Youth Quote Search

• Comparing and contrasting 'job' 'work' and 'career'
• Understanding Job/Work/Career

“[A] career is something that you just want to do in life. It’s like what’s your main goal, I guess, you could say. Because take me and my manager, for example. My manager’s career is being a manager at Panera bread. But for me, it’s just a job. I’m not going to be there my whole life. That is a joke. But that’s her career. She loves doing that. I personally don’t. So, that’s not my career.”

• Aspirations and Goals
• Inspiration and motivations

“And my mom is really, my mom and dad are really like adamant about us knowing like Mexican history and stuff like that.”

• Perceptions of the term 'job'
• Understanding Job/Work/Career

“Overworked.”

• Reflections on Focus Group Experience
• Takeaways

“Thanks…I’m happy to be part of this community and I’ve learned something new from the participants. Thanks a lot.”

• Impact of personal attributes and characteristics
• Pathways

“Positive: White/Caucasian, Irish, Christian, west coast, introspective. Negative: down to earth, humorous, off the beaten path.”

• Perceptions of the term 'mentor'
• Relationships, Connections & Networking

“Maybe someone to guide you to through the work path… keep you on the right track.”

• Describing Identity
• Race, ethnicity, gender, culture

“I put that I’m a male, Catholic. I’m American Mexican, I guess, or Mexican American. I don’t care however you want to say it. I see it more as I’m more American than Mexican…Well, I was born here, and my parents were born here. My grandparents were brought here at a very young age with papers, like they were fixed papers. So my great grandparents had a lot of money in Mexico, so they fixed papers, and they fixed all of their kids’ papers. And then they came over here and stuff, so it’s like I don’t know. The first time I ever went to Mexico was when I was 18. But, honestly, I love Mexico more than I do here. But…It’s just you’re more free, the culture, everything. Like everything, everyone there is just more humble. They’re more hardworking. I actually went to go live there for a whole year just to see what it was like to actually work. Working here in the fields ain’t anything compared to working in Mexico.”

• Aspirations and Goals
• Imagining their future selves

“At 45, I can see myself living in Alabama for sure now; working in a healthcare facility; having maybe one or two kids, a dog, a husband. I see myself being an obstetrician and gynecologist and, you know, being a good parent, nice vehicle, good credit.”

• Challenges and Barriers
• Naysayers and bullying

“Like all of my friends coming from seventh and eighth grade that stood with me in high school, I dropped most of them in ninth grade because they all turned out to be potheads. And I got to be able to pass a pee test for football. So, yeah, I just, I dropped that…It was hard, you know. They always told me something about it, but, I mean, I’m doing me. I don’t want to worry about no one else.”

• Education
• Perceptions of high school

“I think the people at high school help you a lot with the real world because you meet a lot of people…you meet a lot of different people, different types of people, different personalities, they act different all the time. And that just helps you like, I guess, like shape yourself into like what you want to do and like how you handle certain situations, how you handle dealing with certain people that act a certain way.”