A full circle moment: USF senior Jaycee Cavero’s experience with the Global Career Accelerator becomes a post-graduation path

The beauty industry was not on Jaycee Cavero’s bingo card.

Originally from New York, the USF senior initially thought he wanted to become a teacher but ended up studying sports and entertainment marketing at USF. “I came to USF partially to escape the cold,” Cavero admits. “But mostly because it’s one of the top public schools in the nation.

“… There was a slight change of plans,” Cavero says about being drawn to the Muma College of Business. “I’ve been able to combine a lot of passions of mine in business, which has been really fun.”

While learning about the different avenues available to him through his coursework, Cavero began hearing about the Global Career Accelerator program (GCA) at USF, a semester-long, online program offered through USF World in partnership with Podium Education to give students professional skills development and real-world experience with top companies.

The GCA led Cavero to the L’Oreal Brandstorm Competition, one of the world’s leading youth innovation competitions. And that experience introduced Cavero to marketing opportunities in an industry he never would have considered otherwise, including a summer internship with L’Oreal subsidiary SalonCentric.

Recently, Cavero announced that he’s accepted a position as an incoming L’Oréal Commercial Management Trainee to start after graduation in 2027.

“I was able to find myself getting into different facets of the industry,” Cavero says. “Now, I go into stores, and I see their products and I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s going to be me!’

“From my experience with L’Oréal Brandstorm to my summer internship, I’ve discovered such a strong passion for this industry,” Cavero recently wrote on LinkedIn in announcing his future plans. “And most importantly, for this company.”

The path to his career began with one of his favorite classes at USF, a sports social media marketing class. “I really enjoyed all the group projects, where we were able to do in-depth social media analysis and create social media campaigns on our own,” Cavero says. “It was really inspiring to me because it was my first real introduction to social media marketing.”

The path to Cavero's career began with one of his favorite classes at USF, a sports social media marketing class.

While learning about the different avenues available to him through his coursework, Cavero began hearing about GCA at USF, which focuses on professional skill development opportunities and real-world field experience with top companies.

“I received a call from a Global Career Accelerator ambassador. We discussed how it would help with building both professional skills and my resume, which caught my attention.” Cavero said. “At the time, I didn’t even have a LinkedIn.

“… I thought it would be really cool to be on projects with real-world companies. That kind of experience was important to me.”

During his time in the GCA, Cavero earned numerous skill certifications, ranging from e-commerce marketing to AI professional skills to intercultural skills. “The certifications were like building blocks for business and marketing,” Cavero says. “The confidence I gained was also a huge factor.”

Alongside two other GCA students, Cavero competed in the national finals of the 2026 L’Oreal Brandstorm competition in April 2026. The competition involved a presentation to company leaders, and while the USF team didn’t go onto the international finals, Cavero caught the executives’ attention. This past summer, Cavero was a commercial intern with L’Oreal’s SalonCentric, a subsidiary that’s based in Clearwater and is a national distributor of products to salon professional productions nationwide.

There, he worked among sales consultants to serve a vast national distribution network.

“Before the competition with L’Oréal, I wasn’t the most knowledgeable in beauty and fragrance,” Cavero said. “But the experience forced me to do my research. And on top of that, it’s such a fun industry and an amazing company.”

Due to his success with the GCA, Cavero was selected to join the panel at the Podium Summit in Austin, Texas, this semester as a USF ambassador to discuss his experience in the program. “The experience just makes me thankful for choosing the route I did,” he said.

Now as a GCA Ambassador, Cavero is helping dozens of students determine their professional paths.

He offers this advice to other students interested in GCA: Take advantage of every opportunity offered and stay “open to opportunities in different fields is important. There were so many things that I thought I didn’t need or want to learn that actually helped me the most,” he says.

“The number one way to learn something is to teach it and help others learn it,” he adds. “I really enjoyed my team leads, so being able to give back is great. It’s a full circle moment.”