Climbing to Different Heights

Climbingtodifferent heights

Students opt to start careers, take gap years over college

Stories by Mila Segal, Ellie Cooper, August Lazarro and Juliana Stimac

For a year after Amelia Lonsdale she graduates, senior Amelia Lonsdale will save money to move to and model in Los Angeles.

Lonsdale belongs to Dragonfly Agency and has modeled for three years. She first got into modeling to avoid a more traditional part-time job like waitressing.

“I definitely see it as more of a job than a hobby because it feels like work,” Lonsdale said. “But it is a fun job.”

As her modeling career progressed, she was doing photo shoots weekly. Senior Gia Dorazil, Lonsdale’s friend, said watching Lonsdale’s opportunities grow was surreal.

“It’s not as easy as people perceive it to be, and it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort,” Dorazil said. “You are constantly having to please people and work on yourself.”

Lonsdale plans to network and build her reputation once she arrives in Los Angeles, where she said the job opportunities are more abundant.

Surrounded by friends going to four-year colleges, Lonsdale felt like she was missing out, but she tried not to focus on what she might be missing out on. “I remembered that I could go visit all of my friends in college, and I also didn’t have all the stress that they were having because I know what I’m going to do,” Lonsdale said.

To save up for her move, Lonsdale will bartend at the restaurant Up on Knox and take local modeling jobs.

“I think it will be a great opportunity for her to live on her own, but of course I will miss her,” James Lonsdale, Amelia Lonsdale’s father, said.

He said that Lonsdale’s smarts, beauty and good sense of humor will serve her well while she works to make a name for herself in California. “I have a lot of faith that anything she puts her mind to she can do,” James Lonsdale said. “As long as she is happy doing something, it makes me happy.”

Maddysen Hardee Once she crosses the stage come graduation day, senior Maddysen Hardee plans to pursue her passion, art.

“I want to make and sell pieces by commission,” Hardee said. “I personally prefer to do portraits and draw faces.”

Hardee will be taking business classes at Dallas College, which she hopes will help in her planned career as an a commissioned artist.

“I don’t want the huge amount of debt for a degree I’m not sure I even want,” Hardee said. “I’ve never had a dream job that wasn’t selling my own art.” She will also take the opportunity to explore some other interests in community college, such as anatomy, psychology and math. “I’m hoping that once I’m out of school, I’ll have more time to focus on my art,” Hardee said.

The support of her parents and friends, as well as her own personal drive, have made the process easier, she said.

“As long as what she does makes her happy, then I’m all for it,” sophomore Arin Mann, Hardee’s friend, said.

A fellow senior and friend of Hardee, Marion Hawsey, is also supportive of Hardee’s decision in pursuing community college, and is also supportive of her future art business.

“I feel that she’s a smart individual and she should know what’s best for her future,” Hawsey said. “I will support any choice she makes.”

The countdown to graduation recently started for the senior class, but senior Indigo Hawkins has been counting down every day for the last four years.

“I am more ecstatic than I could tell you,” Hawkins said. “I have wanted to graduate from the first day I stepped foot into high school.”

After much consideration, Hawkins believes going straight to college is not the right path for her because she is not fond of the large social environments that come with going to college.

“I just never really liked school in general, and during quarantine, I realized how school isn’t really for me, and I am not a big people person.” she said. “I can get bad anxiety when it comes to a lot of people. Watching her boss at her current job, a perfume and cologne business, inspired Hawkins to look into a career in cosmetology. Eventually, she wants to own a hair salon.

“I love dying or cutting hair, and I kind of like being my own boss,” Hawkins said.

Although some members of Hawkins’ family are wary of her decision, English teacher Michael Neil, who teaches Hawkins, believes the norm within the district for students to go to a four-year college right after high school creates an environment that fosters unhealthy competition in regard to college admissions. “The social script is one of the things to understand about HP,” Neil said. “The question is not are you going to college, but where. It makes [for] an atypical environment [compared to a] lot of other schools in the country.”

Along the way, one of Hawkins’ biggest supporters has been her close friend senior Stephanie Hanson. The pair have been friends since they were in fourth grade.

Hanson believes Hawkins knows what option is the best for her and supports her decision to forge her own path.

“I see Indigo being her own independent boss,” Hanson said. “She has a great work ethic, and she knows what she wants to do.”

Harry Hook

Senior Harry Hook wants to see the world, and he wants to see it

right now.

Hook believes there’s no better time to venture from country to country.

“You develop yourself as a person instead of going out and learning these school skills,” he said.

The cost of a college degree has ballooned, but a degree doesn’t guarantee a job. To Hook, it isn’t worth it. “In four years, I can spend my money more efficiently and effectively in the stock market [or by] starting my own business and investing in properties,” Hook said. He used to see himself going to Texas A&M with his two best friends, but when it came time to apply, Hook felt hesitant.

“He was having a whole crisis in his plan [of whether or not] to go to college, and he was so relationship driven that he just wanted to go to school, but that didn’t feel right for any of us,” his mom, Brigitte Hook, said.

Though Harry Hook and his mom initially thought a gap year would be a waste, things changed when Hook found a cultural immersion travel program.

“He knew he was smart, and he was going to do well in life, so the gap year makes so much sense for a student like him,” Brigitte Hook said.

The program is called “The Explorer,” an 11 week long gap semester run by cultural education program Education First.

After touring Europe’s major cities, students in the program will spend a few weeks immersed in language and staying in a city of their choice. The last four weeks consist of social and environmental service in Thailand.

“I’ve planned out all the sights I want to see, all the gardens I want to visit, all the museums I need to go check out,” Harry Hook said. “[In Thailand], we’ll be making meals for people [and] building homes [and] schools.”

Harry Hook has been learning French because he feels it will be useful while living in Europe.

“My mom already speaks French because she’s French ,and I thought it’d be easy to do something with my mom,” he said.

Harry Hook’s football coach, Bobby Leidner, doesn’t think college is for everybody.

“You [don’t] have to go to college but get your own education in other avenues,” Leidner said.

As graduation approaches, Hook is excited to learn and grow independently.

“It’s [about] what I’m going to learn: independence, becoming a young man, [becoming a part of] society and being a global citizen,” he said.