An in-depth look at post-grad plans

Originally published June 14, 2016

What are your plans for next year?
I decided to go to North Seattle [College] and get a good start there and then transfer.

Is this similar or different to what you had planned?

I’ve changed a lot of things . . . I wanted to go to [a four-year] college first, but then I thought, no, [North Seattle] is going to be cheaper for one, and it’s going to be a good experience.

What are you most excited about for next year?

I’m most excited for college, like a new start. I was really excited to start high school [and now] I’m really excited to start college, it’s kind of the same but different at the same time.

How do you hope for college to be different?

What is something you’ve done in high school that you’re proud of?

The multicultural club. I [joined] it senior year, this year, and honestly it’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done throughout high school, I feel like it made a big impact on a lot of people. And just to be in a club like that with all these amazing people, and creating a whole week for culture in a predominantly white school I thought it was really important.

Is there one experience with that club that stands out?
The assembly, and the videos because . . . they were super fun to do, and the assembly got really good feedback from it, and a lot of people liked it. I feel like that was the best part.

What are your plans for next year?
I’m going to the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts in Manhattan.

Is this what you had planned?

Well I’m studying film acting, and I didn’t really plan to go to a conservatory program because it’s only two years and I thought, ‘Why not get a four year education in something like theater?’ but [the conservatory] found me when I went to this thespian audition, for theater kids in Seattle and we all ended up at Roosevelt High School and auditioned in front of a panel of people from various schools around the country, and [the school was] like, ‘Hey, we want to come talk to you,’ and I sat down and I talked to them and they really liked me and I was like, ‘Okay, interesting . . . why not see how it goes and play it by ear?’ And I went to the school and I visited and I fell in love with it, and now I’m going.

What made the school a good fit?

I really liked the dedication of the other students, especially going to a conservatory . . . going to a two-year school rather than a four-year school is very different and it doesn’t offer a wider education on a variety of subjects, it offers a very specific detail oriented education in film acting and that is it, so I appreciate that a lot of the other students that I’ll be going in with and who are already at the school are very dedicated to what they want to do and I want to be surrounded by that.

What are your plans for next year?

I’m going to Northeastern Junior College which is a little community college in Sterling, Colorado and I’m going to play baseball there.

What drove you to pursue this?

I was very determined to play baseball at the next level, it’s been a dream of mine since I was like five years old pretty much since I started playing, and so I couldn’t be more excited. I’m thrilled.

Is that similar or different from what you had planned?

Yeah, totally in line with what I had planned. Obviously, you know, when you’re a little guy and first starting to understand how college sports work the goal is D1 but as I grew as a player I realized that was a hard thing to achieve and I just wanted to work hard and bottom line just play at the next level and I’m excited to do so.

Aside from baseball what are you excited for next year?

Just meeting new people . . . Sterling is a town of about 18,000 so it’s going to be a large adjustment and I think it’s going to be a really cool life experience.

What’s something you’ve done in high school that you’re proud of?

I think just everything with the baseball team. My freshman year we came in with a new coach, and our graduating class is the only class to have him all four years in the program. And I think it’s been . . . just kind of the team we’ve built this year and over the last couple years is just really cool and walking away from that [and] seeing how all the younger guys have developed and grown as baseball players and people is something that we should all be really proud of and is really cool to look at.

What are your plans for next year?

I plan to go to Linfield College in the fall to major in Biology and minor in math and play on the girls’ soccer team.

What drove you to pursue this

I really like science, since I started the BioTech academy freshman year and math is fun so I wanted to do both.

Is this what you had planned?

No, going into high school I hated science so I did not plan to do this at all, I was just kind of like, ‘Oh I’ll go to college and just have fun and do something simple,’ but I came out with something different.

What changed your mind about science?

Probably just taking the BioTech Academy courses starting with Bio [sic] with Ms. Pagels was really eye opening about how science can actually be interesting and intriguing instead of just boring memorization stuff . . . I think the demanding nature of the class showed that even if you were working really hard at something it still could be fun, and I’ve heard that [Pagels’] class is harder than some college classes at UW. That kind of made it fun.

What kind of career do you see for yourself?

I want to pursue genetic counseling, so after college for four years I’d go to graduate school for two years and get a Master’s Degree in genetic counseling and eventually become a genetic counselor.

What does that entail?

Basically when people go through genetic tests you help them through the whole process and you explain their results and explain whether they should take the test or not. And that’s combining working with people, which I like, but also science at the same time.

What are your plans for next year?

Next year I plan on attending Santa Fe University of Art and Design pursuing film production.

What drove you to pursue this?

After four years [in the program here] it’s been a wonderful ride and also I’ve always been someone who likes to come up with stories and characters and also it’s the thing that makes sense to me. I’ve always been [bad] at communicating things with words so film is the thing that really makes sense to me.

What makes [the school] a good fit?

It’s on the cheaper end of all of the great film schools, secondly it’s a place with a lot of opportunity. A lot of big Hollywood films come down and shoot there, mainly Westerns . . . [with] the recent Tina Fey movie they turned the library into an embassy and they did that for a week, and also it has these large sound stages, [one] is currently occupied by “Longmire,” the show on Netflix, and it has the second biggest green screen in the nation so films like “Iron Man 2” even come down there. So it’s a great little place where I can get onto sets and get internships easily. And along with that, it’s very different from Seattle. I like that because I’ve always lived here and sure the environment is great and the people are great but it’s not the most diverse, and I want to go somewhere just completely different to live for a while where I can just absorb as much as I can and I feel like that will make my work stronger.

What are your plans for next year?

I’m going to the University of Hawaii. I leave on June 24.

What drove you to pursue this?

My love for the game of football.

What are you doing [in Hawaii] over the summer?

Taking summer classes and working out [before] the season.

What are you most excited about?

Just the next step in life, moving down to the islands, it’s just a big change.

Is this similar to what you had planned?

Yeah, I just I’m happy I got the opportunity . . . I always wanted to play D1 football so my dream is becoming a reality.

What do you hope to accomplish in the next few years?

I hope to play three years in college and hopefully enter the draft my junior year.

What do you hope will be different about the next few years, compared to the past few years?

I just want to grow as a person and learn more about myself, find myself a little bit more.