Ben Stuckey will stare for hours at clown fish, silver dollar and pufferfish poking through coral and weaving through water. He knows which of his fish-friends will be the first to be dinner — Gabriel — and which one will survive while hiding behind his favorite rock — Bashful.

Ben could one day seek a career as a marine biologist. But his parents haven’t started exploring colleges along the Caribbean coast yet.

“Well, he’s only 2,” laughs his mom, Gwen Harrigan, 33, an Ann Arbor project manager.

Ben’s love for aquariums might owe more to the Disney blockbuster Finding Nemo than anything else, she adds.

Still, Harrigan and her husband, Bryant Stuckey, keep an eye out for their son’s passions and actively encourage them. Stuckey, 32, recalls fiddling around in the kitchen and whipping up dinners for his two brothers when he was as young as 8 years old. Now he owns a catering company specializing in wedding cakes.

The American School Counselor Association encourages parents to take that kind of active role in their children’s lives. That’s the first step to helping students figure out the answer to the most popular question of all: What do you want to be when you grow up?

“It’s never too early to start identifying kids’ interests,” said Carmen Bieske, a guidance counselor at Hanover-Horton High School, in Hanover, Michigan. “Certainly, kids change their minds several times.”

There are many paths open to the almost 3 million kids who graduate high school each year. They include:

  • Attend a four-year college, choosing from hundreds of majors ranging from anthropology to music, from education to pre-law.
  • Choose a shorter vocational or trade program in fields including electronics, automotive technology, phlebotomy (learning to draw blood from medical patients) and construction.
  • Earn a two-year degree at a community college in majors such as hospitality management, nursing or computer programming. Or students can knock out basic requirements before transferring to a bachelor’s program at a four-year college — a path thousands of students take.
  • Enlist in the U.S. military, which offers on-the-job training and funding for college.

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This is a hot topic at kitchen tables across the country. And it’s a debate in the halls of state capitals, as well.

As Michigan’s economy continues to flounder, Lt. Gov. John Cherry chaired a commission that examined ways to improve post-secondary education options for students. The goal is to build a well-trained workforce able to compete in the global economy.

“For years in Michigan, you could go from the high school graduation line to the assembly line and get a good job,” Gov. Jennifer Granholm said. “Those days are over.”

Granholm’s goal is to double the number of college graduates within a decade. She notes Michigan’s rate of 22 percent puts it in the bottom tier of states.

But every student is different. What’s right for one kid isn’t right for his lab partner, Bieske said. Like many schools, Hanover-Horton has students complete a career inventory in 8th grade as a road map for high school and beyond.

“I’ll have students who are really into cars or theater,” she said. “The challenge is to help them set a realistic career goal and figure out the best classes to take.”

Parents play a key role in helping their kids with decision-making and goal-setting, Bieske said. If your daughter has her heart set on attending the University of Michigan, you can help steer her into taking a rigorous college prep course load to meet the school’s requirements, even if calculus isn’t her first love.

At the same time, parents need to offer a voice of reason. If your son’s dream is to be an auto mechanic but he can’t change the oil of your Ford F150, you might encourage him to focus on a different passion.

To some degree, what students can do depends on their grades and family finances, Bieske notes.

 

Susan J. Demas is an EduGuide contributing editor and a 2006 Knight Foundation fellow.