Saul, Aspiring Veterinarian, Saxophonist, CA

"I want to be able to travel to many places around the world and have a job where I can go around the world to help animals.  I think having a chance to succeed and to do what I like would make me happy."

Imagine you’re out of school and in your 30s – What would you like for yourself?  What would make your life a ‘good’ life?

"Having a job that I want and that I enjoy. I would like to not be in debt from college. I want to be able to travel to many places around the world and have a job where I can go around the world to help animals.  I think having a chance to succeed and to do what I like would make me happy."

What do you think schooling should do to help you get to that good life?

"Start preparing me and my friends for college, like talk to us more about college so we can know what the experience will be like and understand what we're going to have to do.  And also help us think about our life after college too."

What is school like for you now?  What do you like?

"I really like science class.  We do lots of hands-on work and experiments.  I also like band.  I get to play music and express myself.  My teacher saw that I was good at the saxophone in band class and asked me if I wanted to be in a jazz band.  It’s a lot of hard work but I enjoy it.  I like the types of songs we get to play, they’re really challenging."

What would you change?

"I don’t like that the teachers - most of my teachers - they just do their job and they don't really interact with you. If my teachers interacted with me I would feel like I'm learning something more interesting than just the subjects. I think some teachers care about me, but I also feel like there are a few teachers that don't care as much."

How can you tell that a teacher cares about you?

"They worry about me and if I’m going to succeed.  I know that by their actions, and also sometimes they’ll tell us.  Like there are kids in the class who didn't bring their work, and my teachers face would get really worried because some of those kids were already doing not so good in school. I think maybe students would be more motivated if more teachers were like that."