It’s a classic question from adults to kids: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
High school students from Palmer Home for Children, a Columbus-based organization that provides homes for kids who need them, got the chance to start thinking about the answer to that question at a five-day long program on the Mississippi State University campus last week.
The students were part of a program called LeaderState. Approximately 12 students spent five days living in dorm rooms, touring businesses and interacting with special guest speakers from a variety of professions. All the events and activities were designed to get the teens thinking about their futures.
Jeremy Beavers, director of Children’s Services at the Hernando campus, oversaw the teenagers during their time at LeaderState.
“Seeing the kids get engaged by this kind of stuff is exciting,” he said.
The students arrived Monday, July 13. That same day, they each filled out an inventory, similar to a personality quiz, that pointed them in the direction of careers they might enjoy.
The teens spent the next five days meeting with guidance counselors and professionals. They did career-related activities and took classes, including a money management class. They toured East Mississippi Community College and local businesses.
At the end of the week, the students made presentations mapping out their “life plans”.
These plans can include anything from how to pay for college to what careers they want.
“We’re not expecting them to pick their ultimate job for the rest of their lives, but just try to get them to start thinking about what they’re going to do,” Beavers said.
Learning their options
It can be hard for any teenager to think about the future, Beavers said, but it can be especially hard for children at Palmer Home.
“Because a lot of them have come from such hard backgrounds, their whole perspective on life is different,” he said. “They’re in survival mode when we get them a lot of times.”
When children arrive at Palmer Home, they often have not been able to think about what they want to do when they grow up because they’ve spent their time, for example, thinking about where their next meal is coming from, or whether their parents are coming home. It can be hard for kids to break out of that cycle and realize that it’s OK to start planning for the long-term future, Beavers said.
The kids from Palmer Home who want to go to college can do so, he added. Palmer Home will help the students pay for college after financial aid and scholarships. The home also helps steer students in the right direction if college is not their path. Usually, the kids at least want to try college. Many of the kids, Beavers added, are the first people in their families to get college degrees.
“It’s a big deal for them to go to college,” said Beavers. “For a lot of them, it’s the biggest dream they have, so far anyway.”
‘The most important thing is making a plan’
It’s part of the dream for Becca, a rising ninth grader at the Hernando campus. Palmer Home requested that The Dispatch not include students’ last names in this article.
Becca plans to study human nutrition so she can go back to Palmer Home and help take care of children there, ministering to them and showing them how to eat healthy.
“I’m a health nut,” she said. “I love learning about what’s good for you. So I’m really excited about it.”
She’s had this plan in mind for a while though, so her favorite part of LeaderState wasn’t coming up with that. It was the money management class the students took, in which they had to figure out how to pay for basic necessities given a hypothetical career and the money that came with it.
“It was so much fun,” Becca said. “I loved it. It helps me get a picture of what the real world is like.”
It was the tour of EMCC, along with some of the classes, that appealed to rising ninth grader Bubba from the Columbus campus. Bubba also enjoyed learning about potential degrees and careers he could choose from.
“I want to go into the military,” he said. “I might just go straight from high school into it.”
He likes that the military can pay for his college and that he would be able to take online classes. He doesn’t know what he would study yet, but at 14, he has plenty of time to figure that out.
Most teenagers change their minds about what they want to do, Beavers said, and kids from Palmer Home are no exception. As long as they think about it, he’s happy.
“The most important thing is making a plan,” he said.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.