Story #9

A lot of the students at Anoka-Ramsey Community College are high school students who are going Post Secondary Enrollment Option (PSEO). PSEO is a program where juniors and seniors in high school can take college classes and get credit for them. The cool thing is the government pays for it.

Callie Nicohls is a junior who goes to PACT Charter School and Anoka-Ramsey Community College, she has been at ARCC for two semesters (the fall of 2009 and the spring of 2010). “I have to set aside time to study usually between classes and before work”.

Callie goes to ARCC in the morning but PACT Charter School in the afternoons for math, juggling her schedule is hard but she manages to get her homework done. “Yeah it is challenging mostly depending on what type of teacher you have. It’s kind of just like high school where some teachers let you slide through and some make you work for your grade”. Callie is taking 15 credits at ARCC this semester (three classes), an Algebra two class at PACT Charter School, and she works at GAP.
“I decided to go PSEO so I could get all my classes for high school done and earn college credit I also wanted to start to get classes towards my degree done so I wouldn’t have to pay for as many college classes in the future”.

Callie already has her major picked out, “My major is electrical and computer engineering it’s all about making parts for computers like new processors to make it go faster and stuff like that. There is also a field where you can design the electrical schematics for buildings so you could lay out exactly how far away the vents need to be from each other to cool the whole room without too much overlap. It would also deal with how many power outlets are needed and how to space them around the room. Electrical engineers usually just design new electronic and micro chips…I want to go into this field because I was in battle bots and my favorite part about the robot was making it run, all the electrical stuff, so I figured why not a job that I would love to do and make things work.”

“I like everything” Callie responded when she was asked about going PSEO. “Having freedom to go to lunch and hang out with friends while getting my class's done”.
Callie enjoys working at GAP and a number of other things, “I have hobbies I work a lot and I have so much fun. I work at GAP and I work with a ton of people my age or with their maturity around the age of a teenager. I also like to swim. We used to have a pool, but then we moved, but I do love to swim and be in water. I also like to write poetry I have a ton of poems on Facebook and its so much fun to express myself freely.” Working at GAP gives her a lot of opportunities because she now has more money “As a teenager if you have a job the money is fun. Save it [your money] so you can do fun things with your friends”. An example of her work is;

“Do you Know?
Do you know how much I miss you?
Do you know how long I’ve waited,
To hear your voice say my name once again,
Do you know how much I care?
Do you know how much it meant,
When you played my guitar and had me sing along with you?
And since you left my hearts been on fire,
I cant stop thinking about when I’ll see you next.
To give a hug to you,
Do you know how much it hurt when you didn’t call back?
Do you know the memories and heart ache you brought back,
Do you know I wish every white car was yours,
How I long to be with you.”

Callie is a Christian and a Republican. “My religious beliefs are that you need to have a relationship with Christ it doesn’t matter if you’re Lutheran or Catholic or Baptist. The strongest Christians are those that have a personal relationship with Jesus. My political views are republican I think that it is wrong for the government to tax individuals especially taxing the wealthy so those that don’t work can sail through life. I also don’t think that its right for the government to bail out people, I think that companies and people learn by failing so people need to fail so they don’t make the same mistakes again and if that means they have to file for bankruptcy so they don’t lose their house they should”.

Callie’s advice for future PSEO students is “make sure that you actually study. You may not have needed to study for tests in high school but you will for the college classes”. Her advice for people in general is “I think people should have more fun in life. You only get to live once so you should enjoy life. Hug people and do little acts of kindness”.