During high school, students use their time and resources to think and plan for what they’re going to do after they graduate. While some plan to attend a four year university or community college, others hope to work right away.
A Google Form survey was sent out to high schoolers and recent graduates to share what they did in high school to prepare for post-graduation. This survey was sent through social media, students said they took different classes, joined a diverse selection of clubs and got jobs to gain work experiences.
Aseel Khalil graduated from Corona Del Sol High School in Tempe in May. Khalil holds a strong interest in criminal justice and psychology and plans on going to Mesa Community College for two years before transferring to a four-year university.
But Aseel, like many other high schoolers, did not always have the same career path as when she first entered high school. The idea of pursuing criminal justice and psychology came to her later in her high school journey; during her most of high school, she took a strong interest in the business and arts and expected to pursue something related to those fields.
“I was very stubborn about staying to do business and fashion design, but I felt like I could pursue something better regardless of how hard it was going to be,” Aseel said. “I’m a little into law and political science, plus art is something that doesn’t always require a degree.”
During her time in high school, she was involved in a military program, student council, Best Buddies — a club that helps students with disabilities — and the Black Student Union. Aseel says all those activities helped develop her leadership skills and expanded her life experiences.
Then there’s Yassna Hematti, who graduated from Phoenix’s Pinnacle High School. Yassna takes on an interest in going into the medical field, specifically pharmacy. She is going to study biomedical science at Barrett, the honors college at ASU, starting in the fall of 2021.
Hematti said she knew she wanted to go to medical school, especially when she joined Western Maricopa Education Center, an education center for adult and high school students that provides technical education to prepare students to enter the workforce. Yassna was in the center’s pharmacy technician program.
“The pharmacy technician program opened my eyes to a pharmacy-based career,” Yassna said. “We did so many hands-on labs; we learned a lot of calculations; and we learned how to convert certain metric systems and household systems.”
With the program, students have the opportunity to take a certification exam that certifies and licenses them to work in Arizona’s pharmaceutical industry, which she’s taking in July. With the certification exam, she plans on working part-time as a pharmacy technician while studying pre-med in college to broaden her experience in the healthcare industry.
“Most students think that high school is just a place to take your required classes and to get into college — then college is when you actually learn and do what you like,” Yassna said. “But there are so many different programs like this that will give you exactly what you’re looking for to literally start a career right after high school.”
High school students can take advantage of the opportunities given to them; however, many students feel schools still do not provide enough resources and education to better prepare students. Without guidance, students feel unprepared and unsure about how to dive into their interests, something that can affect many high schoolers’ educational experience.
“You kind of have to look for the things that prepare you. It’s not just that they come out and prepare you,” Aseel said. “Even right after I graduated I still had no idea what I was doing.”