KC Class of '16 graduates 120
KARNS CITY — On Wednesday night, Karns City High School sent 120 new graduates into the world, some on more expected career paths like engineering and others to become translators and even funeral directors.
Unlike many of her classmates, Lauren Bowser of Bruin won't go to a four-year college or enter the work force immediately. She will go to the Pittsburgh Institute for Mortuary Science for a 12-month certification program.
“I'm in the health assistant field, and during clinicals, we had to handle a dead body, do the post-mortem care,” Bowser said. “I knew it was right for me when I was smiling the whole time, and my partner was almost in tears.”
That's when she knew.
“I'm not really a people person, and it helps that (the deceased) can't talk back,” she said.
She's not so worried about the job taking an emotional toll, and her parents seem all right with the idea.
“They said, 'It's money,'” she laughed. “That's all they said. At least I'm doing something with my life.”
On a more common path, a number of honors students seem to be pursuing engineering, including Kentin Codispot of East Brady and Nicholas Dodds of Chicora.
Codispot will attend Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in the fall, and he plans to enter a five-year program, spending three years at Vassar and two at Dartmouth. At the end of that program, Codispot expects to have two bachelor's degrees, one in biochemistry from Vassar and one in engineering from Dartmouth.
Then, his hope is to work in biomedical engineering, but he's not sure if he would want a career in that field or if he would want to do research.
Codispot is looking forward to his future, feeling a little relieved that high school is over, he said.
“I guess I'm ready to be done, ready to move on,” he said. “It's relieving.”
Dodds will be following a similar path to Codispot, hoping to become a biomedical engineer, but Dodds knows exactly what type of engineering he wants to do.
Dodds will attend Robert Morris University in the fall, planning to major in biomedical engineering. He said he's not sure yet but he may double major with mechanical engineering as well.
“I want to do development and improvement of external prosthetics,” he said, a career path he first found through his mother's guidance.Dodds said he may one day pursue a master's degree in engineering through Carnegie Mellon University, which has a program agreement with RMU.Although Dodds has an idea of what he wants to do, he's still nervous about what the future holds.“I'm kind of nervous,” he said. “It's nerve-racking to go into the future and not know what you're going to do.”On the other hand, Alisha Callender of Parker is hardly worried, if at all.“I'm not nervous at all,” she said. “I feel like I've been an adult for five years.”Callender will attend Butler County Community College for one year to get many of her general studies credits out of the way for cheaper than attending a public or private institution, she said.After that, she hopes to transfer to Slippery Rock University or Clarion University to major in Spanish and international business, she said.“I definitely want to major in Spanish and maybe, probably major in international business,” she said. “Then I want to learn as many languages as I can and become a translator.”Callender's love for languages began in ninth grade when she started taking Spanish.“I learned I'm a great memorizer, and I just learned so much (Spanish) so well,” she said. “I know I would love to communicate with so many people.”Callender hopes to study abroad while in college to perfect her Spanish, the language near and dear to her heart. However, once she's done learning that, she wants to learn Chinese, Arabic and other languages important in the international business world.“I just want to be the person they know they can come to when they need something translated,” she said.With a final send-off to his fellow classmates, Zayne Weber said: “With a (Karns City) past like ours, how can we not have faith in our futures? Our futures look promising.”
