Pick something you love. Pick something that you are ready to do for the rest of your life. Pick your passion. Make the decision. Make the right decision. 

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s the dreaded question that everyone has been asked since they were little. At first, you pick an actor or rockstar because you think they are cool and you want to be like them. Then your parents tell you that you have to choose a career that will make you money, so you pick a doctor. Then, you step foot in biology and realize that the idea of blood and intestines makes you queasy. By the time you reach high school, you’re stumped. What do you want to be when you grow up? Some students have an idea or a clear-cut plan, while others don’t have a clue. Although the stress of choosing your career path can be overwhelming, BSM offers many resources to help you navigate this tough decision as students move into college and beyond. Even if those don’t help, it is not imperative to have your future planned out. 

Benilde-St. Margaret’s is a college preparatory school. Because of this, there are many resources provided to help students achieve success in the future, particularly when applying for college. BSM’s wide range of classes and extracurricular activities gives students the opportunity to explore different paths they might consider for a major. One important resource provided to help prepare BSM students for the future is the array of college counselors who work with students starting their freshman year and assist them with signing up for their classes and making decisions about their future. According to college counselor Amanda Anderson, BSM does not try to pressure students into choosing a career path while they are still in high school. “It’s totally normal to not know what you want to do with the rest of your life when you’re in high school,” Anderson said. 

Despite BSM’s attempts to subdue the pressure, Anderson has noticed that many colleges ask students to pick a major while applying. Furthermore, according to Santa Barbara City College, many colleges prefer students who have an idea of a major. Personally, Anderson thinks that having a plan for their future is beneficial for students while recognizing that it is perfectly acceptable to make that decision later in life. Additionally, she points out that recent generations tend to switch careers multiple times while older generations tend to pick one career and stick with it forever. Because of this, older generations tend to pressure their children to choose the right career because, from their perspective, the decision they make in high school will stick with them. 

For example, in today’s world, the vast majority of students look for careers that act as a money maker, which is understandable, as money is a crucial aspect of a person’s life. However, when truly considering this choice, Anderson points out how it should be realized that the decisions made after school, for the most part, can pave the way for your entire lifetime. “I wonder if initially, people are thinking, ‘I have to find a career that I’m going to be really successful and get a lot of money for,’ but then, when you take a big step back, you go, what makes me happy? Because I’m going to be doing this for the rest of my life, I think there’d be a lot more students that would choose other things too, right?” Anderson said. 

Although BSM does not specifically push students to choose a certain career path, there are some aspects of the BSM curriculum and offered courses that prepare them for a career. According to Anderson, a common area many students choose to study is engineering, and she attributes this statistic to the strong engineering program here at BSM. The engineering program is a set of elective courses students at BSM can take from 8th grade through senior year. “The goal of the entire curriculum is for students to learn… how to be a creative person in a technical aspect,” engineering teacher Charles Nepomuceno said. 

Between 150 to 200 kids take engineering in a year, and Nepomuceno has noticed a 50/50 split between those who go on to major in engineering and those who don’t. This isn’t to say that the program is farming them to be future engineers, as Nepomuceno believes that the classes are simply the avenue for students to realize the passion for engineering that was always in them. Additionally, Nepomuceno doesn’t believe that it is a good idea for students to go to college and beyond with a clear-cut plan, “I believe that students and people, in general, find their path at different times in their life. I don’t think it’s always important to know what you want to do right away when you go to college,” Nepomuceno said. 

Similarly, BSM alum, parent, and employee Corinn Cella (‘95) has undergone many career paths. During her junior year of high school, she decided she wanted to be an elementary special education teacher, which she majored in at Providence College in Rhode Island. After graduating, Cella began to work but was unfortunately laid off due to budget cuts. Then, she worked in telecommunications for 13 years, became a stay-at-home mother for a few years, began working in bookkeeping and accounting, and then was offered a job at BSM in finance. “If you asked most of my friends, I think a lot of us, even some who I work with here, are not necessarily even working in what we went to school for,” Cella said. 

This long journey led Cella to exactly where she wanted to be, despite being different from her high school plans. Furthermore, Cella describes feeling little pressure to have her career picked out when she was in high school. Cella believes that students put pressure on themselves because they believe they have to have a plan for their future, when, in reality, you never know what will happen. “Go with what your passion is, but be flexible and know that you might change and that there’s nothing wrong with that,” Cella said. 

Cella also has a theory about how to choose your career and workplace. She believes that you can be happy with what you are doing, or you can be happy with the people surrounding you. Sometimes you can accomplish both, but prioritization is very important.  As a teacher, Cella loved her job but wasn’t very fond of the people around her simply because they didn’t have much in common. Today, Cella isn’t riveted by the world of finance, but has a great community at BSM to work with, making her job enjoyable. She doesn’t think that work is the most important aspect of life. “ …Just enjoy life and make the most of it. You’re going to find the job. Sometimes work is work. It’s a job. We all have to work to live, but don’t make it your life,” Cella said. 

As students quickly move through their high school years, they often face the big question of what their future holds. Approximately 91.4% of BSM graduates go on to attend a 4-year college or university. However, how do these students decide where to go, and more importantly, how do they choose what to study?

In a recent poll conducted among 51 students across the senior high, it was found that there is a relatively even split between those who have a clear idea and those who have somewhat of an idea of their post-graduation plans. In terms of the underclassmen’s responses, most of the students were split between those unsure or those who only had somewhat of an idea. The majority of the upperclassmen, however, were recorded to have a clear or somewhat clear idea. In fact, when asked on the same survey whether they felt pressured to know what they wanted to do, a majority of students responded with “yes” or “kind of.” From these responses, answers varied somewhat by grade level but were relatively consistent overall. 

Gallery • 1 Photos

CC Bishop and Juliet Scallon

A recent poll revealed that the majority of BSM students have somewhat of an idea of what they want to do in the future.

BSM students aren’t alone in their indecisiveness, as many students worldwide are still uncertain about their future plans. According to The District Administration, a survey of 500 high school students across the country revealed that 37% of students were unsure of their future plans, and 42% had chosen a path, but had little confidence in their decision. “So in the US, I would still say about 50% go in undecided. Still, probably at least 50% of those who go in with a major change their mind more than once, so you don’t have to know until the end of your sophomore year what you want to do in college unless it’s nursing or maybe sometimes engineering. Certain programs you do need to kind of know right away. But no, I don’t think you need to go in with a plan for the most part,” said Guidance and College Counselor Amy Larson.

After hearing from many different perspectives across the BSM community, it’s clear that there are still some unanswered questions below the surface. With that in mind, there are many benefits to both having set and not having set a clear-cut path in high school. On one hand, making these decisions early on allows students to have a better mapped-out academic plan, and also makes it much easier to choose and transition into college. Creating a four-year academic plan sets students up for a substantially more successful path than those who plan year-over-year. By pre-planning extracurricular activities and courses to fit the criteria established, students will have a better chance of majoring in their chosen field of study. 

At the same time, studies point out that being indecisive about future plans gives students the chance to explore a number of new opportunities throughout high school, as they are more open to exploring a greater variety of options rather than locking themselves to one set idea. One great opportunity is the EPIC program (Explore, Partner, Inspire, Connect) available to the BSM senior high, which allows students to engage with a wide range of professions coming from experts in various fields. Spanning from interior design to first responder programs, EPIC provides students the opportunity to dive deep into numerous careers, hoping to make the decision-making process a little easier by graduation day.

On top of that, not having a clear path established in high school can present several challenges. For example, according to a  Pew Research Center survey, 70% of high school students see mental health issues like anxiety and depression as major issues. High schoolers already face a number of challenges such as exhaustion, and tough workloads. Additionally, Newport Academy explains that grades and getting into college are the main stressors for students, and the added stress of making tough decisions such as the next steps beyond school can increase anxiety for students, ultimately impacting their academic performance and complicating college admissions. However, if there are both benefits and drawbacks to knowing or not knowing what to do beyond high school, then what is the best approach to address this situation? The reality is that it varies from person to person and depends on their surrounding environment, but regardless, there will always be both pros and cons to choosing your future path in high school. 

What is important to remember is that circumstances are always changing for every student, so it’s best to take things step by step. Coming from a BSM graduate of ‘86, Armando Mojica shares how during his high school years, he sought a path somewhere in the engineering field. However, he ended up switching majors multiple times before ultimately earning a degree in economics, which doesn’t completely apply to his current job either. Instead, he found himself working in international business, and in his perspective, Mojica is just one example of how choices made in high school don’t always remain the same and are likely to change. In fact, in Mojica’s case, his role in international business didn’t even exist until five years after high school graduation. When Mojica tells his story, he hopes to let out the point that it’s important to be open to change when it comes to making these big decisions. “Don’t do something that you’re feeling pressured to be doing from whoever said, ‘Oh, you need to do this.’ … do something you want to do and enjoy it, and if you don’t, be flexible enough to make a change, to say, ‘I don’t like this, I think I can do something else that I like,’” Mojica said.

After looking through several lenses across the BSM community, it’s important to look beyond the pressures (as hard as that sounds) and be open to many opportunities along the way. Because, in reality, everyone has their own path, and it should be up to each individual person to experiment, discover, and be inspired no matter how long it takes. “Life is short. It goes by really fast, and if you can enjoy what it is you’re doing, that’s awesome,” said Cella. 

Gallery • 1 Photos

CC Bishop and Juliet Scallon

There are many factors that a student must consider when thinking about their future.