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Growing up, my parents worked a lot and were not involved in my education. The most they ever did was to be present at conferences. They never spoke about college or even attempted to support me to get there because they themselves never finished middle school. However, I always had an urge to get ahead in life and wanted to be many things "when I grow up" . Unfortunately, I didn't have the tools or skill sets to get me where I wanted to be. Nonetheless, during my senior year of high school the school counselor began encouraging me to apply to school. She and the assistant principal, along with the support of my favorite English teacher, all pulled many strings to get me into college, and even though my GPA was no more that 2.52, I managed to get accepted into the schools I applied to. If it wasn't for them I don't think I would have pursued a life long career in education.

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I'm the youngest of 8 siblings and seeing all of them going to the university inspired me to get an education. My mother was a nurse as well and seeing her working and improving herself everyday was also a great motivation!

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What prepared me for college an career?

Pressure from my parents to do well in school and taking classes that challenged me, but never giving up. As a three sport athlete I was always having to work to keep up in my classes and do well. I definitely did not have much free time in high school. Don't have many stories to share, but I did well in college and had the skills to persevere.

<3

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What prepared me for college and career?

My amazing family!!! I have two really wonderful and supportive parents who have always held high expectations for me without pushing me in any direction that didn't feel authentic. My dad is a stay at home dad (even now - with my brother and I both out of the house - although he certainly still is "on call") and was very strict when it came to academics. My mom is a total boss - an inspiration - who works all the time but afforded us the opportunity to travel a lot as a family when I was younger - which eventually led me to become an Anthropology major at CU Boulder.
My parents were also extremely social growing up - their friends were over for dinner 3-4 times a week. I was very accustomed to interacting with adults, which helped me big time when it came to partaking in job interviews and working with adults at a young age.

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Being an RA in college prepared me for a career in LE.
Being a PO prepared me to be a middle school teacher.

In high school, I had an amazing Rhetoric class that taught me to craft an essay. While I loved almost all of my high school classes for one reason or another, that class left me feeling more prepared than any other.

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Growing up parents owned their own business, and I worked for them as often as possible performing various jobs. Additionally I worked many different jobs during high school, which provided me with basic skills and helped develop a strong work ethic. This work ethic carried over to college, where I was able to work full time while attending school.

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What prepared me for college and career?
My high school offered many AP courses and was an education pressure cooker under the shadow of Stanford. I thrived and found my high school to be more stressful than when I headed to engineering school at UC Davis.
My BS and MS in civil engineering gave the tools to succeed in my first career as "problem solver"/consulting engineer.
Throughout my education I had the support of family and friends and the drive to meet my families expectations.

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A long path of not being encouraged in the traditional avenues led me to the realization that a college degree was something I needed in my life. Today I am still divided between teaching Chemistry or Italian. Some days I teach both, some days I teach everything through similes. Some days I use ideas from my favorite people to expose my students to age appropriate Spanish videos.

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What prepared me for college and career?

- AP Classes in high school, with a lot of support from great teachers and my mom
- Early jobs (starting at 16) due to me having to buy my own car and pay for car insurance
- Minored in education at UC Santa Cruz and substitute taught afterwards
- Went on to career in marketing, ultimately managing 3 employees
- Father of a 9 and 7 year old, which also prepared me for career in teaching
- Now, just my desire to be better than Ben

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Answering the question: What prepared me for college and career?

Both of my parents didn't go to college, so I relied a great deal on my high school counselor. My parents stressed the importance of a college education, so I tried my best to do well at school. My AP classes did prepare me for the work I needed to do in college, but I didn't get much guidance on choosing a career. I eventually became interested in writing and majored in English literature. So, I relied on my parents for emotional support for college. For career preparation, I found myself relying on peers and university support staff. Were it not for counselors and academic advisers, I don't think I would have pursued a college education.

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What prepared me for college and career?
I grew up in a household where it was never a question whether or not we would attend a 4 year college. My parents were always supportive of whatever we wanted to do with our lives as long as, whatever we chose, we did as well as possible. I went to a high school across town growing up so that I could take IB courses. The coursework in the last two years of that program, for the most part, was more difficult than most of my coursework in college. As a result, I felt very well prepared when I attended the University of Portland. After college, I worked a couple odd jobs and then started subbing. I picked up as many band teaching jobs as I could until I moved from Modesto to Santa Rosa. I was hired at my current position while subbing for the outgoing band director in November of 2016.

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I have always enjoyed learning. It wasn't until I had children that I used education as a means for career advancement.

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I have always enjoyed learning. But it wasn't until i had children that I got serious about using education as a means to career development. 

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Answering the question: What prepared me for college and career?
In High School, all seniors went on a college tour of 6 colleges during Spring Break. I chose SF and San Jose and discovered the newly opened California Culinary Academy. I attended for 9 months and started my culinary career in SF Fishermans Wharf at A. Sabellas and Co. A Local 2 Union Chef job at 19 was a real gift.  20 years of working in restaurants and catering and my second career came along. I attended SRJC and Sonoma State with a major in Language Arts. Credential School at Dominican and I was a credentialed Secondary English teacher and Home Economics teacher. After Teaching English for 2 years, I opened the Culinary program at Windsor High School. I have been there 18 years.