Keeping a Career Focus Early On Can Make A Big Difference
By Britany Wagoner, Stride Student Advisor
Stride Career Prep to me means finding my best career, and the area within my career field that I’m most passionate about earlier in life, instead of struggling to find my way. When I joined Stride Career Prep, I was on the Information Technology path, also known as the IT pathway. I had planned on joining a Coding branch of the IT pathway initially, and I would have been a late high school graduate along this route. It felt good knowing that I was deciding on a long-term, successful career choice with Coding. I thought it would be what would work best for me.
While in the first course of the IT pathway, Computer Fundamentals, my teacher saw that I already had many of the skills taught in the course and started making me focus on PowerPoint work. This helped to grow my skills more in an area that would strengthen my overall technological skill set. One day she was making multiple Star Wars jokes, and I asked if I could make those jokes into real images! I was not anticipating running into the problem of not owning my own colossal photo editing program, like Photoshop. However, I did have PowerPoint. My teacher taught me the program's photo editing options quickly. After spending a full night and early morning working on the Star Wars jokes, I finished and sat back looking at my work. I felt sleepy but very proud. When I showed the Star Wars joke images to my teacher, she laughed until her stomach hurt. It made me feel even more proud. Mission accomplished.
At the end of the semester, my advisor and teacher started talking about how I should pick a branch in the IT pathway that I wanted to pursue further, and they mentioned how amazing my photo-edited pictures were. Given this knowledge and natural tendency, I then chose the Web & Digital Communications branch, which had Image Design courses, instead of Coding.
Now I'm near graduation, and I am about to take the Adobe Photoshop Certification Exam, figuring out my own artistic style, and growing my skills every day. I couldn't be happier! So, Stride Career Prep means making the best career choices for my future.
