High School and Beyond

After graduating high school in 2007, I have come to realize that many high school students may not have had the opportunities that I did in high school. I went to a high school in a small rural town in Arizona where we were fortunate enough to have an agricultural education program. Before moving to this small town, I lived in the city and was heavily involved in 4-H. I had a strong interest in becoming a large animal veterinarian because I knew I wanted my career to be centered around horses and that is the only career I knew of that would allow me to incorporate that interest. I was unaware of other animal-related careers until my high school agriculture teacher helped me open the door of possibilities.Like some high school students, I had somewhat of an idea of what I wanted to do with my life after high school, but the maturity to do it was not there. I was active in extracurricular activities but I was also interested in spending time with friends, as most teenagers want to do with their time. Having the support from my family and teachers helped me stay on track to graduate high school and go to college.Through high school agriculture, I learned about different aspects of the industry, which led me to earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Sciences or, as some of my city friends like to call it, a degree in cows. My plan of becoming an equine veterinarian changed because of my fascination of cattle which started in my high school agriculture class. Without high school agricultural education, my educational path would have been a lot different.As a high school student, I knew there was a need to prepare for the future, but actually applying that to my life was very difficult. It is a turning point in life when students are asked to become more responsible, but are still adolescent and don't understand why certain requirements are expected of them as they go through high school. After I graduated and continued on to college, I felt very much unprepared. I didn't understand the concept of prioritization of tasks and lacked time management skills. I did so much in high school that I didn't realize at the time it was probably too much and other aspects of my education were suffering. I tried to carry that over to college and participate in as many activities as I could. Then I soon realized in order to be successful in college I needed to focus on the important activities that geared more towards my future goals.Through agricultural education in high school, I was able to develop public speaking skills, I learned about working hard and doing a good job; I was exposed to an industry that I am now more passionate about than any other, and I learned the importance of having a support team to guide me along my path. In college, I developed the skills of time management, prioritizing, learning how and where to find information I don't know, and how to reach out to people to get more involved. I was able to further develop my skill set in college based on the skills I developed in high school agricultural education. The challenge for teachers is incorporating the development of all those skills while teaching the curriculum of the course. To me, there was more opportunity in other high school classes to teach all of these skills to help make me successful after high school. Agricultural education is one avenue for all of those skills to be developed while participating in various projects and meeting course requirements.In my opinion, most students are not being prepared for the real world in all high schools. We all have the core class that are a must, math, English, and science, to name a few, but we are not taught how to manage our time, prioritize tasks, and develop basic communication skills. In other words, we often don't learn life management skills in high school classes. It wasn't until I enrolled in an Organization Management course as an undergraduate that I learned how to properly prioritize and manage projects and people. …