Joslyn Pischke and Sam Johnson are high school classmates with very different post-graduation plans.
Pischke, a 15-year-old sophomore, has excelled in school and wants to go to college to study equine science to further her passion for rodeo and horses.
Johnson was never interested in going to college. The 18-year-old high school senior is passionate about hunting and wants to become a full-time hunting guide right after he graduates.
Amanda Knapp, the school’s guidance counselor, is working to make both of those paths possible. She set Johnson up with a hunting guide apprenticeship, and as a result, he has a job secured in the field once he graduates. And since Pischke showed she was completing her schoolwork and maintaining high test scores, Knapp arranged for her to take time off from school to compete in rodeo.
Those opportunities are a core feature of Upton’s mission to prepare every student to pursue one of three paths after they graduate: college, career, or the military.
To do this, Upton uses a personalized learning model, in which teachers give students the lessons and standards that they’re required to be proficient in, and students get to choose how they want to practice what they learned.
Take Sophie Louderbeck, 19, who graduated from Upton in 2024. She now attends Black Hills State University in South Dakota, where she studies elementary education. She said that Knapp helped make that possible by shifting her schedule while in high school to allow her to do a work-study program at a day care.
“I’m not only academically ready to go into the work field or get a job, get a career, but I’m ready to go with my work experience,” Louderbeck said. “So I know how to build a résumé. I know how to be on time, how to be responsible, because I learned that all in high school as I was getting to do that work study.”
Upton’s focus on preparing students for whichever path they choose postgrad — even if it’s not college — reflects the shifting sentiment on higher education among Gen Z. More younger Americans are choosing to forgo the standard four-year college experience in favor of trade schools or directly entering the work force as labor demands change and student debt remains high. While college still pays off in the form of higher wages, some high school students told Business Insider it’s not the path they want to take.
Knapp said Upton’s goal is to equip every student with the skills they need to succeed and give them a leg up on entering a competitive workforce.
“We do a really good job of working on those employability skills that they need,” Knapp said. “We’re not just teaching content, but we’re teaching, ‘How are you a good employee? How are you a good citizen?'”
An advantage in the workforce
Knapp worked as a guidance counselor at a charter school in Colorado for a decade before taking on the same role at Upton High School eight years ago. While she knew what being a school counselor entailed — working with each student to help them figure out the educational path that works best — she said she had no idea what she was signing up for when she accepted her new role at Upton.
“They kind of talked about it when I interviewed, but until I was actually doing it, I had no clue what it actually looked like,” Knapp told Business Insider.
Knapp described one student who wanted to work in emergency medical services. While the student cannot be EMS-certified until she turns 18 in November, Knapp said she called three nearby EMS locations to sign the student up for classes to give her a head start on her certification requirements.
Another student whom Knapp worked with wanted to be a dental hygienist. The closest dental office was about 45 minutes out of Upton, and Knapp said she called and asked the office if the student could shadow the hygienists. The office agreed, and Knapp rearranged the student’s schedule to make it work.
“We now have her in a medical terminology class, and then she’ll continue taking college classes where, when she goes to college, hopefully she’ll have at least a year of college under her belt to start so that she’s ahead of the game,” Knapp said.
Clark Coberly, Upton’s superintendent, told Business Insider that not only does the personalized learning model allow students to tailor their education to their interests, but it also allows them to be more independent because it’s on them to communicate their interests to their teachers.
“If they have more agency in their learning, they also have more agency and ownership in their life,” Coberly said. “So they’re able to tackle some of the challenges that they may be faced with as they enter into the workforce.”
It’s also getting easier for Americans who choose to forgo college to get a job. More states have eliminated college degree requirements to get hired, and at the federal level, the Trump administration has promoted trade schools and alternative paths to a typical college experience.
Knapp acknowledged that bigger and more urban public schools would face more hurdles in accomplishing what Upton has because full participation is key, and it’s challenging to get every teacher and family on board with a personalized learning structure. The rural location also helps, Knapp said, because the community is smaller and has connections to the agriculture industry.
Coberly said he hopes the model can gain momentum nationwide.
“This is an advantage for our students and we want to give our students an advantage in the world,” Coberly said. “And we know all school districts want to find a way to do that.”
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