Rejection

In January, The ROCK staff looked at the multiple facets of rejection in high school life.

Search for money tree proves fruitless

After turning in more than a dozen applications to various businesses around Columbia, junior Phoebe Johanningmeier was excited to hear back from her prospective employers — after all, a traditional rite of passage for teenagers is a first job. When no one replied after some time, Johanningmeier said the rejection was a tough pill to swallow.
“I applied for 13 jobs. I didn’t get a call back. I didn’t get anything,” Johanningmeier said. “It’s kind of like, ‘Wow, 13 times I’ve tried,’ and it feels like you’re like a failure. You’ve tried 13 times to get a minimum paying job, and no one wants you. It’s kind of depressing.”
Getting a job in high school is becoming more of a struggle. Businesses aren’t allowing as many students into the workforce because of their lack of experience and limited availability. For high school students, many of whom are applying for their first job, the chances of employment are at a low 16 percent, compared to the 32 percent of high school students with jobs in 1990, according to an article in the Washington Times.
Junior Marissa Soumokil said the reason jobs for high school students are scarce is because they are the alternative choice.
“I think it’s especially hard living in a college town because first off [employers are] going to want to hire adults who just got laid off, so they can work because they know they can be more responsible than [high school students] would,” Soumokil said. “And then they want to get the college students because they’re older and have had more experience than we have. So then we’re at the third tier getting a job after all the other people have gotten the pickings.”
English department chair Katie Glover, who manages Southwest Swim Association in the summer, said that Soumokil was on the right track — high schoolers face stiff competition from college students who have trouble finding a job.
She said that while in the past, lifeguards have usually moved on by their freshman year of college, it would be unusual for someone to stop coming back to the pool.
“They used to leave a lot more frequently, and normally when they were younger they would find jobs during the school year and so then they wouldn’t return to the pool, they would find jobs interning, job shadowing, and so then they wouldn’t return to the pool,” Glover said. “Throughout the years that I’ve been there, there have been a lot of people that said they weren’t going to come back and then they come back because they don’t find jobs where they go to school — Kirksville or Springfield, so then they end up coming back to the pool unexpectedly.”
As the last choice for most employers, most high school applicants won’t get the job when up against older, more experienced competition. And laws against children working too long and in dangerous conditions put a limit on what jobs high schoolers can work. Johanningmeier said these restrictions put the nail in the coffin for high schoolers going up against unfettered college kids.
“We can’t do very many jobs because we’re 16. You know, you can’t do fryer, you can’t work the oven, and a lot of places you can’t do till or the cash register until you’re 18. It is impossible to get a job because of all the ridiculous laws that are against child labor,” Johanningmeier said. “If you have a 21-year-old college student or 20-year-old college student versus a 16-year-old high school student, they’ll choose the college student because they know that college student is allowed to do all the jobs that are offered at the employer.”
Junior Elena Franck said the feeling of denial is never pleasant, but it can encourage people to keep moving forward and put a “fire in their belly.” People, she said, can use rejection as a tool to improve.
“Obviously [rejection] is going to drop your self esteem a little bit,” Franck said, “but some people use that, and it fuels them to try to get the next job and be a better person.”
To Glover, rejection didn’t seem to be the worst thing — students could use it like any other mistake, she reasoned, as a learning experience.
She said many high school students think of themselves as more qualified than they are, and some have to learn the truth the hard way.
“It can motivate them to be more successful. They can attempt to figure out why they’re being rejected and alleviate those gaps and the reasoning,” Glover said. “Some of the kids that I know of complain because they want to be waitresses, because you actually make a lot of money as a waitress. But they don’t understand that you have to be a hostess for a while and prove yourself, or work at a drive-thru, prove yourself first. So they are applying for jobs where the employers can be somewhat selective and they have to prove themselves, and they don’t always want to do that.”
Johanningmeier said the key for her was to not give up, and her mistake was being a passive searcher. She said she took the application process as a platform that allowed her to push to get the job.
“I wasn’t being aggressive enough. You have to go in and pester the people to hire you. You have to be like, ‘Hey, my name’s Phoebe. Hire me, I really want this job,’” Johanningmeier said. “You have to continue to go in and ask to talk to the manager and be like, ‘Hey, I wanna work here. And I’m going to be one of those workers you can trust.’ You just have to basically get your name out there, so when they do run through the applications, if your name is on the résumé , they’ll be like, ‘We’ll keep her in mind.’”
Because the job search is a personal experience, Johanningmeier said the application process plays a large part in whether a student will be accepted or not. She said being able to meet and talk to a manager could play a large difference in hiring decisions.
“Either [applying online or in person] is fine. I personally like to see the manager so they see my face because if you’re applying for like a waitress job, they’ll hire you if you’re more attractive because you bring in more business,” Johanningmeier said. “So if they see you face-to-face, they might be more likely to hire you than if you’re online. It seems like online is kind of like you can’t see the person’s emotions; you can’t see what they look like. I mean, it’s kind of a first impression that you haven’t gotten yet if you apply online versus if you turn in an application in person.”
Glover said she watches her students for possible employees, and that responsibility and personality are the most important qualities she looks for. With a limited number of spots to fill because of returning guards, Glover said she can afford to be choosy.
“Some [students] automatically expect to get a job because I like them, but I find them to be somewhat irresponsible and so I wouldn’t hire them. So I have the benefit of seeing a variety of characteristics and work ethic in students and then seeing whether or not I want to hire them,” Glover said. “If a student has shown both a positive attitude and personable and they’re responsible, then I’m more likely to hire them. But I can be pretty selective.”
Even when faced with continual denial, Soumokil cautioned her peers against giving up. She said colleges love students that demonstrate responsibility, and a job is a large part of that.
“I think colleges like to see well- rounded students, and they don’t just mean clubs,” Soumokil said. “They also want to see that you’re working and that you’re responsible enough for your boss and co-workers to trust you.”
Rejection is never easy to deal with, but for high school students trying to find jobs it is a common occurrence, Johanningmeier said. But as long as students persevere, they can gain experience that will help them through life.
“As a high school student, you have to realize our chances are a lot lower and that you have to go in and basically pester the people until they hire you,” Johanningmeier said. “You just have to keep out there. It’s competitive but it’s like the real world.”
By Alyssa Piecko
additional reporting by Adam Schoelz
 

Pursuit of higher education ends in disappointment

On top of three Advanced Placement classes, three honors courses and extracurricular activities, including debate and student coalition, junior Whitney Cravens feels a bit overwhelmed. She admitted all the frustration and sleepless nights have been for a sole purpose: college admission. However, the looming question of college rejection remains dreadfully lodged in the back of Cravens’ mind.
Cravens’ motivation to obtain a college education sprouts from reminders from her parents and mentors. Not getting a college education has never been an option for Cravens, and the fact that she will be attending a college like the University of Pennsylvania or Harvard has been inevitable since her birth.
Although Cravens admits the possibility for acceptance to an Ivy League school is slim, her lifelong aspiration has been to attend such noble and prestigious academies.
“I’ve always wanted to go [to Harvard]. I don’t know what it is about Ivy League schools,” Cravens said. “Maybe it’s the fact that they are the top colleges in the nation, and the best of the best go there, or maybe it’s the title, but anyone that knows me knows that I’m a very ambitious person, and I’m shooting for the best when it comes to colleges.”
The best colleges are similarly shooting for the best and most-capable students. In 2011, Harvard College accepted a record low 6.2 percent of the applicants that year, according to www.bloomberg.com. And in 2011, Duke University similarly accepted a mere 13 percent of a record 29,689 applicants. The remaining majority of students were faced with rejection, and Cravens admits she would not find the news easy to swallow.
“I would beat myself up [if I got rejected]. It would be devastating. It would probably be one of the most disappointing moments of my life, and I don’t want to face it, but I know I might,” Cravens said. “With colleges you can’t dwell on the fact that you didn’t get accepted but rather focus on the benefits of not going there and the benefits of going somewhere else instead.”
There are advantages to pursuing another college following the rejection of an initial choice, according to Margo McCoy Howe, a school counselor who used to work for College Board’s National Office for School Counselors refused students should remember “that the experience they get at a different college that’s a good fit may end up offering better opportunities.”
That said, regardless of how many benefits one is reminded of that may come out of a rejection, students such as Cravens may have to analyze and work with their personal feelings following the experience.
“I would really have to tell myself that it is OK and there are other places that would love to have me,” Cravens said. “I would look at the numbers and try to console myself with the fact that a very small, miniscule percent of people get into [the] school and that everything happens for a reason.”
Rather than merely shooting for an Ivy League education, senior Katie Phillips is keeping her options open with deciding which colleges to attend.
Phillips applied to 15 different schools with the hope of being accepted to at least a few. However, even if a college denied her acceptance, Phillips would be content with herself for trying.
“I’d rather be rejected from 14 schools than have only applied to one and spend the next four years wondering if I could have gotten in. I’m bound to get rejected from most of them, and hopefully not all of them, but I’ll be fine,” Phillips said. “So what if I was rejected; it’s just a school, and I can still get a great education somewhere else.”
There are, in fact, other institutions for students to obtain a college education. RBHS senior counselor Rachel Reed explains the role of the guidance department in the application process. Counselors such as Reed are available to assure students that they will always have back-up colleges if faced with a rejection.
“Our job during the application process varies,” Reed said. “We do everything from helping students figure out what they are interested in career wise, so they know what training they will need after high school, or what they should major in in college, to completing counselor recommendation forms and talking to admissions representatives.”
As a product of what the RBHS counselors strive to provide for students, Cravens already has in mind what colleges she will attend if rejected by her dream colleges. Cravens’ back-up colleges include the University of Missouri -Columbia and other schools with higher acceptance rates than Ivy League academies because she believes it is important for students to keep their hopes high, but to be realistic at the same time.
“[Back-up colleges] are tremendously important because although it’s ideal to go to the college of your dreams, it isn’t always going to happen,” Cravens said, “and what are you going to do if it doesn’t pan out? Because sometimes it won’t, and as positive as you are that you will get accepted, you just never know.”
Phillips isn’t set on a particular college that she wants to attend. She applied to such a long list of colleges she admits that she would be excited to go to any one of them. But even if the college denied her admission, Phillips admits that the blow wouldn’t be all that bad.
“A college is a college. Either way, you’ll walk out with a college degree. Your college experience will be what you make it,” Phillips said. “Even though you didn’t get into Harvard, and only got into your safe school, there are countless students who worked really hard to get into that safe school.”
And indeed, there are numerous students applying to colleges which often reject students because of a lack of the means to provide for their needs.
According to www.professionals.collegeboard.com, when students are aware that decisions are based mainly on numbers during a competitive year and not completely on the merits of the application, it makes the decision impersonal for the students, which in turn helps them feel better about their rejection.
“I think it’s a practicality thing. I don’t think colleges reject students to be mean. It’s absolutely necessary; they can’t have everyone that applies be at their university. I would say to some degree I agree with the rejection process, as disheartening as it is,” Cravens said. “Unfortunately, colleges have a capacity and not everyone can be admitted, and I understand that.”
Even if not everyone can be admitted to a certain college, there is always one out there for students to rebound on, which is most probably a better fit for the student, according to Reed. In discovering these colleges to pursue after refusal from an initial choice, counselors such as Reed are available to assist students with discovering colleges that may provide a better fit for the student.
They “help [students] get a better idea of some careers that may be a good fit for them and then we determine what kind of post-secondary training those careers require, and then what types of institutions they would be interested in attending to receive that training,” Reed said. “I’ve also provided students with information on how to find schools that have the major they are interested in pursuing, how to find and apply for scholarships.”
For Phillips, college rejection is merely the inevitable, and she has already prepared for the experience by reminding herself that the denial, to her, is simply not that big of a deal.
“High rejection rates make it harder for me to get in, sure, but it is what it is, and I can’t change that,” Phillips said. “For some people, college wasn’t ever an option, but you’re getting an opportunity millions of people aren’t — and how you did in college will matter more than where you went.”
Besides remembering that there is more than just one college out there for students to attend, if faced with refusal from a college, Cravens suggests remembering to keep one’s hopes up for the better opportunities to come.
“The most important thing to remember is that if that college rejects you, they know you are not a proper fit for their institution, and they are helping you,” Cravens said. “Rejections may be obstacles and devastating and difficult to overcome, but ultimately, they are just one thing that helps you get on the right path towards your future, and don’t let anything stop you.”
By Manal Salim