During one of our recent visits, we conducted an experiment with high school students to see what they thought about their future. We asked them where they saw themselves about 5 years from now and let them all answer. We wrote down their responses with their names and made sure everybody answered. Then, we went one by one to each student and tried to brainstorm what small goals they could set themselves along the way to reach where they see themselves in 5 years’ time. This activity was easier for some than others; there were a few students who had a good idea of precisely where they wanted to be in 5 years whether that be college, the armed forces, or working. On the other hand, there were some students that had no idea at all where they wanted to be or even what they wanted to do. For those students, we had to brainstorm a bit harder based on their current interests and how that could flourish into a rough plan.
For example, one of the students didn’t know what he wanted to do; however, he knew that he liked playing video games and watching livestreams. So, we talked with him about if he may want to become a streamer himself in the future and how he could set some goals to get there. We suggested saving up money for a good camera as well as a microphone to properly get himself started. We also talked about milestones he might want to reach in terms of viewer counts.
I don’t know about my teammates, but I wasn’t exactly expecting there to be such a good number of students that had zero idea of what they wanted to do in their future. It was a little worrying that some students seemed so decided already on not going to college at all. I wish we had planned and prepared for that to happen, so we wouldn’t have had to think on the fly. At the end of the day, though, I feel like the activity went well and the students gained something from it.