“Mentors are what make the future possible for youth,” says North High senior and longtime P4K participant, Eduardo.
While most high school seniors are still trying to figure out what they want their future to look like, Eduardo already has his plan laid out, including college, an internship and a full-time job with a solid company. He credits P4K and the mentor support that he received by participating in the agency programs for helping him to discover at an early age what his future could be.
He plans to earn his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, while interning at OPPD and upon earning his degree would ultimately like to continue on as a full-time production system engineer. “The demand for electricity continues to grow and the grid must grow with it while also switching to renewable sources for power. This career will be great because there will always be challenges and endless demand around energy production,” Eduardo says about his intended career pathway.
Although Eduardo’s laser-clear focus and drive to succeed are rare for someone so young, he admits that he wasn’t always so sure of what he wanted to do or that college was for him. After witnessing multiple family members who struggled to find work after attending college, Eduardo figured it might be better to just start working straight out of high school. It wasn’t until he began participating in P4K in middle school that he started to realize the many doors earning his degree would open for him. With the support of his mentors, he discovered a profession he was passionate about and a pathway to get there.
For more information about P4K’s post-secondary pathway, visit: https://p4k.org/college-access-program/
