Careers by Khriza

Careers by Khriza - August 2015 Scholarship Essay

Transitioning to college can be quite stressful to seniors in high school. There are many students who know from the beginning what major they are going to pick, but most are either undecided or unsure. I think that before sending students off to college, they should be helped more in figuring out what to do after high school. Of course classes like Calculus and History will help educate students, but these core subjects only help so much. If there should be a subject added to the American high school curriculum, it should be a new class called “Careers”.

In this class, students would be able to get firsthand, real-world experiences with various careers and understand them more in depth. Most people only really get the simple gist of what each occupation does: doctors help people heal, teachers grade papers and accountants do taxes. But of course, entering the career, many are unprepared and end up being miserable. So with more understanding, rather than the vague definitions that come with the label, students will see what working in that occupation entails.

Sure, you can Google what an Engineer does, and there are also educational databases that list and describe career and major options, but I believe that a classroom setting will be a better choice. Students may encounter tailored assignments; filling out paperwork as a lawyer, making lesson plans as a teacher, and doing other sample work close to what they would be doing in the career in real life. Students would also be able to sign-up for a day to shadow a professional working in the field they are interested in. This would give them a sneak peak of what they could be doing in the future. With this course, they could see if a career will be what they want to do for the rest of their lives.

I do believe that with a class like this, there may also be less people who change their majors often. It would also help relieve the stress of high school seniors and even those who are already in college. A basic foundation, the knowledge about the different options of what is out there, can really be a powerful tool.