Giving Thanks to Career Influencers
When you think about career choice, there are many influencing factors that might pop into your mind like interests, lived experiences, mentors, or even your personality. But did family come to your mind?
Couragion works with students to help them discover potential career pathways by exposing them to career role models. In our firsthand experience interviewing these role model about their personal career influencers, family is often mentioned as the reason why people selected their paths. In the spirit of this season of thanks, we’d like to share some quotes from our amazing role models who received inspiration from their own families.
“I was a football player in high school and I did well. But my parents still always stressed, even when I was getting all these accolades, that your mind is your most powerful asset and weapon and something that people can't take away or have as much control over. Someone can't just bench your mind.”
Temitope, Chief Technology Officer & Startup Co-Founder
“A big influence in my life would be my mother. She's always had a green thumb and liked being outside and in the garden. Gardening is a huge passion for her and I think that influenced me quite a bit as a child.”
Kaylin, Landscape Architect
“My dad has worked in the IT field forever but he's probably the hardest working person I know and has always encouraged me to be fresh in my ideas and goals.”
Jenna, Digital Media Strategist
“My sisters have been a big influence. They both decided to go to med school. Seeing how hard they worked to become doctors, I realized if I took that same intensity and put that into farming, I'm going to be successful.”
Farmer Tyler, Horticultural Scientist & Urban Farmer
“I always had this dream of being a news reporter on the Today Show, but my plans drastically changed from that. I had decided that I wanted to do business (in college) and my mom planted the seed in my head telling me there was a lot of opportunities for accountants, that there were always a lot of jobs, and so that kind of hooked me.”
Annsley, Auditor/Accountant
Special thanks to all our role models and their families for impacting the lives of thousands of students every year!
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1660021. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.