As the first month of the second semester comes to a close at Del Mar High School, seniors are preparing for what they will do after high school. There are many paths that students can take for their future.
Depending on the student’s choice, this process can be time-consuming. Some students have even begun preparing for college as early as their freshman year of high school. Ms Cajero, Del Mar’s College and Career Specialist, recommends this time frame as well.
“I recommend students to start thinking about college around middle school, freshman year, because we wanted them to keep their options open,” said Ms Cajero. “We don’t want students that limit themself. We want them to have their pathways open.”
A less time-consuming process that students consider doing or are already planning to do is going to a community college. These students can decide whether they only want to go to a community college or if they can transfer to a university after a chosen amount of time.
To go to a community college, students need to take general electives in high school to get enough credits, “Which is roughly between 60 and 90, depending on what school they go to,” said Ms Cajero. The transfer process has requirements similar to those for high school graduation. Ms Cajero mentioned students also take their general electives for college and take the “core classes” for their major.
Students can choose to stay at a community college for longer than two years. They even have the option to start with a University of California (UC) or a California State University (CSU) instead of transferring. Some students choose this because it’s less stressful and can help save money.
A well-known choice is to study abroad in another country. This can be difficult since, depending on the school and country, programs can require students to have a certain level in the area’s national language.
Being in another country can also be pretty scary. In other countries, the culture tends to have different rules, manners, and it can cause cultural shock. Learning about a new culture and adapting could be fun, depending on what type of person the student is.
“For example, if a student wants to go to Spain or any other country in Latin America, they have to be fluent in Spanish,” said Ms Cajero, “Because they will be taking classes over there at the university [with that national language].”
Many students at Del Mar are a part of the JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program. The marine instructor, Steven Mobley, commonly known as Gy (Gunny) Mobley, mentions that the program is not to have kids go to the military but to help them understand it and help them gain experience.
“I don’t try to push the military onto the kids,” Mobley said.
Though some of these JROTC students actually do end up choosing the military route after high school. This choice has several pathways that students can choose from.
Students can choose to enlist right after graduation, either on active duty full-time or in the reserves, where they only serve part-time so they can continue with college and other activities outside of the military.
Another option is to pursue the officer route. The choices that follow this route are either applying for the Navy or Marine Corps scholarships or joining a ROTC program at a university with regular college classes, with the military class.
“I was a recruiter at one time in my 22 years in the Marine Corps,” said Mobley. “I did recruit people to go into the Marine Corps. But that’s not our mission here [in the ROTC program].”
