CareerZing: How are you feeling about seeing your senior graduate and move onto the next step in life?
With great pride, I recently watched my son graduate from high school with high honors. It has been very exciting over the past year watching him receive letters from colleges around the country, pursuing him to attend their schools. Then the acceptance letters arrived and I watched him feel happy and rewarded that his hard work paid off. However, it is also with some sadness that he will be attending college (FSU) so far from home. I know it will be good for him to learn to be on his own and I am confident that he will handle the next step in life with maturity as he has the last 4 years. Being my youngest child, I will have to deal with missing him and the empty nest syndrome. Overall, my main feeling is one of joy for all his accomplishments and trust his future will be rewarded as a result.

CareerZing: What is your senior excited about at this time in his life?
He is excited about:

• Never having to adhere to the HS dress code again.
• Going away from home for the first time and being in charge of himself.
• Attending the FSU Seminole Booster Pep Rally on August 29th.
• Eating at the 15 different restaurants (including a sushi bar) on FSU campus.
• The new Harry Potter book to be released in July. (So am I)

CareerZing: What apprehension, if any, are you seeing them go through?
Zager: He is apprehensive (and excited) about: Being away from home for the first time and in charge of himself. Meeting new people and maneuvering a new environment. The difficulty of college classes compared with high school curriculum. Keeping the required grades to keep his scholarships. Being so far from home and relying on campus transportation. (no car) Doing his own laundry and being totally self sufficient (although he is already very independent at home – he should do fine.) Overall, I think the enormity of this realm of life beyond high school has been overwhelming to him. The recent two day FSU orientation has helped relieve some of his anxiety about campus life.

CareerZing: What steps do you feel you can take to help him cope with the apprehension?
Have open discussions with him on the different topics of apprehension. Discuss different scenarios of possible situations. Discuss our own college experiences with him. Reassure him that millions of people survive going away to college every year. Review the different types of counseling opportunities available at the college as well as peer counselors available. Encourage him to become involved in school activities and to meet new people who are in the same new situation. Teach him to do laundry now and to call home often!

CareerZing: How much effort/attention is your senior giving to exploring careers?
At this time he seems to be putting little attention into exploring careers. I think he believes when he gets to college it will come to him. He is aware of his own interests and strengths. After attending the recent two day FSU orientation, he realizes he is not alone. He is now aware of the many helpful career programs available on campus and plans to take advantage of them. I’ve encouraged him to explore different areas of interest by reading and research especially on the FSU website which provides a multitude of career information.

CareerZing: What experiences in the past have helped him shape the ideas he does have about his future career choice?
I believe his love of all sports since early childhood has formed his desire to have a career in sports in some capacity. He has played almost every sport since his early days at the “Y” in Florida. He is smart enough to know that one injury could ruin a career. The competition in the professional sports arena is difficult to break into so if he could incorporate his academic strengths and use them somewhere in sports management. I believe that would make him happy and fulfilled.

CareerZing: So he is interested in making a career out of his interest in sports? How will he learn more about the opportunities available to him using his interests and talents? How do think he can best refine this into a career?
He is planning on taking advantage of the many career counseling resources that the university has to offer. I think he can best refine this into a career by continuing to research these areas with help from the university career program. It could also help for him to speak with people in this profession to shed some insight on how they arrived where they are.

CareerZing:Who has been the most influential person/people to them as it relates to their decisions about the future and why?
He is still undecided about his future and that no one in particular has influenced his decisions. (He has a mind of his own.) While at orientation he was counseled and entered the Exploratory College program which works with the undecided students. He found that there is a Sports Management program available and will continue to investigate that and other programs. He feels confident that he can declare a major by the second semester. He does add that his mother influenced him to continue his education past high school to college.