conduct research and how to write executive summaries.
“Finding sources for ideas or relaying sources I find has become an important part of HR,” Elijah shares, “especially considering any legal ramifications if I am not accurate in my interpretations.”
His education also gave him an early perspective on one of the biggest changes facing today's workforce: artificial intelligence.
One of his first UAGC courses in online literacy introduced him to AI at a time when many professionals were still beginning to grapple with what the technology could mean for their work.
“Knowing how to use AI and not rely on it, that's definitely one of the biggest things that I walked away with very early on with UAGC,” he explains.
Rather than viewing AI as something to fear, Elijah learned to see it for what it is: a tool — and one that still requires the human judgment and expertise that professionals bring to the table.
“I think that's the importance of learning about AI in an educational setting because you have to learn it is a tool, but it should not, and it will not, take over,” he says. “The human element will always be essential and needed.”
A New Foundation for His Family
Elijah would be remiss not to point out the parallels in the life and in the home he and his family are building.
Not long ago, he watched foundation work being done on their new house. There had been some shifting, but the damage wasn't catastrophic. The solution was reinforcement: braces to stabilize the foundation and prevent further problems. That's how Elijah now sees the challenges he's faced.
“There's a crack in the foundation, and it seems very scary, but you start calling around, trying to find some support, and in the end, you get some bracing, like a degree, just to stop any further leaks in the future,” he describes. “And then slowly, you can just start building back the walls that got peeled down and get everything back in place how it was.”
For Elijah, that support system is his family.
“My support system, I don't think I could fully comprehend or thank enough,” he says. “My wife was incredible at making sure my time management skills were being put in the appropriate place. My children were so happy when I could come back and say, ‘I finished.’”
And then he returns to the person who may have been watching his journey most closely: his daughter.
“It's hard to explain how exciting that is — that she can cheer for me as much as I try to cheer for her in her life,” he adds.
Elijah's story isn't about never having the foundation crack. It's about learning that a setback doesn't mean the whole structure has to come down. Sometimes, you reinforce what needs reinforcing. You rebuild what was lost.
Ready to build your next chapter? Explore UAGC degree programs designed to help you develop the skills and confidence to move forward, wherever your journey takes you.
--
Student success stories should not be interpreted as a promise or guarantee of career advancement or future earnings. The stories shared here represent the outcomes of individual students for illustrative purposes only.
