Myo Myo Aye is a Class of 2021 grad who's now earning her Pharmacy Tech Certificate and AA at Spokane Falls Community College. She's among the first in her family to attend college. Here, she shares how programs like the College Success Foundation helped her navigate the postsecondary planning process and what she'd tell her freshman self.
Welcome to the SPS Friday 5 - five questions posed in around five minutes to an expert on a given topic. Find all our audio stories at www.spokaneschools.org/listen.
Speaker 1:
Myo Myo Aye is a 2021 graduate who's earning her pharmacy tech certificate and AA from Spokane Community College. She's thinking about pursuing a career in the newborn intensive care unit.
Myo Myo Aye:
Yeah. When you take care of a newborn baby. I would love that, because I love babies very much.
Speaker 1:
Got to love babies. At what age did you start thinking about and planning for life after high school?
Myo Myo Aye:
I think it was when I was in sophomore year, when we have a special guest in our class, that she present a PowerPoint about a program that dealt with the life after high school. After I listened to her speech, I learned that it was very important to start planning for life after high school earlier and not wait until the last year of the school to study.
Speaker 1:
Myo Myo is one of the first in her family to attend college, which meant she had to search out resources on how to navigate financial aid and other post-secondary prep.
Myo Myo Aye:
I've grown up in Thailand. We moved here in 2013. So my parent doesn't know about those stuff at all. They want to help me, but they don't know how to help me, in this situation. They haven't been to college. They just give me courage. They told me to choose exactly whatever you want to do, and just focus on that, and then just go do it. You know, just don't give up, and all those stuff.
Speaker 1:
As you got into the planning process, what resources helped you most?
Myo Myo Aye:
College Success Foundation Achievement Scholar Program. This program helped me with making college planning, test prep, college visits, scholarships and then join in helping me along with the planning stuff, what I'm going to do after high school.
Speaker 1:
What did those around you do that was most helpful?
Myo Myo Aye:
I was really thankful for my teacher to give me this opportunity to learn about the Achievement Program. If she hadn't given me the opportunity, I wouldn't have known about financial aid or the scholarships that I could get, and college visit I could go through to get to know the program that they have for me. For me, it's a great opportunity. Its very helpful for me. I'm very thankful for that.
Speaker 1:
She also says while her family couldn't offer knowledge about college prep, they supported her in making her own decisions.
Myo Myo Aye:
I that there are some families that, not bossy, but most of the time they're planning for their child's life, what classes, what program or what career to choose. I feel like they should have the opportunity themself to get what they want to do.
Speaker 1:
What do you wish you knew as a freshman about preparing for post-graduate life?
Myo Myo Aye:
Yeah. For me, I wish I knew how important it was to start exploring early, even if I don't have a good idea of what to prepare for my life after high school. I should at least have some knowledge and a rough draft of what my life after high school would be like. Just know what [inaudible 00:03:00]. My life after high school, so for me that was very good, a thing.
Speaker 1:
What are your top three tips for students or families as they start planning for after graduation?
Myo Myo Aye:
So for me, just explore early. Even if you don't know what you want. Just know that there's so many out there for you to explore and get to know and get an idea of what you want to do, that kind of thing. For the second, also just ask a lot of questions about the opportunity, the program that you're interested in. They have something that you would like, not just worse when you think, "Oh, I don't like this anymore" kind of thing. For my last one, I would say don't procrastinate until the last year of your high school years. Planning, because if you start early, it'll give you a lot of time and a lot of options and a lot of opportunity. [inaudible 00:03:59]
Speaker 1:
Thanks, Myo Myo.
Myo Myo Aye:
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:
And thank you for taking five with us. You can find all our podcasts at spokaneschools.org/listen.