Advice for young people making plans for the future

Recently, I have had the chance to hear from a few professionals in different fields as they have discussed what they feel are the most important things to remember when trying to build a successful career. Interestingly, despite coming from different backgrounds, the advice that these professionals offered was largely the same. I felt like it would be worth it to take the time to share some of that advice here, specifically for any students who may be trying to figure out what path they want to take in life.

Last week, I was invited to the Eastern Kentucky University satellite campus in Corbin to check out a special “STEM Goes Red” event that the college put on in conjunction with the American Heart Association. The event was geared towards female high school students, and the idea was to introduce them to different ideas and possible pathways for pursuing a degree in one of the STEM fields of study – science, technology, engineering and math.

I posted a story about STEM Goes Red on thenewsjournal.net last week, so if you’re interested in finding out more details, I encourage you to check that out. Quoted in the story was Dr. Judy Jenkins, who heads up the STEM education program at EKU. When I had the chance to speak with Dr. Jenkins, I asked her what she would like to tell students everywhere as they are making preparations to enter a particular field of study, or take the first steps in establishing a career.

“I would say that you can’t know what you don’t know,” Jenkins told me. “I would encourage students to try things out, and ask people questions. Go visit places and explore. Do some experimentation as they are making decisions about where to go next.”

I also had the pleasure recently to interview Wendy Goff, who is the plant manager at Firestone in Williamsburg. To learn more about her, see the feature story on the front page of this week’s edition, but I will share one quote from that story here.

When asked what advice she would offer to young folks with aspirations of being successful in business, or anything else for that matter, she said, “Just be open to saying ‘yes’ to an opportunity. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know everything about it, or have experience in it. Just say yes to the opportunity, and then go learn how to do it.”

Goff had much, much more to say on this, and again, I encourage everyone, especially young people, to read the full story elsewhere in this week’s edition, but I thought that it was very interesting that both her and Dr. Jenkins’ comments were in line with each other in the sense of it is totally acceptable to not know what you want to do when you’re a teenager, or even when you’re in your twenties.

In fact, Goff explained to me during our conversation that she was a non-traditional student at 30 years of age when she began her seven-year education that ultimately resulted in her receiving an MBA from Morehead State University. After obtaining that degree she began taking on jobs that would eventually lead her to becoming the plant manager at Firestone, but she will tell you herself that the road has been full of twists and turns, with plenty of mistakes and missteps along the way. And that’s okay!

That’s how it’s supposed to be.

Speaking from my own personal experience, I have always wished that I had taken a closer look at the trades coming out of high school nearly twenty years ago (yikes). Even if it had not led to a career, it would have been nice at different times over the years to possess the knowledge necessary to perform HVAC maintenance, or complete a wiring job. This is why it excites me so much to see a big push towards vocational training in our local school systems, with both Corbin and Whitley County now having brand new, state-of-the-art vocational training facilities on their campuses.

As the father of two young kids, I certainly plan on encouraging both of them to try lots of different things before they decide on one career path or another. I would recommend this to current high school and college students as well, and let me tell you… there are a TON of experienced professionals in all disciplines right here in our local communities who I’m sure would be more than willing to offer guidance. All you have to do is seek them out.

So, same as Wendy Goff and Dr. Judy Jenkins, I encourage young people to not be afraid to take their time in exploring several different options, and to also not worry about having to learn things as you go along. Remember, we all have to start somewhere, and that is typically at the bottom.

Just do your best, and learn as much as humanly possible on the way up.