This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Career and College Major Guidance with Tonda Bean.

Choosing a career and a college major can be a huge stressor for homeschool high schoolers. That’s why we were so excited to talk to a subject matter expert in that field, Tonda Bean from Wisdom in Minutes.

When Tonda was in high school, she had good grades, so she thought, “I will just go off to college and everything will be fine.” As she got closer to graduation, she realized that she would need to choose a college major.

Unfortunately, she had no idea what to choose! So she talked to her father, who was an engineer. He thought it would be great for her to be an engineer. However, he was wise. He knew she needed to find her own path, so he asked her, “Well, what do you like?”

Tonda liked chemistry, so he suggested chemical engineering. That made sense to her, too, so she chose chemical engineering as her college major.

Unfortunately, when she got to college and started studying chemical engineering, she did not enjoy the work. However, she felt like she needed to stick with it.

Then there was an optional weekend trip to a chemical plant. Tonda thought, “Let me go and see my future. This will inspire me to keep going.”

And when she got to the chemical plant, she was not impressed. She said to herself, “Ooh, no. No. Oh, not this, no!”

After she got back to college, she changed majors to the school of business.

Tonda enjoyed her studies as a business major. She also liked the possibilities for a career better.

It was a good choice, but she did lose time because she had to start over on her major courses. She also lost a full-ride scholarship. Tonda ended up needing to take classes at three universities to stay on track for graduation. She did graduate and enjoyed her career in business.

Tonda got married and had children. When they were in high school, she realized that they were on that same I-don’t-know-I’ll-just-be-a -good-student kind of path. So, she said to herself, “Let’s not do that again!”

So she started working on a system to help them envision their own future. For instance, she explored with her teens to explore their interests and ask questions like:

“What do you like, what do you not like?”

During that time, Tonda also became a scout leader. When the scouts would ask her for recommendation letters for college or other opportunities, she found that they often did not have a resume that they could give her. Resumes are helpful for recommendation writers because they give recommenders more understanding of the teen and their experiences.

She would tell the teens, “If you don’t have a resume, you’re not ready for people to like you! As you grow up, if people like you, they ask for a resume!”

By the time Tonda’s teens applied for college, they knew what they wanted and needed for college majors and career choices. Her teens went to New York University and Harvard. Since their graduation, they both entered careers that they wanted to be in, doing the work that excites them.

So many high schoolers go to college without being settled on the right college major. This costs them time and money. National Student Clearinghouse says the average is only 62% complete undergraduate work in six years. (Six years is now the average number of years for graduation from college.)

Today, Tonda works with high schoolers using her four-stage program.

They look at possible careers to see if that career matches their dream and personality. I call it “dream big”. She asks questions like:

They discuss the teens’ interests in different careers, then start planning what the high school educational needs will be so that their transcript is college-attractive.

Apprenticeships are one way to do this. Teens learn that there are two kinds of work. There’s work done for payment, and there’s work done for enjoyment. Tonda works with teens to see if they can find the overlap where they can enjoy more or less, and the things they’re doing to get paid.

Sometimes, when teens look at a possible career close up, they find that they do not like that career after all (like Tonda’s trip to the chemical plant). That’s good news! That teen found out that a career was a poor fit without wasting time in college!

They can also interview several adults about their careers!

Tonda helps high schoolers choose a college that has a strong program in that major, along with the degree that fits them.

When a college and a college major are chosen, Tonda works with teens on resume development. They will give this resume to people whom they ask to write their recommendation letters.

Thanks to Seth Tillman for editing.

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