another conversation
The next one is raise homing pigeons.
Do you know what a homing pigeon is? So, when you watch those old movies where they’ve got a bird and they tie a note on the bird and it flies from one place to another, that’s a homing pigeon.
I’m not giving you permission to raise homing pigeons. Talk with your parents first. Okay. But here’s my question.
Do you know anybody who who raises homing pigeons? No, not at all.
And I’ve asked that question literally a thousand times and the answer is always If if someone was to do that, that would that definitely would be different. Now, I mentioned this to Quincy and she said, “Oh, what if I was to raise quail for their quail eggs?” And then I uh created a eBay page and sold those quail eggs.
I’m like, “Yes, do that.” And she did do that. And she was able to write about that in her essay and in her resume. I raised quail eggs, sold them on eBay. I want to study veterinary science and be a veterinarian. Your Arizona college admission advice has an animal science program. I want to do that. So again, we we tied her interest back in with what she wanted to study in Arizona college admission advice.
Start a recycle program. Uh conduct some scientific research.
Uh write for your hometown newspaper.
If you like to write, then maybe submit
some articles to the local media,
newspapers, magazines,
um periodicals, whatever is local. If
you decide to do that, make sure that
you put in there, this article written
by high school student. If you put in
there, this article is written by a high
school student, you’re more likely to
get it published because the media loves
that stuff. Okay? Or if you like to take
photographs, you could submit your
photos to media, newspapers, magazines,
uh, etc., Uh maybe even TV stations, not
radios, but uh radio stations where you
could submit to TV stations because
maybe they’ll put that up on on the on
the show. Uh and that would be fun
because then you could put in your
resume. I wrote this article and it was
in the Arizona Republic or I took this
photograph and it was on 3TV.
Uh the next one is manage a rock band.
There are lots of aspiring high school
musicians that want to be rock stars. My
question is out of all of them, how many
how many of them actually have a
manager? And the answer is probably zero
or very very low.
Uh play the stock market. This was
David. He took his birthday money and he
opened up a trade account and he was
buying and selling and trading some
stock.
Um the next
suggestion is buy some real estate,
invent something or apply for a patent.
Um this might be you. So when I had this
conversation with Matthew,
he said, “How do I tie engineering with
my interest in guitars? I play electric
guitar.”
So I started asking him some more
questions. He was in a band at his high
school. Uh, no, they didn’t have a
manager. He was also in the youth band
at his church. He played guitar for his
church. And then I asked him a couple
more questions and I found out that he
likes to browse YouTube,
looking at electric guitars and the
electric guitar effects pedals. Do you
know Do you know what an effects pedal
is?
So, when you see a musician playing the
guitar and they and they step on
something on the floor, that’s the and
it makes the echo or the reverb sound.
That’s an effects pedal.
And um Matt Matthew told me he was
looking at YouTube and he was looking
for a specific sound
and um he said he really didn’t find
what he was looking for. And I said,
“Why don’t you build one?”
And so he went out and he found the
schematics and through some trial and
error and soldering some stuff together,
he built one and it worked. And then he
was able to write about that in his
essay. I play electric guitar uh in the
band at my school. I also play in a
youth band in my in my church. I like I
like the sound of electric guitars. I
uh do some research and browse YouTube
looking at effects pedals. I didn’t find
what I was looking for, so I decided to
build one. And through trial and error,
it worked. And I want to study
engineering at your school. And maybe
when I graduate, work for an effects
pedal company uh when I have my
engineering degree. So again, we tie
that all together in a nice neat little
bow. Uh run for public office,
uh swim the English Channel, or run a
half marathon.
That was Bethany. When Bethany came into
the office, she said, “My goal is to be
an army nurse.” And she said she wanted
to win the ROC military scholarship.
To win the ROC military scholarship, you
have to have four things. You have to
have good grades. You have to have good
test scores. And you have to have
leadership in activities that you’re
involved with. She had those three
things. And then the fourth thing was
athleticism
because ultimately what’s a soldier? A
soldier is an athlete. and she met with
a um
with a a a person who helped her develop
a workout regimen and she started
running and by the time she was a high
school senior she was running half
marathons and getting on the podium to
do that and as a result of all that she
ended up winning the ROC scholarship and
she’s now an army nurse.
Um, the next one is write and publish a
book.
With the advent of self-publishing, it’s
super easy to do that today. Uh, and
that is Avalon. She, uh, wrote a book
and you can buy it on Amazon today. The
name of the title of the book is
The Adventures of Captain Acorn. And um,
it’s about a squirrel who’s a pirate.
It’s a really cute story. And then she
wrote The Further Adventures of Captain
Acorn. Uh so that’s her second story and
she’s working on her third installment.
Uh she hasn’t told me what that one’s
going to be, but I’m sure it’s going to
be a continuation of um The Squirrel
Pirate.
The next is create a club or charity in
your school
and take your idea and push it as far as
possible.
So, I had a conversation with Laura.
It was probably April of her junior year
and she um she went to Hamilton High
School in Chandler and I don’t know if
they still require it today or not, but
at that time they required the seniors
to do a senior project. Mhm.
And she was telling me about this and
she says,”I want to do a senior project
that I can write about in my essay and
put it in my resume as well.” And I had
remembered when she was a freshman in
high school that she uh chopped her hair
off and donated it to Locks of Love. Do
you know what Locks of Love is?
I’ve heard of it. I’ve heard of it, but
I don’t know what it is. It’s a It’s a
charity organization where you donate
human hair and then they um take that
human hair and weave it into wigs and
then they give those wigs to cancer
patients.
Okay. So, she chopped her hair off and
donated to Locks of Love when she was a
freshman and then she convinced two of
her friends when she was a freshman to
do the same thing. Now, here we are
three years later, her hair is grown out
again. I said, ‘Why don’t you do the
same thing, only this time push it as
far as possible. Instead of you getting
a couple friends, why don’t you get 10
friends and then your other friends all
get 10 friends and now we’ve got over 30
kids and you all show up on the same at
the same uh hair cutting place on the
same day at the same time and all of you
chop your hair off for locks of love and
send an email to every media outlet in
the valley, every TV station, every
newspaper, every radio station, every
magazine, all of them. And the email was
30 crazy kids are showing up to Super
Cuts in Chandler on Saturday at 9:00 to
chop their hair off for uh locks of
love.
And she also created a Facebook page.
And the Facebook page was called the 50
F feet of hair. And that was what her
goal was is to try and get 50 feet of
human hair. Well, when she sent those
emails out, she actually had a newspaper
and a um or actually a TV station and a
radio station come out and interview
her. And then she was able to write
about all that stuff in her resume and
in her essay. And then the last couple
uh the last page is just a few questions
that you can ask yourself or you can
have your uh ask this question of your
friend or your parent. Um what do you
think I am interested in? Uh when I’m
not doing schoolwork homework, what what
can you find me doing? Or you can ask
yourself that yourself. When I’m not
doing school work, what can I find
myself doing? And that might be the
start of what your passion might be or
what are your hobbies, what do you
enjoy, what do you like to do and stuff like that.