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High school students get view of a future without an education
Santa Rosa Piner High freshman Noemi Sanchez, right, hands the last of her pretend paycheck over to Dylan Burr, who played the role of grocery store clerk during an exercise to demonstrate how quickly your paycheck is spent in today's economy.
JOHN BURGESS/THE PRESS DEMOCRATPublished: Monday, November 16, 2009 at 4:24 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, November 16, 2009 at 4:24 p.m.
In a role-playing activity to highlight the importance of money management, Piner High School freshman Noemi Sanchez thought her staged life sounded pretty good: a job paying more than minimum wage, an apartment on her own and tons of freedom since she dropped out of high school.
But then her classmates, posing as a tax collector, landlady, utility company rep and insurance salesman came calling.
That $1,500 paycheck? Gone.
The take-away message? Stay in school, graduate in four years and give yourself more choices once you have a diploma in hand.
“If we move out right now, we won't have as much money,” Sanchez said. “We should finish school. If not, we we won't really have a life.”
Sanchez and her fellow Piner freshman were part of the first installment of a pilot program in Santa Rosa City Schools to highlight opportunities lost if students don't complete high school in four years.
Choices, a national program sponsored locally by the North Coast Builders Exchange, began Monday at Piner but will include every freshman in all Santa Rosa City high schools.
High school may only be four years, but its impact on students' futures is immense, said Keith Woods, chief executive officer of the builders exchange. Over the course of two days, presenters will literally unfurl a student's lifeline to show how long students spend in high school and yet how decisions made during those years impact their futures.
“It's an eye opener for anyone who sees it,” Woods said. “The choices you make in high school will affect the next 70 or 80 years of your life, the job you have, the kind of money you can put into your retirement.”
The builders exchange has committed to raising $30,000 to present the two-day program to more than 2,000 high school freshman this school year. The cost covers licensed materials, training and staff time, Woods said. There is no cost to the school district.
The builders exchange tapped the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to provide volunteer presenters who would commit to giving presentations in one classroom per month over five months.
“It's really being honest to the kids,” presenter Juan Hernandez, owner of Mawson Computer Center and president of the Hispanic Chamber, said of the program.
“Being a Latino myself, a lot of what the kids are going through there right now, I can relate to them. I can understand their frustration and their lack of vision of what is out there,” he said.
Reaching students early in their high school careers is key, said Carl Wong, superintendent of Sonoma County schools where the four-year completion rate among high schoolers is between 75-78 percent.
Budget cuts have slashed summer school offerings and other support programs so students who fall behind in their credit accrual quickly face steep hurdles to graduation, Wong said.
“High school is rather unforgiving in that you have to hit certain levels of credit accumulation along with coursework before you can get a diploma,” Wong said. “It opens students eyes. Yes you might have to make sacrifices in high school, but those sacrifices translate into an entire lifetime of greater opportunity.”
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