Blog 12

            After this week’s discussion post I felt that for this blog it would be relevant to spend some more time discussing my high school experiences with career development services. When I reflect back on my high school experiences I find myself wishing that there had been more services that allowed students to explore career options. My high school did do some things very well, but they also dropped the ball in critical areas.

            First, the positives. My high school did allow students to choose elective courses. These courses ranged from a foreign language, to home economics, to technology education, to psychology, and many more. My high school also had a variety of sports programs, clubs, honors societies, extracurricular activities, etc. that students could sign up to participate in. The combination of these factors did allow students to explore different areas of interest and potentially make decisions based off of their experiences. When I was in school I took full advantage of what was offered to us. I played volleyball, managed the basketball team, was in both Spanish Honors Society and National Honors Society, participated in our school pride club, and chose many different classes to explore many options, one of which was psychology. These opportunities did help in the decisions that I made to go to college and pursue a Psychology degree.

            However, despite the positives, through what I have learned in this class, there was a lot my high school did not prepare us for. Although they offered these various elective courses and many after school programs, there was not much done beyond that. I never took any interest inventory, we did not have any career days or visitors that discussed our options, I could not even tell you what the guidance counselors names were, and there were no options for experiential learning. Many of my peers talk about a senior project involving volunteer work. I wish my senior project was more future oriented, but my assignment was to reflect back on my time there. I look back and wish that my school had done more to allow a more expansive exploration process.

            This class has made me feel conflicted about my experiences. On one hand, I wish that I had more services while in high school, and on the other hand I feel grateful to have had the experiences I did have. I often wonder if anything was different, would my path had been any different?