Graduating Seniors Both Ready, Fearful Over Their Futures

Their slogan is simple and catchy, and succinctly expresses their desire to set themselves apart from and outdo Generation X:

“We aren’t just a bunch of zeros.”

The future weighs heavily on the Class of 2000 like no class since 1965. That was the year graduating seniors entered an era of civil rights protests and an escalating Vietnam War, and Time Magazine dubbed them “better educated and more seriously motivated than ever before.”

Members of the Class of 2000 say they feel saddled with similar expectations. They are expected to get good jobs. They are expected to improve race relations on campus. They are expected to tackle problems such as teen pregnancy, drinking and drug use that have defeated generations of socially concerned Americans.

And they are expected to make a difference in their community.

They say they are ready for the challenge.

But they are scared too.

They are standing on the edge of adulthood, and they are anxious about their next step. They don’t know if they will be able to change the world. They don’t even know if they will be able to take care of themselves.

After all, they are only 17 years old.

And besides, they have a lot on their minds. They are counting the days until graduation. They are frantically filling out college applications and trying to line up summer jobs. They are wondering how to survive a few more months of mom and dad, while worrying how they will ever live without them. And they are figuring out who to ask to the senior prom and how to win the class spirit competition.

“People think we’re supposed to be ahead of our time and better than other classes because we are the Class of 2000,” Nordhoff High School senior Jessie Hawkins said. “But I don’t really think we’re different from any other class. We just happened to be born in 1982 or 1983.”

As a group, the Ventura County students in this story have a wide range of interests and skills.

There are student body presidents, peer counselors, cheerleaders and actors. Some are graduating with 4.0 grade point averages, while others are scrambling to get enough credits to finish with their classmates.

They are white, black, Latino and Asian, and represent the changing ethnic makeup of Ventura County.

They hold jobs at fast-food restaurants, golf courses, ice cream shops and garages. And they want to be auto mechanics, teachers, police officers and engineers.

Class Totals Nearly 10,000

Nearly 10,000 high school seniors will graduate in Ventura County this year. Many believe they will have a good chance of getting the jobs they want in the future--especially if they go to college. They are more computer-literate than students have ever been, equipped with skills to design their own Web sites and do online research. They have more information, and more opportunities to explore future jobs through expanding school-to-career programs.

They have more motivation, enthusiasm and energy than Generation X grads, who faced a future clouded with high unemployment, AIDS and ecological doom. Today’s grads, on the other hand, are entering the work force at a time when the county’s economy has been growing rapidly and unemployment is at a near-record low.

But high school seniors also know they will be competing with classmates for jobs, as hundreds of students plan to stay in Ventura County or return here after college.

And most realize a college degree is critical. That is why seniors are filling out applications, gathering letters of recommendation and visiting college campuses. That is why most are participating in extracurricular activities, doing community service, taking SAT preparation courses and joining groups such as the University Club.

“We’re worried but we don’t like to show it,” said Hawkins, who hopes to get a football scholarship to Harvard or Princeton. “Most of the class takes every day as it comes. But we know that we have to graduate and go to college to succeed.”

Emily Adamick wants to go to either UC San Diego or Tufts and study to become an elementary school teacher. She is nervous about getting in to either university, though she has a 4.3 grade point average, plays sports and is student body president at Westlake High School.

“My future depends on where I go to college,” Adamick said. “But I know if I try my hardest, I’ll end up where I’m supposed to be.”

For many students, the worry over “Where will I go to school?” pales in comparison with “How will I pay for school?”

Frank Pedroza, a senior at Oxnard High School, plans to join the Marine Corps so the government will pick up the tab for his education. After college, he hopes to return to Oxnard to work in his dad’s plumbing business.

Simi Valley High School student Sandra Silva, who is considering a career in marketing, plans to attend Moorpark College because it’s cheaper than a four-year university, and transfer later.

“I worked really hard, but I still can’t afford to go to a four-year university,” said Silva, whose mother installs computer chips and whose father is a carpenter. “And my parents can’t afford it either. The state should give more money to education.”

While continuing an education is important enough that the majority of Ventura County seniors see college in their immediate future, not every student in the Class of 2000 will end up in college.

According to state Department of Education data from 1998, 56% of the county’s graduating high school seniors moved on to college.

And not every student will graduate. In the 1997-98 school year, the dropout rate of 2.1% was the lowest ever. Nevertheless, about 2,800 Ventura County students quit school.

“I’m a little worried about graduating,” said Rene Velasco, a senior at Oxnard High School. “I want to do good in school and be successful, but I get mad at myself sometimes because I’m lazy and I talk a lot and don’t always get my work done.”

Social Hierarchies, Divisiveness Cited

In addition to worrying about graduation and college, high school seniors are also concerned about safety on campus. The shooting at a suburban high school in Littleton, Colo., last year--and the realization it could have happened in Ventura County--made a lasting impression on high school seniors here.

Although campus fights are few, local high school seniors acknowledge they live in the same atmosphere of social hierarchies and divisiveness that Columbine students spoke of after the killings. At schools throughout the county, there are jocks, nerds, punks, Goths, skaters and surfers, and there are occasional conflicts among them.

But high school seniors said teachers and principals cannot prevent student conflicts or campus violence. Nor can counselors or police officers. Although their guidance and protection help, students say they are the ones who must take responsibility for tackling the issues. Pedroza said adults need to trust students more.

“People think a lot of teenagers are bad,” he said. “It’s only a small minority.”

Pedroza said he made bad decisions before deciding to focus on school. He said several family members were in an Oxnard gang, and he spent a lot of time hanging around them, though he never officially joined. Then he realized he didn’t need that lifestyle, and decided to focus on school and wrestling.

But Pedroza said he wouldn’t change his past if he had the chance.

“I learned from it,” he said. “I learned what to do and what not to do.”

The social issue that causes the most tension and weighs heaviest on members of the Class of 2000 is race.

In Ventura and Ojai, black students say white supremacists make derogatory comments. At Simi Valley High School, some students of mixed race say they can feel discrimination from both ethnic groups. At Westlake High School, where nearly 80% of students are white, students say the lack of diversity skews their perceptions of race.

And at Oxnard High School, where nearly 80% of the enrollment is minority, students say classmates often cluster by race. They often eat lunch exclusively with members of their own racial group, or join clubs that emphasize ethnic pride.

Ventura High School senior Jennifer Holder said she wants “everybody to stop being racist and prejudiced toward people,” and she is willing to do her part to help prevent race conflicts on her campus.

She works as a peer counselor, helping students who are having problems and may not feel comfortable talking to adults.

“People used to just have fistfights to solve problems, and now they are shooting each other,” Holder said. “We really need to take that seriously.”

Students are also trying to break down stereotypes and promote tolerance through impromptu discussions and activities.

Ventura and Moorpark high schools recently held a Peace Day, during which students brainstormed ways to prevent violence on campus. And students say such workshops unify people of different races.

Jessica Howell said she is optimistic her Oxnard High School class is becoming more tolerant. “When it’s time to unite,” she said, “We unite.”

Students Exposed to Harder Sides of Life

As with many high school seniors before them, members of the Class of 2000 have been exposed to life in a way that makes them knowing, if not wise, beyond their years.

Many have divorced and blended families. They know about drug and alcohol use and about sex and its potential consequences--AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy.

Although teenage pregnancy rates are down, several of the students interviewed said they had friends or young relatives that have kids.

“I’ve seen and heard stories about girls who were doing well in school and then had to drop out because they got pregnant,” said Mario Perez, a Nordhoff High School senior. “They don’t think it can happen to them--until it happens.”

And while the number of drug and alcohol offenses on Ventura County campuses has declined in recent years, seniors say marijuana and alcohol are so pervasive that both are almost considered an acceptable part of the high school experience.

“So much of high school revolves around drinking and so many high school students smoke pot that it’s just accepted,” Adamick, the Westlake High senior, said. “It frustrates me.”

Although Adamick knows students have to make the ultimate decision, she said lenient parents and police officers just reinforce that lackadaisical attitude toward teenage drinking and drug use. “Nobody takes any law seriously,” she said.

Antwaine Richards, a Ventura High School senior, knows drinking and doing drugs don’t mix with serious athletics. Whenever he goes to high school parties, he brings Gatorade. And he hopes others will follow his lead.

But like most seniors, Richards is reluctant to tell his classmates not to drink or do drugs.

The teens said the Boys & Girls Club and Police Activities League programs help deter their classmates from drinking and drugs.

Perez said teenagers use drugs and drink because they don’t want to be left out.

“For a lot of students, they just want to fit in, so they go along with their friends,” he said. “It’s a part of growing up.”

Perez said that lifestyle never appealed to him because he wanted to do well in school. During his freshman year, Perez said, he got involved in the University Club, which encourages Latino students to go on to college and coordinates visits to campuses across the state.

Simi Valley High School’s Brian Vianzon is a DARE role model. He and five of his classmates visit elementary schools to give the teen perspective on drug use. They answer questions and tell the children why they don’t use drugs.

The key, Vianzon and Richards said, is being involved in school, and showing students what else they can do besides drinking and smoking pot. Brian used to play volleyball and now serves as a deejay at school events and is in student government and the Key Club.

Richards plays basketball, sings and is involved in leadership at Ventura High School. “If you are involved in school,” he said, “it helps you keep out of trouble.”

Teens Acting on Need for Volunteers

The Class of 2000 feels the expectation not only to solve problems on campus, but also to volunteer in the community.

Richards and Vianzon are both involved in their churches and do community service projects such as feeding the homeless. Velasco and Howell recently sang Christmas carols at an Oxnard health center for the elderly.

Diane Blackburn tutors students every week at Westlake High School.

“Because of being the Class of 2000, we’re all motivated and enthusiastic about the future,” she said. “We’re all motivated to make a difference.”

But Blackburn and other seniors said there are hundreds of teens who don’t do anything to help the community.

Adamick lives in an affluent suburb, where she said poverty and homelessness are virtually nonexistent, as they are in many Ventura County neighborhoods.

“Everybody’s main concern is what they’re doing Friday night or what they are going to buy at the mall,” she said. “People need to be more aware of the rest of the world and how people live. Westlake Village is not America.”

Pedroza said he is determined to make a difference in his community, even if it’s in a small way. For now, he helps build and carry items for an elderly friend, and plans to donate some of his time to a local hospital.

“Not everybody gets a chance to start off the millennium,” he said. “Nobody else for a thousand years is going to have the same opportunities we have. It’s a chance of a lifetime for us.”