High school students from different shops and grade levels determine if a college level education is required for their career choice.
For some students, the extent of a college degree isn’t required. However, if you want to pursue a career in the medical field or become an engineer, it is quite prevalent that you need to further your education than to just of a high school diploma.
To put it in perspective, students in the Electrical shop at Edison don’t exactly need to further their education because they can gain certifications such as OSHA, which introduces internship and job opportunities right after graduation.
Jorge Morales, a grade 12 student talks about his experience and opinion on the topic. “I think a college level education is not necessary for the career I want to pursue but it is still good to take a few courses to get better experience.” Morales went on to explain, “ It’s not necessary because this high school gives the education and experience that I need to start working as an electrician.”
He tells me how after high school, he plans to work under his dad’s business as an electrician which he already does part time. Morales admits his average needs work this marking period, but proceeds to tell me, “I feel like college is pointless. You can live your life without college, it’s really not that important.” Adding on, he stated “It’s up to the student if they want more experience or education. I think everyone has their own decision of going to college. You don’t always get what you want from college. You don’t get the experience you’re expecting for.”
St. Joseph’s University
Photo Credit: Lauren Singh
Mashal Burney is a 11th grader in Medical Assisting. She plans on going to college because it’s necessary for her career, she wants to become a child psychologist. With a stellar average for this marking period, she’s unsure of what colleges she wants to attend, but NYU and Boston University are the most notable on her mind.
“I really want to experience college life, I plan on staying in the medical field for college studies. After obtaining my bachelors, I want to obtain my masters and then hopefully be stable in my career.” Burney explained her strategy in attaining the requirements for her career choice.
“A college education is necessary to be a child psychologist because you need to be trained and taught properly for a job like that, I don’t think everyone needs to go to college because it’s not for everyone and it depends on their career.”
Burney will be working with children, which means she has to be able to tend to children and their needs. She needs to be able to learn how to respond and react to certain circumstances and that would be nearly impossible to do without a proper education.
Nicole Lin is a 9th grader, a student who hasn’t gotten a chance to experience her shop yet, but she has achieved at 4.0 average so far. The shop that she signed up for is Visual Arts, however she is thinking about pursuing a major completely different in college. “I want to do computer science. For the major that I’m choosing, I think you need a college degree to apply for the jobs in that field.”
“I think not everyone should go to college because everyone’s career doesn’t really need college.” Lin brings up a good point, “You can self teach yourself using the internet on your own.” While this may be a good solution, this doesn’t stand for every career choice. You would have to do a lot of research regarding the education you would require for your job. Lin ends with, “I wouldn’t be able to pursue my career choice without a college degree because college prepares me for my career but high school does not teach me enough.”
The students all agree that your career choice is the primary factor that determines if you need to further your education. Since we have the ability to get certified through our shops in this school, some of us have the ability to start working straight out of high school.
For Burney and Lin, they require a college level education for the field they choose to go in. A college level education is necessary for certain professions, but if you do not require it, you should take classes or outside programs in order to gain more experience.
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