News Photo by Reagan Voetberg From left to right, Assistant Principal of Alpena High School Mike Buchinger, and High School Counselors Shannon Studley and Andrea Linton, gather for their counselor collaboration meeting on Tuesday.

ALPENA — You may have heard that kids these days want to make it big by becoming Instagram influencers, Twitch streamers, or TikTokers, but is it as much of a problem as some people make it out to be, or are kids more realistic than they get credit for?

According to counselors at Alpena High School, it’s the latter.

“I haven’t come across anybody that wants to be an influencer of any sort,” AHS Counselor Andrea Linton said.

“When I worked at the Junior High, I had some kids, but here at the high school level, not really,” AHS Counselor Shannon Studley said.

“When I think about kids who foresee a future in social media and being an influencer, most of the time, those conversations are more held with students with an IEP (Individualized Education Program) and special education services,” AHS Assistant Principal Mike Buchinger said.

They agreed that many students are eager to graduate from high school and enter the workforce or start attending college.

Studley said that students have been choosing to go the community college route more often, rather than attending a four-year college, compared to students five to 10 years ago.

“I think one of the biggest changes — I don’t know if it’s a change or if I’ve just noticed it more — is more kids either taking a gap year or going directly into the workforce,” Linton said. “Some of them want to graduate early and just go directly to work like, there’s no stopping them.”

Buchinger agreed.

“I think you’re spot on with the workforce piece,” he said. “I think we have a lot of students right now who would rather be working than in school. We have kids that are running heavy equipment right now as high school students, they’re like ‘This is what I’m going to do for a living. So can I just get to this?'”

Reasons for the shift from four-year colleges to community colleges could have to do with the increased demand for workers in the trades and the increasing costs of college and everyday life.

If a parent or student were to come to the counselors with concerns about a student’s career interests, they would first try to figure out why the student connects with a particular influencer. Once that is explained, they will steer the conversation towards talking about careers that tie with the student’s interests and what the influencer does, Studley said.

They would also encourage students to have a backup plan.

“Explore other avenues as well, you know, just don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” Studley said.

“But I would never say ‘You can’t do that,'” Linton added. “We’re gonna support them no matter what.”

“That’s a conversation with any student we would be having,” Studley said. “It doesn’t matter what they come to us wanting to do. I think we always try to encourage looking at other options just in case.”

They also encourage students to ask questions about their career aspirations like what they know about the position, what kind of barriers they might face in pursuing it, and what kind of training they might need.

“The more questions you can ask the student to kind of open their eyes to all of the steps they need to take to achieve that dream, whether it’s realistic or not, is really important,” Buchinger said.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.