Over 90% of students at Homestead High School will go to a college or technical school after graduating, but a very small percentage of them will go directly to the military like Vayda Schmidt, senior.
Schmidt plans on going to the Air Force after she graduates, a different route from most Homestead students.
The Homestead website describes how they prepare their students for college and technical school with things like the AVID program but soem students such as Schmidt have different plans.
Schmidt said, “ I have always thought about joining the military but what branch I was going to join was a different story.”
Schmidt has many family members who were in the military, so she went to them for help to determine what branch she would explore.
“I talked to my family about what branch i should go to and after lots of deliberation we were stuck between the Air Force and the Army,” she said.
Schmidt explained that she decided to join the Air Force as they had the most opportunities for women and that they were the branch that treated their personnel the best.
After this decision, she went to the recruiter and talked about what she needed to do next.
“I needed to pick a day to do the Asvab witch ended up being on a Monday as that was the only day I was available.”
The next week she went to the Wauwatosa Meps center where they took her into a white room with other recruits to wait. “I had to wait a while but finally they called me in to take the tests,” Schmidt said.
There were four tests that measured what jobs you were best equipped for.“After the tests they took us in a different room and told us to wait, I was able to talk with the other people there. It was fun. I ended up doing well enough to pick what I want.”
Schmidt explained that she decided on going into dentistry as she was interested in it from a young age as one of her mother’s friends was a dental assistant. She also explained, “the way you specialize in something is that you have to go to a tech school; for example, the one I’m going to is five weeks long, but before that I have to go to basic training.”
Because of basic training and school, Schmidt might not be able to see her family for up to three months, but she has a plan. “Between basic training and tech school there is a possibility that I’m able to be a recruiting assistant. I would come into schools like Homestead and try to help the recruiters by connecting with the kids more.”
Schmidt aid that this would be preferable as she would be able to visit her family for a couple of weeks before she would be shipped out to technical school. Schmidt is planning on leaving to basic training this August.
