to their last year of high school, counselors begin inviting guest speakers from different colleges to motivate students, but this seems inadequate in guaranteeing a higher high school to college transition rate. Plenty of times, adults tell students, “More education equals more money.” This concept doesn’t seem so hard to grasp, so why are there still those who’d rather choose to get a job straight after high school?

Due to the increase in tuition fees for college, those who are financially challenged feel like they don’t have the choice of getting a higher education. College Board, a website that helps high school students apply for college, shows that tuition and room and board fees have gone up 2.6% each of the last ten years.

Sky Ly, a second-year student at Fresno City College, says she sees a trend among those who drop out of school. “If you have a job, you’re just going to keep working, working, and working, and then you’ll come to the point where you stop and wonder, ‘when am I gonna go back to school?’”, commented Ly.

Counselor Ben Reynoso from Upward Bound says that about 97% of his students have gone on to college and the other 3% don’t go to college right after high school. Upward Bound, a program at Fresno State, helps first-generation and low-income, college-bound high school students get into college. The program has several counselors that push their students to continue on their education after high school. Reynoso states that students don’t go to college because they have other plans. “I think a lot of students see college as this thing that, you know, is going to take forever, they either find a job or their priorities are different,” Reynoso said.

Along with the financial aspect, some individuals opt out of college because they think they’d be able to get a head start saving money. Truth is, they will be less likely considered in the selection process for jobs. Panyia Thao, a former college student and current employee at the IRS shared that one of her friends who was hired was laid off several days later because her “education wasn’t enough.” She compared a high school graduate’s status with a four-year college student’s status when competing for a job and it was clear that employers would rather hire the person with a higher educational degree.

Thao said she believes in the importance of education and what it entails for the future of individuals. According to Thao, college provides students the opportunity to acquire the skills needed to obtain a career or a job in the future, but the decision to actually attend mainly derives from the amount of motivation and drive within them. “Two or three years out of college, you’re going to lose all the information you learned in high school…you won’t remember a lot of the knowledge you learned,” says Thao, “and when you decide to go back to college, you’ll start out really fresh and it’ll be hard.”

Inflation and increased tuition is a major problem, but students sometimes forget about the essential aides available. “That’s what the counselors and financial advisors are for,” says Ly, “that’s why you go talk and get more information.” Though she didn’t visit her counselor as often as she could have, the times when she did, Ly said that her counselors did give her helpful information that made her think of her college route.

In addition to the academic advisors available, Reynoso says that his students who did not qualify for financial aid applied to many scholarships or took out loans if attending the more expensive schools. This is an option that people can take advantage of if they feel like they are unable to afford college.

For those who are afraid to take out loans because they don’t want to be in debt, Thao offers that regardless of where someone goes to college, that person will eventually need to take out a loan at one point or another to afford it unless they are wealthy. The point is, no matter how long it takes in college, once finished the hard work and dedication will pay off. The borrowed money will be slowly paid off once a person uses his/her degree to get a job.

Because some students, as Reynoso mentioned earlier, don’t have their priorities straight, they might be thinking about buying a car or something that will benefit them presently. He says that what they need to think hard about is “when I’m 25 or 30, how is having a college education going to help me? And if they really think about that they’re going to know it, the older they get, the more a college education really makes sense.”

In the long run, individuals who recognize the importance of a college education and get a head start on it will prevail over others who don’t realize which path brings a more satisfying lifestyle until later. Thao sums it up by stating, “It’s going to be hard for you to force yourself back into school unless you have the determination…education should come first and you can always get a part time job or go to school part time and work full time as long as you’re still in college and filling your mind with skills and knowledge.”

The teen drop out rate has increased dramatically over the last few years and continues to do so. As a junior at Edison High School, closely approaching my senior year, I see more and more familiar faces dropping out. The kids I played ‘“pee-wee” soccer with and the girls I cheered with in “ pop-warner” are the ones I least expected to ever even think about dropping out and sadly, they were the first of the familiar faces to do so.

Though it may be impossible to force a student to stay in school, I believe there are a few ways of preventing teen dropouts and lowering the rates.

Being a high school student sometimes can be difficult and even I catch myself saying, “Geez, I sure can’t wait to get out of this place!” or “When will high school be over?”

For moments like those I turn to a parental figure and ask for advice. Unfortunately, there are students who don’t have a parental figure to offer them advice. They don’t get the encouragement and motivation they need and deserve.

I strongly believe that if school administration, teachers, counselors, or even fellow classmates took more time to offer words of wisdom to these students, it would show them someone cares and wants them to do well.

Secondly I believe that if more teachers, parents and school administration recognized the good deeds or qualities of those kids who are “always in the office” or the “ditcher” or the “suspended once again student”, it might help that student feel a bit more positive knowing someone is proud of him or her and is willing to show it.

For example, my younger cousin who is in middle school is one of those boys: always in a fight, getting suspended or caught ditching. It seems to be all that his teachers notice. Teachers spend each day with their students and should have a good sense of their students’ talents. My younger cousin is an excellent artist and his art teacher was so focused on the negative things he did that she failed to offer him a simple “good job” after he had completed many beautiful drawings.

He got so discouraged he didn’t see any point in showing up to class if no one would pay any mind to all the good he was trying to do. I am sure there are many students out there who feel the same way. If someone of a higher authority would take the time to guide students on a positive path or simply say “good job”, I am almost entirely sure it will make a difference in the way students view their schoolwork.

My final thought on how to prevent dropouts, offer more one-on-one tutoring or take time to sit and talk with the student who feels “lost”. Make those students feel like someone really does care and wants to help. Tutoring will give the student a chance to catch up on missed assignments, get extra help, or have a quiet place to just sit and study. One-on-one tutoring may benefit more than a group session because it allows the student to get help and ask specific questions on the assignments that she or he might have been too embarrassed to ask in class. A one-on-one chat with the student allows the concerned adult to see what is going on in the student’s life and help them get on the right path.

Although there is no guaranteed way to keep a student from dropping out, offering words of wisdom, recognition for their work and talent, and some one-on-one tutoring and chat sessions will definitely make a difference.

I’ve felt devastated before. I felt alone and crushed. I honestly couldn’t breathe. Sharing these feelings might have been hard for me two years ago during these occurrences, but today I feel strong enough to write about them.

Around two years ago in March my father went to prison. My dad was my best friend, so it was hard for me to wake up and not say good morning to him or have him around to help me train and keep pushing me to do better. Besides the fact that he was inaccessible to me, he wasn’t there to protect me anymore, to tell me when I was working myself too hard, and worse of all, he wasn’t there to protect me from the one person closet to me.

In the month of April, my mother decided she’d rather have her new boyfriend in her life, even if it meant not having me in her life anymore. The life that I knew to be home. Instead of having two of the world’s greatest parents, and two best friends, I’m left with only used-to-bes and should-have-beens. At that time in my life I hated myself. I hated myself for not being good enough for my mother and not taking advantage of the life that I had.

These months of the year are the hardest for me every year. March is the month I lost my father, April is the month I lost my mother, and May is the month I spent my birthday by myself. Instead of feeling sorry for myself and hating the world I’ve become angry and defensive. That may not be the best way to deal with the problem, but for me that’s the only way I know how.

Instead of crying about it, I get mad, and live life not caring as much. I’m not so much reckless, but determined to not let myself care so that way I don’t have to feel the truth. So, that’s way I don’t feel devastated.

-Daisy

From The Beat: We are really sorry to hear about your situation.  It is tough to love people who mean a lot to you.  We have hope that you can fix these relationships regardless of the circumstances.  We wish you the best and hope that you can find the love that everyone deserves.

I just smoked a lid, or a gram and a half, of black tar heroine. I was holding 72 O.P.s, oxyycotton pills, which I was supposed to be selling for ten bucks a pill. Some weird absent feeling came over me and I started taking them all, about a handful. I needed a Dr. Pepper to get the rest down.

Some time later, about 30 minutes, I started shaking. I had felt this before I was overdosing. I ran into my friend’s living room. His mom calls an ambulance and they come and strap me down and start feeding me charcoal.

After, everything just skipped. I was in the E.R. and they said I flat lined for three minutes. They said I was safe now and my chest tingled where they used a defibrillator. My lips were black with charcoal. I had survived death so now all I have to do is survive life.

-Michael

From The Beat: This is a very unfortunate story.  Do you still continue to take drugs?  We hope you are OK and don’t experience long term problems from the overdose.

Reality sucks that’s probably why we dream, why our bodies need sleep so we can escape. Escape this earth at least for a little while. Every night we get to go away.

Sleep is the only time I feel safe. The only time I can leave this cold place, this reality that feels like needles sticking into my flesh, this hell that is so hot it makes my hair sweat. It makes my mind melt.

In my sleep I hear music I see faces, songs, smiles and life hugging me tight never letting me go. Telling me to be strong. Telling me to never give up hope. Sometimes I wake up crying. Sometimes I wish I never woke up at all, because reality sucks.

-Terrell

From The Beat: This is some very poetic writing.  Thank you for sharing this.  We know things can be hard, but we hope you can find that writing helps get things off of your chest.  We hope that one day you can be in control of your own reality.

Being locked up this time is really stressing me out so much, and I feel like all my goals and dreams are far out the window. So trying to keep myself together is really hard, but life has really knocked me down this time, and it’s hard to get back up from the hit! So life throws so many curves at you and it’s hard to take on so many obstacles at once.

Sometimes I’m not bright, but I try to do what’s right. Everything I do is just the opposite and ends up going the wrong way. So how can I retrace my steps and find myself? How can I say I’m happy with myself when I’m not? The world I’m in right now is like I’m opening a door that never ends. I’m trying to get back on track and get my life straight.

-Anthony

From The Beat: Thank you for being honest.  We know things can be hard to get through, but we know you can do it with the right amount of determination.  The process may be long, but it will be worth it all in the end.