Where They’re Going-Draft

         You approach the stage, wearing a deep green cap and gown, proudly walking in front of the crowd as you hear your name being called. The four years you’ve worked so hard on are coming to a close, but your future is just beginning. Many students walked that path and are set on going many different places. A large group of students, the class of 2020, have this day approaching and have many ideas on where they want to go. All these students have different paths, but as their futures start, their paths are still intertwined.

        The seniors of West High have different views on their time at West, and what they’ve been through.

Seniors

         For some, people have always known what they wanted to do since they were young, but for Emma Grace Shoppa ‘20, it wasn’t clear until her junior year.

         “I kind of figured out like that I wanted to do environmental stuff halfway through my junior year,” she says, “but I was in AP seminar, the final project that we had was very loose […] Since it was so general, I was able to really pick something that I wanted to do, so I chose to do something with environmental economics. I think just working on that for a long time and doing such a big project about it without getting bored and being really, really passionate about it just like, really cemented that like, this is what I want to do.”

           Shoppa’s future career was influenced by that experience, and came to the conclusion that she wants to major in environmental policy and has some ideas on future careers.

            “With an environmental policy degree, you can work in the government and do stuff like make laws or policy stuff like that,” she says, “or you can work in the private sector and consult with different companies to come up with plans for them to be more environmentally friendly like marketing or just to keep up with government regulations.”

           As well as looking forward to her learning, Shoppa is also going to miss parts of high school, specifically the sense of community.

         “When you’re in college, it’s not like you’re in the school for seven hours straight,” she says, “So I think I’ll miss just having people that I know I haven’t talked to outside my class and you know, seeing people in the hallways and smiling but like on a daily basis in college I feel like those interactions are a lot more spread out […] So I feel like that just doesn’t allow you to have as wide of a branch of different people that you talk to.”

           At the end of the day, she feels sure in her future and knows that she’s going to do what she loves.

           “From when I was a little kid I always felt outdoors, like it was just where I felt at home, and it was just so hard to describe,” she says, “and so when climate change became more of a media thing, I tried to learn more about it and it just really really struck home to me. Immediately I started making changes in my life. I try to be more zero waste and all of that stuff so 

         For Tommy Stevens ’20, picking a major was a struggle, having his heart set on engineering his freshman year, but by senior ultimately deciding against it.

          “I started high school, on an engineering track and that was fun and interesting. But then I kind of just stopped doing it and so like I knew I didn’t want to do that. So, then, that was one thing I was considering when I was a freshman,” he says, “I took a lot of science classes, but that didn’t interest me.”

          He soon figured out that he wanted to become a high school teacher and possibly attend the University of Iowa.

         “I just like teaching, I was put in situations where I had to teach a lesson or something and I just liked doing it, I also like English,” he says.

         Stevens also is looking forward to many aspects of his future, one of those being the college experience and having independence.

          “[I’m looking forward to] Not so much the school part of college but just like I’m no longer living in my parents house, and I’m supporting myself. Like I’m in charge of myself and I can do whatever I want,” he says.

         While he’s excited about the independence, he had many great memories in high school, one of which was the class AP seminar.

         “I think the most challenging class I ever took so far is AP seminar,” he says, “I think that’s a great experience and I appreciate that experience because now I understand how to research and how to find sources. I think that’s going to help me when I try to do research, like when I do more serious presentations. […] So like when I do an actual presentation, I know how to do it.”

         Stevens has high hopes for his future and knows how he wants to make an impact on the world.

        “High schools have a universal experience. I don’t know how many other universal experiences there are beyond that,” he says, “But I want to be able to affect and change the world and produce cultural change and I think that probably can be done best in the classroom.”

         For Lily Ernst ’20, her swimming career has always felt set in stone for her, but a class she tried her junior year made her realize a newly found interest.

         “I really like psychology, so maybe something with that,” she says, “I had Mr. Henderson [for AP psych] last year. I took that class and I really liked it. I think that if I hadn’t taken that class I would have no idea what I was doing and it definitely probably would not be interested in psychology.”

         Even with recently developed an interest in psychology, she feels like she’s always known part of her college career- swimming.

         “I guess I’ve never really thought about not doing swimming in college, it’s always just kind of been my plan and what I wanted to do,” she says, “I’ve been doing swimming since I was almost 11 years old and so it’s just kind of always been my thing.”

         Ernst is looking forward to many aspects of her future within the University of Northern Iowa.

        “I’m just really excited for all of it. Swimming wise, the whole new team, being on a college level team and college level competition. Just like the whole idea of college, like being on your own,” she says.

           She has had many good memories from high school, one of which being state for swimming her junior year.

           “I really enjoyed state last year because my sophomore and freshman year, I was an underclassman and I didn’t know a lot of people on the team,” she says, “last year was probably the first year that I had a lot of my friends on the team because they’re like, all from I Fly (Iowa Flyers) like some of my best friends but, last year, we all went to stay on, and there was a lot of us that went compared to my sophomore year, and that was just a lot more fun because there were so many of us.”

           Ernst is sure of her future whether it leads her towards swimming or psychology. As for leaving advice for the underclassman, she quoted her swim coach and shared knowledge she feels can be applied to any sport.

          “About sports, one of my favorite things that [the coach] told me is ‘you’re a person who swims not a swimmer who persons’ just because I used to focus a lot on always doing really, really well at swimming and when I didn’t I was always upset and he was like ‘you’re just a person who swims, it’s not your entire life.’”

           Our college students have a different view on West High, based on their past experiences and their time at West High. 

College Students

           Alexander Swack ’19 is balancing his academic and athletic aspects of school at Morton College. He is majoring in computer engineering and also plays baseball, and these interests developed at none other than West High.

          “High school is just general education […] I actually had to sign up for engineering classes. They weren’t required. Taking classes got me interested in my major,” he says, “[it was] sophomore year after taking IED [intro to engineering and design].”

           He also pitched for West High Trojans baseball team, which gave him many opportunities including playing a Principal Park, a minor league baseball stadium in Des Moines.

           “I don’t know, it was just cool, being in a professional stadium like that, and what you’re playing for, even though we were losing, and since we were losing I was having fun.. we were having fun, and I would come back to the dugout smiling because we had the opportunity to be there,” he says, recalling the experience.

          Swack wants to continue to do both of his interests, even if he doesn’t know where they’ll take him in the future. 

          “Continue playing baseball,” he describes his plans, “continue my engineering degree at a four year university with a good program and after college, something with my major.” Unless baseball shows an opportunity, Swack wants to continue on with computer engineering. 

          Even if he doesn’t know exactly what his future holds, he enjoyed his high school experience with his friends, and has advice to all the seniors, both academically and athletically. 

          “Get it together, even with senior year.. in the moment it may not seem like it matters, [but] it’s all set in stone and you can’t change that, even what you messed up on,” he says, “as for athletics, give it your all, it’s your last season, and so play every game like it’s you last, because anything could happen. That feeling when it’s all over… it’s different.”

         At the end of the day, Swack knows that him and the people he spent his high school career with will stay in his life.  

        “Teammates will always stay together, like those become your best friends,” he says, “especially if you’re in two sports with them. They become [like] your brothers. Even if it’s not everyday, you still keep in contact.”

        For Caecilia Shoppa ’18, she always had a lot of interests, but in her senior year, she was able to narrow down her interests more definitively. 

        “If I didn’t do intro to journalism my junior year, I wouldn’t have known that I loved writing and talking to people and interviewing people. So then senior year when I joined West Side Story, I decided to gravitate towards that more than choir and singing as my major. So West Side Story kind of like showed me that being extroverted and talkative can be put towards something good,” she says.

        In the end, it led her to figuring out her major of magazine journalism and film studies at the University of Iowa, with a focus in contemporary cinema and it made Shoppa think more about career paths.

        “I want to be like the expert in the documentary who they go to to analyze this, and find out what the director means by this. […] So, either that or somewhere in California to interview directors [who] work for like an SFX magazine,” she says.

        When looking back at her days at West, one of the things she’s going to miss the most is the sense of community.

        “Seeing the same people every day and people who know me, and not just know my face from class changes a lot in college. You know faces you don’t know anything about them,” she says, “I miss the closeness that I had with people at West. […] At West, it’s easy, you’re in a group, you see the same people every day for four years. You get that community so quickly, but like in college, you have to work for it, you have to put lots of effort into meeting people.”

         When it comes down to it, Shoppa has her goals set for the future and wants to make a big impact on the world.

         “I want people in Iowa, to see my name out in the world somewhere that’s not Iowa, like I want people back home to see my name and think ‘Wow she’s actually doing something, like she’s changing something. She’s making a difference. She’s making people think about things in a deeper way. She did it, she got out doing something more than working for a local newspaper and talking about local news,’” she says, “I want to do something bigger than local news.”

         Everyone has plans for what they want to do after their last year at West. For some it’s college, taking a gap year, and for others, they don’t see school in their futures; however, these futures don’t always work out the way people think they will. For Dru DeMeulenaere ‘18 this is the case. She started off at Kirkwood, but the environment just wasn’t for her and she soon decided it was better if she didn’t attend college.

        “I just struggle in school a lot and it’s really hard for me to do school, so I wasn’t really thrilled with going to school again,” she says.

        While she’s happy with her choice and knows it was the best option for her, DeMeulenaere sometimes thinks about the things college might’ve helped her with.

         “Maybe to like figure out my job, because there’s other ones that you can do, and other classes you can experience, but you always can go back,” she says.

         She’s also thought about doing online college, but ultimately decided against it.

        “I don’t think I would ever do online schooling and stuff like that, because I actually need a teacher to show me what’s going on and stuff like that and there’s no teacher to go to [for online college],” she says, “I mean there’s some classes where you can go online and stuff like that and then go meet the teachers at school. But that’s so complicated because they all have their different schedules.”

         She also works at Tap N’ Tacos and finds that working is an interesting experience for her.

       “It’s stressful, but at the same time it’s so much fun because then when you get your paycheck, you’re like ‘Oh my gosh I’m good. I gotta pay rent and then I have a little extra for like goodies,’” she says.

        DeMeulenaere has an idea for her future and what she wants to do. She came to the conclusion that she wants to be a flight attendant. 

      “You get free flight benefits and my mom did it so most of the people still know her and they’ll probably help me. You don’t have to go to college you know, you just have to go through training,” she says, “So I’m going to try and be a flight attendant because I want to travel the world.”

         In the end, everyone goes their separate ways and starts their futures at different times. No matter the path, everyone eventually ends up where they’re meant to be.