Okay, you have made it. It is now ten years after your Valencia graduation. You have just found the contact information of a close friend you had in your SLS class. You haven’t seen each other since graduation. How would you describe your life? What would you say in this letter? Fill in the blanks below.

Okay, you have made it. It is now ten years after your Valencia graduation. You have just found the contact information of a close friend you had in your SLS class. You haven’t seen each other since graduation. How would you describe your life? What would you say in this letter? Fill in the blanks below.

Dearest Abdallah, a.k.a Ghaith of Valencia,

I can’t believe it’s been ten years since we graduated! So many things have changed for me. First off, I’m told I look amazing and not to mention,  lol hot, but I can’t believe I am in the corporate world, and my life is so formal, and it isn’t cool anymore. WOW…how different things are since we graduated, can you imagine a woman in the White House, smart TVs with tons of channels and no commercials AND finally no more Kardashians!

Hey, do you remember what I put on my mortarboard at graduation? To whom it may Concern: Give me a job. Love Me. It took a while, but I did land a job. Those Skillshops on job hunting helped me. Skillshops, I wonder if Valencia still has them.  After college, I went and started working with my family business just as I had planned. What I didn’t plan was thereafter going on my own way and starting my own business in the near future. Presently, I am working as an associate consultant for a store owner and styling up clients. My job is located in the west of Orlando, Florida, the home of a dozen amusement parks. I am glad I get to wear what I consider my own brand shirt when going to work. The best thing about my job is that I get to really help people and solve their problems no matter how small and my work team is dedicated and supportive in giving identity to our professional clients. Remember that book we read about the guy from TOMS shoes and how he believed in his company giving back? The company I work for believes that there not the only ones but that they’re the best around.

Do you remember how we learned about our strengths and values in class? The funny thing is, a couple of my strengths were high achiever, patience, determination, and resilience.

I use these strengths at my job and home by systematically achieving my goals and be patient all the time when I feel I am not catching up.

Remember that presenter who told us about jobs in the future? We said, “ya’ right.” I think she was a vegan and said that in some large cities, we’d have vertical farms in the future. I hear that in China they do. You had a “Fitbit” on that day, and she noticed and said someday we would have M.D.T.’s a.k.Medical Doctors of Technology. I think she went on and on about branding with all that mumbo-jumbo and told us to watch our Facebook and other social media postings and pictures. Then she told us, someday, we’d have “Digital Image Consultants” to help people develop a new on-line persona in case they have been outcast by the stuff they had on Facebook. I laughed out, jokes on me, guess what my BFF does for a living!

Even though I’m doing well, I still find that my life is very awkwardly challenging.

I live in the city of the seventh heaven and is a wonderful place known as Greenville Crest that is really close to a huge theme park, and it’s awesomely beautiful with lots of high meandering roller coasters. In my spare time, I’m out to learn Spanish, and I am in love with the accent, I even took up dancing classes to fit in with the culture, and I’ve gotten good at it. But I really enjoy spending time catching up with my friends even if it’s just over a cup of coffee. When I get a vacation, I usually go to sun bask at the beach and watch the sunset fade away. The one thing I wish I could do is to be able to travel around the world as much as I’d want.

Over the years, the thing I’ve come to value most in people is love, honesty, and forgiveness.  I ‘m pretty happy with my life because of this: it is peaceful but equally exciting.

I hope life is treating you well and that you’re true to yourself. So my friend, embrace the ride and don’t panic, hang in there and laugh more! Enough about me. Write back soon and tell me what has been going on in your life!

Your Friend,

My Plan for making my future a reality:

In the next 30 days, I will get all my work done on time

In the next 2 years, I will graduate from school.

In the next 5 years, I will achieve at least 20% of my goals.

In the next 7 years, I will have my own business.

National Center for O*NET Development. http://onetonline.org  

The O*NET Database provides information such as skills, abilities, interests, and work values, as well as links to labor market and wage information. Clients can use the Skills Search feature of O*NET OnLine to generate a list of occupations that require a range of skills similar to their own.

Occupational Outlook Handbook

Revised every two years by the U.S. Department of Labor, this is one of the best resources for basic information on most jobs.  This book provides descriptions for more than 250 major jobs where over 90 percent of people work in the United States.  Using short, readable descriptions, this reference provides information on pay, working conditions, related jobs, projected growth, skills, and education required.  Also available online at – www.bls.gov/ooh/

Health/Allied Health Career Info: http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/home

What Can I Do with a Major in? University of North Carolina, Wilmington. 2014.

http://uncw.edu/career/WhatCanIDoWithaMajorIn.html

Florida Virtual Campus Florida Department of Education www.flvc.org

Search for academic programs at all levels (associate, bachelor, masters, doctoral) and transfer and admission requirements to Florida’s colleges and universities.  Research online courses and programs.

Dr. Kit, 2011. www.drkit.org

YouTube videos of professionals discussing their careers and answering questions about their jobs such as, “What is a typical day at my job?”

Associate in Science Degree Program Requirements—Valencia

Associate in Science (AS) degrees are offered for individuals who plan to study for approximately 60 credits and then enter the world of work. Those AS degrees marked “Articulated” are transferrable to a state university and count towards a bachelor’s degree. Non-articulated AS degrees can be transferred to UCF’s Bachelor of Applied Science program after completion of extra courses such as a foreign language. To review Valencia’s AS program requirements, go to http://valenciacollege.edu/asdegrees.

Associate in Arts (General) and Associate in Arts (Transfer Plans) Program Requirements

An Associate in Arts (AA) degree is the first 60 credits of a 120-credit bachelor’s degree. Both the AA (General) and AA (Transfer Plan) are designed to prepare a student to transfer to a state university. A student with an AA degree can transfer into any major at the university level, but the student must also research the university admission and major requirements to confirm that appropriate courses are being completed. The AA program requirements are available at http://valenciacollege.edu/aadegrees.

Internship Office – Internship and Workforce Services offers multiple methods for students to find internship positions, part-time and full-time employment. http://valenciacollege.edu/internship/ (internship homepage)

http://net4.valenciacollege.edu/communityjobs/ (job search)

Internship search is through Navigator located in Atlas (Courses Tab)

Peterson’s 4-Year Colleges

This is an important research tool for information on accredited four-year colleges and universities in the US.  Nearly 1000 in-depth college descriptions include information on the academic program, majors available, cost, college life, athletics, and computers and library resources available.  Peterson’s online – www.petersons.com