You made it past freshman year, even though you thought it would never end. You fought through teachers and lunch lines, got your first taste of freedom and took on every club and sport you could.  So many big things are going to happen to you this year. You'll grow older and wiser, and gain more responsibilities than you'll even know what to do with.  With all of this going on, there are some tips we want to share with you.  

1. Pursue extracurricular activities that truly interest you and look for ways to be a leader in them.

2. Don't be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone to either try something new or challenge yourself.

3. Continue to build relationships with your teachers, counselor, family members, friends, and other trusted adults.

4. Continue to explore career paths and the various paths to get there.

In addition to continuing to explore your interests and learning about yourself.  You should start building your skills and knowledge towards your goals for the future and potential career.  These action steps will help provide more clarity.  One thing that can help is to write a career vision statement for yourself to help guide everything that follows. A career vision statement clearly and concisely describes your long-term professional goals. It's a personal declaration that outlines where you see yourself in the future regarding your career. Once you have that you can better identify the skills and experience needed for your chosen career and ways to obtain them.  You can figure out the various activities, leadership positions, and more needed to help you as you grow.

1. What do you want to do after high school? What have you found out so far?  

2. How do you know what you want to do?

3. How certain are you, on a scale from 1-5, that this is what you want to do?

4. What do you know about how to reach that goal?

5. What is your plan?

6. What do you need from your counselor to help you reach your goal or to explore more options?

A great way to learn about a career that you are interested in is to gain skills and experience through unpaid work. You will learn about yourself, your interests, improve your job/college prospects when you gain practical experience that can translate into job skills for your future plans.  Two great options for unpaid work are job shadowing and volunteering.  Click either of the links to the left to learn more about either option.

Another great way to explore future careers you are considering is by taking a class.  As you begin to select classes for Junior year you will see that you have lots of options.  Have you considered taking an AP class, a dual credit class, a vocational class or a class aligned with your path of career interest? Talk about these options with your family, counselor and teachers when picking your classes for next semester.

Take the most challenging courses you are able to take.

Other important things to consider when selecting classes are to know your graduation requirements, but also know the requirements for college admission and opportunities for dual credit.  The links to the right will help you make those decisions.