- Aspirations and Goals
- Imagining their future selves
“[At 70] I’m dead.”
Participant:
- Greenville, MS
- Black
- female
- 15-22
- lower income
Youth Quote Search
Welcome to the Striving to Thriving Youth Quote Library. Here you’ll find a curated collection of more than 5,700 quotes from young people ages 15-22 living in communities across the United States. In the library you can see how young people describe their multifaceted identities, how they understand and apply meaning to language around job, work and career, how they think about and assign value to relationships, networking and connections, and their future goals and the education and career choices they believe will lead them there. You can also view additional notes on curation, categories and filters.
- Attributes and characteristics
- Describing Identity
“I put smart, funny, outgoing, cute, ditsy, and hardworking…[Ditsy] Yeah. I have my moments where I’m like oh, that’s not right. I’m still smart though; I just have my slow moments…[Hardworking] Because whenever I focus or whenever I want something, I have the tendency to focus on it and follow through with it. But when I’m not really caring about it, I do the exact opposite, but I do have the ability to be hardworking.”
Participant:
- Baltimore, MD
- Black
- female
- 15-22
- lower income
- Impact of peers
- Pathways
“Then my boyfriend money-wise he is very supporting. If you go back to school, don’t worry I will help you. I will do this and this. He is very supporting…Whatever I need to make myself happy, he is very like whatever. If that is your goal and that is what you want to do, whatever you need just let me know. Basically, with anything if you need somebody, we will hire somebody to help you. Don’t worry, I will do whatever it takes. I kind of have that trust that he will support me in the whole process.”
Participant:
- Los Angeles, CA
- Hispanic
- female
- 15-22
- lower income
- Comparing and contrasting 'job' 'work' and 'career'
- Understanding Job/Work/Career
“Positives about job: it’s a source of income. Positives about work: gives the feeling of trying to achieve a goal.”
Participant:
- Online
- Black
- female
- 26-29
- mixed income
- Impact of personal attributes and characteristics
- Pathways
“Being ‘unique.’ I was diagnosed with Asperger’s at age 4 and was relentlessly bullied for having it and being different.”
Participant:
- Online
- white
- male
- 15-22
- lower income
- Comparing and contrasting 'job' 'work' and 'career'
- Understanding Job/Work/Career
“Positives about job: pays you. Positives about work: your skill grows, becoming stronger in that area over time.”
Participant:
- Online
- Black
- female
- 15-22
- lower income
- Characterizations of a bad job
- Understanding Job/Work/Career
“My mom. Her work makes her so happy. She is a sales rep and…She loves her job; she is so good at what she does. But I have gone to appointments with her and gone to trade shows with her; if I had to do her job, I would kill myself.”
Participant:
- Pasadena, CA
- white
- female
- 15-22
- higher income
- Aspirations and Goals
- Imagining their future selves
“[At 45] I want to just like have my own house, a big RV and just travel with some friends. That’s about it. I just like driving; I like seeing new places. I like going to Utah, and I like talking and being away from electronics. I want to be retired. I am a mechanical engineer. [The important people in my life are] my wife, my family.”
Participant:
- Los Angeles, CA
- white
- male
- 15-22
- mixed income
- Reflections on Focus Group Experience
- Takeaways
“College will be on my mind! It’s far way yet really close.”
Participant:
- Online
- Hispanic
- female
- 15-22
- lower income
- Perception of the term 'networking'
- Relationships, Connections & Networking
“I think to live you have to have connections and you have to know how to network. You need both of them because if you don’t have connections how are you going to get anywhere? You can get places, but you have to talk to people to get certain places…Like you can’t just start from nothing to get somewhere. You need to communicate or have a platform for something. For networking, you have to have somebody to show your platform like a display sign, so you have to communicate basically. That is the main thing that bonds those two words together.”
Participant:
- Oakland, CA
- Black
- female
- 15-22
- lower income