Exploring Your Future
Planning for your future can be overwhelming!
Here are some resources that you can use starting in high school to help narrow your focus and provide direction. Use the tools below to start exploring.
Step One: Choose Your High School Endorsement
As part of the Foundation Graduation Plan, Texas students are required to declare an endorsement that will influence their path of study in high school. An endorsement is simply a set of courses that allows a student to dig into an area of interest to them. It’s similar to a college major, allowing the student to learn more about a particular subject area.
The options are:
Arts and Humanities
Business and Industry
Multidisciplinary Studies
Public Service
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
Step Two: Start Planning For Long term Goals
It's difficult to predict the future, but it's never too early to start planning for it. Using the lifestyle calculator, you will walk through expenses you will incur each month, decide how much to spend on your lifestyle, determine your minimum salary needs, and have the opportunity to explore occupations that earn the salary that you will need.
Step Three: Explore Different Career Options
Your dream job is out there. But you may not have even heard of it yet.
Some people know what they want to do for a career when they are very young. But maybe you’re unsure! There are jobs out there you haven’t even heard of. Learn about hundreds of different types of jobs from these helpful tools.
Step Four: What Kind of Education Will You Need?
Once you know what type of career you hope to pursue, you can plan how much education you might need to get that job! Start with the end in mind. You have lots of post high school options to choose from.
Additional Resources
If college is in your future, there are lots of factors to consider.
Use this worksheet to start narrowing down your options.
An important piece of college admissions and scholarships is standardized test scores.
You can get customized test prep through Khan Academy for FREE!
Finding colleges and careers that are right for you doesn’t have to be stressful.
Big Future is a wonderful resource to help with every aspect of planning for college.