Voices of Experience : Workers From Many Walks Take Simple Message to Classroom: Stay in School

David McCune likes running a Newbury Park publishing company, as he previously enjoyed being a journalist and computer programmer. But he still doesn’t know what he wants to do when he grows up, he told a class of Thousand Oaks students on Wednesday.

One thing is certain, the president of Sage Publications told the group. Without an education, he would not have had so much choice among occupations.

“There’s nobody all day long who tells me what to do,” McCune told the eighth-grade students at Los Cerritos Intermediate School. “That freedom comes from one simple thing: an education. Without it, you’ll be stuck.”

McCune and 19 other business leaders from the Conejo Valley and Ventura County urged students to stay in school as part of the Youth Employment Motivation Program.

Sponsored by the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce, the program shows students role models in blue-collar and professional jobs who point out that any type of work requires at least a high school education.

“It’s the thing I’m most grateful for, my education,” McCune said.

The message is simple, but it has impact because it comes from people who speak from experience in all walks of life, Los Cerritos Principal Jo-Ann Yoos said.

“It’s a way for students to hear people other than teachers or their parents put a value on their education,” Yoos said. “It sometimes holds more credibility for students if they hear it right from the source.

“I don’t think they can hear it enough.”

Ian Joel, 12, said he was impressed by the message of David Johnson, a research assistant at Amgen Inc. Ian said he wants to be a doctor, so he’s starting to prepare now with honors courses.

“He said the better the education you get, the more fun you have in your job, because the better you do in your job, the more fun it is,” Ian said.

Johnson said he participated in the volunteer program because he believes it is important for adults to motivate children to work hard using positive messages rather than scare tactics.

“I think we need to start reaching kids sooner and letting them know we have to be committed to something in our lives,” Johnson said after his speech. “They need to know: Nobody is going to give you anything.”

Even if students do not know what they want to do, it’s important for them to realize that almost anything they eventually choose will require an education, Johnson said.

“Kids want to hang out with friends, but sometimes they have to say, ‘Hey, tonight I’m going to hit the books. I’ll meet up with you tomorrow,’ ” Johnson said. “They need to be dedicated.”

The Thousand Oaks program, part of a national organization, has sent speakers into middle school classrooms annually for seven years, said Linda Van Zandt, a GTE market analyst who recruited this year’s volunteers.

Nearly 100 speakers agreed to visit classrooms at all four Thousand Oaks middle schools this week, Van Zandt said.

Kathy Elliott, a staff coordinator at Amgen, said she volunteered for the program because she sees how valuable it could be to get students thinking about their futures before the end of high school forces decisions on them.

“When I was in the eighth grade, all I knew was next year I’d get to be in high school,” Elliott said.