It’s been a year since I graduated high school. Today, I have my own business photographing weddings, engagements and senior portraits, and my work has been featured in art galleries around the state of Washington. I’m also a content creator for a local business.
As a freshman in high school, I could never have imagined where I’d be today. All I knew was that I preferred working to studying in the classroom, and I was not sure if college was the right path for me. I worried about how the rest of my four years would go and if my future would be as bright as those of my peers who seemed set on pursuing higher education.
Through my own research, the support of my teachers and access to classes that allowed me to explore my passions, I was able to find and prepare myself for a path that was a better fit and gave me the foundation to launch a career as an entrepreneur.
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Though 63% of teens are open to non-college options, only 13% feel prepared to choose their path after high school. Stories like mine show that it doesn’t have to be this way.
My school offered classes that allowed me to explore my interest in the arts, including videography and photography, and learn about topics of my choice, such as how to run a business. Talking to my friends at other schools, I learned that this was very unusual.
My teachers were a crucial source of support. I initially worried that they would judge me or think I wasn’t as ambitious as my peers who were set on pursuing higher education. Instead, they provided me with guidance and explored with me which career I wanted to pursue, so I could figure out whether college was necessary in getting there.
As I narrowed in on a career in photography, a hobby I’d been passionate about since I was young, I started feeling more and more sure about my initial instinct. College didn’t excite me and would have required me to take on significant loans. Meanwhile, I was starting to learn the skills needed to run my own business, such as how to speak to clients in a powerful and meaningful way, project manage a company, handle digital assets and get along well with co-workers.
During my junior year, my teachers encouraged me to reach out to local business owners to hear about their career paths and gain their advice to prepare me to start my own company.
My high school had a program that let me study topics of my choice. I learned how to use business management platforms like Adobe Portfolio and Google Workspace to track customer relationships, and to improve user interfaces to make my business website easy to navigate. My statistics class went over debt-to-income ratio and how to apply that to my future career. One of my teachers even hired me to take portraits of him and his family, giving me hands-on practice as a photographer.
The fact that my school offered a robust arts program was also helpful in helping me fine-tune my photography skills. In my digital media class, I learned visual marketing techniques, while my sewing class introduced me to color theory, which enhanced my attention to detail.
At the end of senior year, when I walked across the stage to receive my diploma, I truly felt ready to set up my own photography and video production business.
Like me, the majority of high school graduates in 2023 did not choose to pursue a four-year college degree. But many do not have access to the sorts of programs and resources I had that helped set me up for success — about two-thirds said they would have gained from more career exploration in middle or high school.
That needs to change. Every student deserves the opportunity to thrive and thrive, regardless of the path they choose. By providing diverse pathways, whether through expanded career and technical education classes that integrate technical skills taught in the classroom, entrepreneurship programs or comprehensive college guidance, schools can ensure that all students can find their own routes to success.
I’ll be back at my high school soon, this time not as a student, but as a professional videographer. I’ll be filming students and teachers as part of a promotional video that my school is making. I take pride in being able to use the skills I have learned to give back to my school, helping it support future students just as it supported me. I hope my story encourages other schools to add skills-focused programs that prepare students for a wide range of careers — whether they pursue higher education or not.
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