Seniors take on a career in the workforce
College may feel like the default plan for people in their senior year of high school. However, many choose to enter the workforce directly and get hands-on experience in the field that they are passionate about.
Vincent Addieg, senior, takes an interest in music, and wants to find a job in sound engineering after high school. “I was told by a lot of people that I’ve worked with in the past that it’s smart to kind of get your own experience doing it rather than go to school, so I figured I would take at least take one gap year to work so I can figure out if I’m even going to go to school,” Addieg said.
Addieg furthered his understanding in sound engineering and music production through classes he took at Music Freaks in Camarillo. “It was kind of just something that clicked with me… and that sort of made me realize that’s what I wanted to go into,” Addieg said.
Addieg believes that the fear of missing out on college life should not stop people from taking a nontraditional path. “It has been very weird seeing all my close friends get accepted to all these different colleges, but honestly I just have to keep reminding myself that school isn’t necessarily for everybody…you can find your own way,” Addieg said.
Kamran Memarzia, senior, is taking his time off from school to intern at the United Nations (UN), and to learn about international business. “My uncle works at the UN building in Vienna… so my dad asked him about a job opportunity…he got me this internship and I couldn’t pass it up,” Memarzia said.
Memarzia is planning on going to Oregon State University, but is taking this time after graduation to prepare for his internship, having to get ready to move to Vienna, Austria. “I’m nervous because I need to take language classes to learn some German… I also don’t know anyone so I’ll be completely alone,” Memarzia said.
Some seniors work in order to save up for their future plans. Sam Newberry, senior, plans to continue working to pursue a career in firefighting. “[Being a firefighter] has been something I have thought about since I was very little but taking GIS this past year and seeing videos of firefighters doing their job just had me thinking that that would be something I would want to do and to just help people in a different way,” Newberry said.
Newberry dreams of maybe moving to Australia. “Australian firefighters come here to help us so I thought I would go over there to help them,” Newberry said.
Newberry encourages those wondering if college is not for them to take the risk and enter the workforce right after high school. “Everyone thinks you need college but you don’t need to put yourself in debt when you can go ahead and work out of high school.”
