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Sunday, April 29, 2001

High school still a bit early for final career choice

By VALERIE WHITNEY
NEWS-JOURNAL BUSINESS WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH — Mainland High School freshman Dale Sagraves thinks he might want to enter the military after graduation. He's not sure what branch.

He also imagines himself as a professional baseball player.

At 15, Sagraves still has plenty of time to weigh his career options before making a choice.

His mother, Dawn Sagraves, said the final decision will be left up to Dale.

"His career choices are his to make. It's not about what I like but what he likes," she said. "As a parent, I feel my responsibility is to teach him to be responsible for himself."

Dale's lack of a strong commitment to a particular occupation in his mid-teens is not unusual. Actually, most students even those in college aren't sure about a career path, according to career development consultants Barbara C. Greenfeld and Robert A. Weinstein. They recently wrote "The Kid's College Almanac, A First Look at College."

"College isn't just about studying specific subjects. In college you also learn more about yourself and what interests you," say Greenfeld and Weinstein.

They note that advances in technology mean students like Dale have more career options than ever before. A number of jobs, such as web designing, simply didn't exist 20 years ago because the World Wide Web itself did not exist.

E-commerce, the use of the Internet for buying and selling products and services, also is creating jobs not even imagined a few years ago.

Because of such far-reaching changes, the challenge of setting career goals may appear daunting to students at first. That is where parents and schools can come into play, experts say.

Dawn Sagraves said she and her son talked frequently about his future as he was growing up.

"The older he's gotten, the more independent," she said. These days, she said, they don't chat about careers as much. However, the idea of a military career has always been a topic of discussion. Furthering his education also has been mentioned, she said.

Two older students -- Mainland High senior Stephanie Redd and Atlantic High School senior Marie Huger -- have made what they consider firm decisions on their careers.

Stephanie, who has been accepted at Florida A & M University for the fall, has her heart set on becoming a fashion buyer for a major department store.

Stephanie gravitated toward fashion as a pre-teen. She said she always has enjoyed dressing up and picking out outfits for others. After researching the field, she decided it could be a bona fide career.

Stephen and Ann Redd both work at Bethune-Cookman College. They feel their own campus ties no doubt played a part in their daughter's decision to get a degree as a prelude to a career.

But the choice of careers was all Stephanie's, they said.

"She made her own decision in middle school. I didn't think she was serious about it but she has held onto it," Ann Redd said. "We want her to be totally happy."

About the only thing that Ann Redd insisted upon was that Stephanie take college preparatory classes when she entered high school.

"I didn't want her to take classes that wouldn't challenge her," she said. Stephanie enrolled in The Academy of Communications and Multimedia Technology at Mainland.

Stephen Redd, assistant dean of men at BCC, said he thought for awhile that his daughter might pursue a career in singing but her interest in that area faded after middle school.

Even so, he said, it was "always expected that she would go to college."

"We basically let her do what she wanted to do. She was always self-motivated," he said.

Stephanie said she likes the idea of becoming a buyer because of the opportunity to travel and also because her research indicates that such jobs are well-compensated.

"You can make between $50,000 and $70,000 a year," she said.

She had the opportunity to shadow a merchandising employee last year at Dillard's department store. It wasn't the exact job she has in mind, but it was close enough to convince her that she was headed in the right direction, she said. She plans to enroll in a five-year business degree program at FAMU that will lead to a master of business administration.

Marie Huger wants to go into broadcast journalism. She came to her decision after exploring several options.

Linda Huger said she always thought her daughter would pursue a career in the theater.

"Marie is an entertainer. She is very comical," Linda Huger said.

Marie, however, has enrolled in The Academy of Law and Government at Atlantic High, which focuses on careers in the areas of government and public service. She initially seemed headed for a career as lawyer. She also is a good writer and it was apparently that, plus her gift for gab, that made her decide she wanted to pursue broadcasting, accordiing to her mother.

Marie has been accepted at Spelman College in Atlanta for this fall.

"What we do in our household is focus on happiness," Linda Huger said. As long as Marie is happy, her family will support whatever she does. At the same time, she said, Marie and her two older siblings, were always expected to go to college.

"It was just a matter of where," Linda Huger said.

Edcuators in the Volusia County public school system start exposing students to career information in elementary school, according to Kristin Bowles-Pierce, of the system's Career Connection office.

The idea, she said, is to show students the link between what they learn in school and the real world.

"We'd like them to have a vision for their lives," she said, adding parental input is welcomed throughout. how do you achieve the right balance of showing interest in a kid, without putting too much pressure on them.

Between kindergarten and fifth grade, she said, students are introduced to jobs and encouraged to think about what they like to do. In middle school, students are exposed to various career "clusters" so that they can get some idea of what they might like to pursue, she said.

Freshmen get serious

The issue of career planning becomes more serious in ninth grade. During that year students and parents get together with guidance counselors to assess the student's goals for the next four years and decide pretty much what career cluster path they intend to follow in high school and beyond.

This is followed by yearly reviews involving the student, his or her parents and a school counselor.

Judy Thomas, guidance director at Mainland High School, said many students have already made up their minds by ninth grade about what career they wish to pursue.

The amount of parental influence in a student's choice varies, she said. Many students seem to make choices based on exposure.

"Kids now have all kinds of opportunities," Thomas said. "But, parental support is still important. It helps guide them," she said.

Many business, civic and professional groups also offer information about careers to students.

One such group is the National Electrical Contractors Association, which recently targeted high schools with a massive recruiting campaign in hopes of easing a shortage of electrical and technical workers.

The association is recruiting high school graduates who might be interested in a paid three-to-five year apprenticeship in which they will receive on-the-job training as well as classroom and technical instruction for college credit. Upon graduation, students can expect to enter the job market earning between $50,000 and $70,000 a year, depending on their chosen specialty and location.

"We now have more work than we have applicants," said local training director Gail Jackson. Many students often bypass trade training programs, she said, not knowing that they can often earn as much and go to college for free in many instances.

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