This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Want to be a veterinarian? How about a pediatrician?
You don't have to wait until college to start.
That was the message Hillside Middle School officials hoped to instill during a recent field trip to Highland High and Salt Lake Community College, on which students were urged to think about advancing in high school and college, simultaneously.
"It was awesome," said Nancy Meidell, parent of a Hillside eighth-grader. "My son came home and said, 'Mom, I know what I want to be now.' He now has a goal."
Meidell's son, Spence, had been leaning toward carpentry before the trip. That changed afterward.
"We went into a classroom full of dogs and the teacher talked about how you get to take care of the dogs," he recalled. "Now I want to be a vet or a trainer; or a cop and work with dogs."
The field trip was part of the Salt Lake City School District's Career and Technical Education Pathways program.
Like many other high schools in Utah, Highland offers advanced-placement courses that can give students a head start toward college degrees and scholarships.
"We encourage students to take rigorous high-school classes because that helps you get prepared for college-level classes," said Bruce Bowen, associate provost of Weber State University.
Angela Carrasco, now a 10th-grader, remembers her own visit to West High as an eighth-grader. It was then she learned that she had to take honors classes in ninth and 10th grades to prepare for advanced-placement courses as a junior and senior.
"I would be taking regular classes now," she said, "if I wouldn't have gone."
Carrasco wants to be a pediatrician. She has already talked to her school counselor about the possibility of becoming a medical assistant.