Sequoia teachers and staff traditionally encourage their students to take the four-year college route or have encouraged students to continue their education in the best way that fits them. They have emphasized taking a gap year, encouraged students to go to trade schools, and even talked about going to the military, but not much is mentioned about the community college route. It’s mentioned but not really focused on as much as the others options, which is a bit odd considering we live very close to two great community college schools.

With this being the case at Sequoia, the students who choose the community college route are often looked at differently than the students who choose a four-year college, trade school or gap year. 

“There definitely is a sort of negative stigma around going to community college after high school especially with our senior class [of 2024],” senior Emilyn Chaidez said. “I feel like a lot of people perceive it as your being lazy or don’t want a good education but it’s actually the complete opposite purpose for me.” 

In this generation, especially for high schoolers, students are expected to succeed in their education. We have all felt hard pressure to over-succeed in our academics to make ourselves feel like we’re doing something right in our young lives. There is often this ideology that if you don’t go to a prestigious four-year university then you’re setting your future up to fail, which can only be true if that is your intention after graduating.

“I think when people hear that I’m going to community they almost feel sorry for me which I don’t get,” senior Jenifer Vazquez said. “I feel like that’s the right path for me because it allows me to explore a career that I think I might love which is beauty and makeup. You can’t really major in beauty in a four-year college.” 

There’s many different reasons why students choose a four-year college versus community college. For the four-year route, some students want the college experience, some know what they want their career to be right out of high school and some just go because it’s college and that’s what they feel they are supposed to do. For students who choose community college, some students go to figure out their major, want to save up money so they can transfer to a university or they simply have no idea what they want to major in.

 “ I don’t want to go to a university when I don’t know my major because I don’t want to waste my time in a school where I’m not gonna know what I’m doing, it just doesn’t make sense to me,” Chaidez said.

Even though Sequoia prioritizes their students going to a university, there is a lot of stuff behind the scenes that puts a lot of effort into the students that are going to community college. 

“We totally switch our gears once second semester starts […] we go into the academy classes and we help the students with the higher majority of going to community college […] and we also get the counselors to help us,” College and Career Center Specialist Teresa Ignaitis said.