Seniors have many options after graduation: attending college, enlisting in the military, or diving straight into the workforce, to name a few. According to a survey conducted by The Monarch Times on Mt. Eden seniors, 41.9% will attend a 2-year college while 22.6% will attend a 4-year college. Additionally, 61.3% stated they will be attending a community college, 9.7% will attend a state university, and 3.2% will attend a UC.
When asked if they loved or hated high school, 77.4% of seniors said they felt neutral about their high school experience, 12.9% said they hated high school, and 9.7% said they loved high school.
In the same survey, 77.4% of seniors said that students should move out after high school and 22.6% said students should stay at home after high school. Living arrangements are a very hard decision to make when thinking about the next step into adulthood. The results of the survey are just a way of showing that everyone has different plans after high school. Just because someone else is experiencing something before you or different from you doesn’t mean you are inferior or getting behind in life. Everyone moves at their own pace.
I asked seniors personally for their post-graduation plans and what they see in their future. From freshman to senior year, students can expect to have experienced multiple changes in their post-grad plans. For some, it was a change in major. Mt. Eden senior Jacqueline Gallardo said she originally wanted to pursue a career in the nursing field and later decided to go to Chabot College to become an ultrasound technician. For others, their choice of school changed. To illustrate, Sophia Kyama wanted to attend UC Berkeley and major in biology, but after not getting accepted decided to attend UCLA. While Sophia wished to stay close to home, she got into UCLA even after initially deciding that Southern California was simply too far.
Seniors like Amelia Soto faced an entire change in their plans, as she originally wanted to be a lawyer and later felt like college wasn’t the path for her, cosmetology was. She would rather do a 10-week school to become a certified lash technician than attend college. Then, there are seniors like Ginelle Godoy whose dream school is the school they will be attending next year, in her case, San Jose State University. Princess Awambu wished to travel further for college, but after getting accepted into Stanford, will now be staying closer to home.
Graduating seniors have plans and dreams they are continuing to work hard to accomplish. The diversity of post-high school plans reflects their individual aspirations, as well as the importance of personalized pathways in education. Embarking on new journeys will help these seniors embody resilience and a commitment to shaping their own futures.
