Our Five-year Plans

What are your plans after high school?

By Lakia Anderson

Staff Writer

What do you plan on doing after high school? It seems to be the question asked by all the students at Crotona Academy High School. After finishing high school, you have to determine where your life is going to go in the near future. It is a very big decision. The moves you make will determine how your life plays out--whether it be a good or bad outcome. Recently Crotona had a speaker come in and talk to students about being “in the game” and “making all the right decisions,” but some of us are still confused.

To get some idea about what some of the students are going to do after graduating high school, I interviewed some of the students. Yuleisi Matos, a junior at Crotona Academy, said that she plans on going to college. She said that it didn’t matter what college, but she wants to go far from the Bronx. “I‘m not ready right now, but maybe by next year I should be,” she said. Also, she explained that she thinks Crotona is doing a great job helping and preparing her for college. Yuleisi plans on getting the money for college from financial aid since she cannot pay for college herself.

I also got the chance to interview another student at Crotona, Johanna Dominguez. “I want to go to college and possibly try to get a part-time job,” she said. She also said that her Plan B would be to maybe try vocational school if college doesn’t work out for her. “I would really like to become a cop,” she said. She hopes to use financial aid to pay for college. The military is a popular place to go after high school, but Johanna said she has no plans on going to the military. Johanna said Crotona is helping her get out of high school, and she doesn’t plan on dropping out. She says that is not an option for her. So far her whole high school experience has kind of helped her prepare for college, she added. She said Crotona has helped her wake up in the morning, set a schedule, and complete homework or projects that are due.

Endaisha Stribling, a senior at Crotona, voiced her plans after high school too. “I’m going down south,” she said, explaining that it’s way cheaper to go to college down there and it’s easier for her to get a driver’s license and establish herself. “I plan to go to college to become a teacher,” she added. She said she plans to work and go to school at the same time to achieve her goal. She also has a Plan B. “If I don’t end up going down south, my plan is to go to Hunter College, but I really want to get out of the city,” she said. She also claims that the school is helping in some ways, and she likes it because they are really helping her to graduate.

In all, I think the majority of the students at Crotona Academy plan to go to college. Many kids seemed to have nothing else to do. Most of the students at Crotona already are working and have jobs. I also observed, based on my interviews, that most of them have a second plan just in case their first plan doesn’t work out. College is also expensive and most of us will be relying on the benefits of financial aid to get through college.