By: Laura Martens
When entering high school, students are often warned that their junior year will be the most difficult and the one that matters the most. The stress of planning your future hits all students differently. It can feel like a major shift from being a sophomore and having everyone tell you that you have plenty of time to plan what you will do after high school to the end of your junior year and feeling pressured to know exactly what you want. Some people easily adjust to this pressure and create a solid plan throughout their junior year, but others have to go through several stages of planning. So, for those who need more time to think, how early is too early to plan?
One Junior who has taken advantage of a great opportunity to make a college plan through our school is Matthew Boeding. He was not sure what he wanted to do after high school until the beginning of this school year when he decided he wanted to get a business degree from a community college. Recently, he signed up to take a business course at the EICC center located here in DeWitt. These classes are completely free and will take up his 1st and 2nd blocks for his entire Senior year. He plans to use the 18 college credits he will receive from this course towards a degree in business at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
For students like Caleb Olson, his future is something that has been in the works for a very long time. He runs Track and Cross Country at our school and plans to continue in college. He is currently unsure where he wants to go to college but says he has always known that he wants to run. For athletes like Caleb, high school sports are more than an after-school activity. He says that the main difference between training for sports normally and training for college is the fact that you “have a goal in mind when you’re training for going to college.”
It is important for High School students to understand that you do not need to go to college to have a successful career. A student who exemplifies this is Grace Knutsen, who plans to go to a Trade School. After being accepted into a construction class at our school, Grace decided that was what she wanted to do after high school. This shows how the opportunities provided at Central DeWitt can help students find their passions.
Junior Mya Campbell is planning on finishing her senior year a semester early. She made this decision at the beginning of this school year and does not yet know what she wants to do after graduating early but says she eventually wants to go to culinary school. She also currently works at a healthcare facility and says she might want to earn her CNA. To graduate early, Mya has to take 7 classes during her one semester of senior year. Graduating early is a wonderful opportunity that our school has to offer to students who want to get a head start on their future careers.
As you can see, there are endless possibilities for what students can do after high school. The current Junior class has a wide variety of people with very different plans, but they are all on track to be successful. So, if you are currently an underclassman, it is perfectly fine to not have a plan yet. Most students seem to have formed a plan around the beginning of their junior year, but there is still time to think and change your mind.
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