Last week on this website my friend Joe Battista wrote a column describing a recent opportunity he had to speak with some young folks about what they wanted to be when they grew up, and he suggested in his column that skilled trades are a very viable career choice. Of course, he admits he’s a bit biased at the moment because construction on his new home is being delayed by a shortage of skilled labor, so he has a proverbial dog in the fight!
Notwithstanding that in Happy Valley over 65% of our residents have bachelor’s degrees or higher as compared to 32% in the rest of the country, in my opinion we could use more skilled trade workers in the area. However, it’s likely a tough sell to most local residents. Consequently I’d like to continue that “what do you want to be when you grow up” line of thinking as it relates to choosing and going to college – something more aligned with our Happy Valley sensibilities – and take a little deeper dive into the collegiate ramifications of career choices for differing people in this country.
First, let’s look at some census data from the United States Census Bureau. Below is a chart of a few selected racial demographics for the country, state, county and local municipalities. The chart shows the percentage of the population that identifies as that race in each specific area.
| Race/Origin | United States | Pennsylvania | Centre County | State College | College Township | Ferguson Township | Patton Township |
| White alone, not Hispanic or Latino | 60.1% | 75.7% | 85.4% | 78.8% | 85.5% | 73.4% | 81.0% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 18.5% | 7.8% | 3.0% | 4.2% | 3.0% | 3.7% | 3.5% |
| Black or African American alone | 13.4% | 12.0% | 3.8% | 3.9% | 2.8% | 4.7% | 5.2% |
| Asian alone | 5.9% | 3.8% | 6.4% | 10.9% | 5.5% | 15.5% | 9.3% |
| American Indian & Alaskan Native alone | 1.3% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
With the above data in mind, let’s consider three young adults in this country who want to grow up to be widely different things.
Our first young adult wants to grow up to be an actor. This young person has already gotten their feet wet and done a few acting gigs as a child. A couple commercials, some one-episode TV roles, even several small movie parts. Nowhere near a Macaulay Culkin-level filmography, but enough that people occasionally recognize the face and do double-takes as the youth walks by them on the sidewalk downtown or in the aisles of Target.
Because of these small parts our young adult is already a “professional,” a member of the SAG-AFTRA union (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), and has been paid for their work. Not seven figures mind you, but enough that the parents have put the money in a fund for use once the child graduates college and goes out into the world.
Now it’s time for this young adult to choose a college. As the student and parents begin contacting colleges, interest from the schools picks up as they realize the applicant has worked in the industry. The young adult visits a number of colleges. Some of them offer to put the student up in a hotel, pay for or reimburse for the cost of the trip, provide food and offer full scholarships. The student and parents meet with deans and professors and college presidents whenever and wherever they can and want. And because of the youth’s work experience, many of the schools place the youth in a mentoring and participatory role in classes during visits.
After several months of comparing and contrasting a decision is made. They choose a great school with a fantastic theater department that is providing a full scholarship and will allow the student to take time off for various roles if they materialize. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it?
Now, let’s look at our second young person: one who wants to grow up and run their own tech company. In fact, this youth has already made their college choice and spent two years at a well-known technology university on a full scholarship. That’s right – a coding whiz with a business bent. Someone who grew up playing with and working on computers, handhelds, phones and gaming systems. In high school this student won several computing competitions – that paid thousands in prize money – both individually and with teams of friends. Upon high school graduation, instead of going directly to college, this young adult took a job offer with a tech firm and worked there for a year, gaining real-world experience before deciding that some youthful college time would be a nice opportunity at that point in their life.
Except, not everything has been as promised and this young adult has decided to transfer to another school. So the college visit process begins again. And because this student has a great GPA, real-world work experience and multiple job offers to leave school and go back to the working world right now, the many colleges visited all roll out the red carpet. After numerous school visits, lots of conversations and meetings and getting all the financial and educational details in print, the choice is made. Only after everything is decided is the current college notified. Fond adieus are bid all around, and the young adult is off on another adventure.
Finally, let’s look at our third young adult. This one wants to grow up to be a professional football player in the NFL. He has been playing football from the age of five and has grown into a very talented athlete. He has played flag football, pee wee football, midget football, junior football, 9th grade football and varsity football. Every team he has played on has reached or won a championship game for their league – often due to his abilities on the field. He has attended many camps and been given high marks for his quality of play – and potential future play.
It’s now his time to choose a college. Due to good grades and football skills, many schools offer to pay for his visit and cover the cost of his lodging, food and transportation, and also offer full scholarships. Except, because he is looking to play football, he is only allowed to have five paid visits – one to each of five schools. And the visits can only last a maximum of 48 hours. And there are many, many limits on how and when he can communicate with the football coaches. Meaning he could easily be making a momentous decision on much less than complete information.
Unfortunately he also doesn’t have the ability to go play professionally, either before trying college or instead of going to college. Once he has been paid to play in any professional football league he is barred from playing college football. And he can’t go directly to the NFL, which requires him to be out of high school for at least three years and use up his college eligibility before the start of the next college football season. So if his dream is the NFL he really needs to go and play college football.
Then when he finally decides what school he’ll go to, if things don’t work out quite as planned (as they did with our second student above), he won’t be able to go out and see what options are available to him. He has to notify his current school BEFORE talking to anyone at any other schools. And his current school can then discontinue his scholarship. Meaning he’ll be jumping off a proverbial cliff without a parachute. And if he doesn’t meet the transfer criteria he might be barred from playing football for a year as a penalty for changing schools.
Well now, that seems really, really odd.
Our first two young adults were able to talk to whomever they wanted whenever they wanted. Before and after they chose what schools to attend. They were able to get all their questions answered, dot all their “i’s” and cross all their ‘t’s.” If they worked in their dream profession beforehand or even during school, this was a cause for celebration at the school. If they won contests and were awarded prize money it didn’t stop them from being able to study their chosen subject. If they transferred from one school to another they weren’t barred from their department. If their departments were able to give every young adult in their major a full scholarship this would be another cause for celebration at the college.
Yet none of these benefits apply for our third student. He’s subjected to myriad draconian rules seemingly enacted to benefit everyone but him.
Going back to the demographics at the beginning of this column, here are a few interesting numbers – numbers you probably intrinsically know, but may have not seen quantified.
According to the UCLA College of Social Sciences, in their eighth annual Hollywood Diversity Report for Film and Television published in April of last year, 60.3% of the lead actors in top theatrical/streaming films in 2020 were white, and 58% of all roles in top films were white. In television, 76.8% of the leads in top broadcast shows, 66.4% in cable shows and 69% in digital shows were white, and 56.6% of all roles in top broadcast shows, 59.5% in cable shows, and 61.6% in digital shows were white.
According to Google’s 2020 Diversity Annual Report on their own company, 65.9% of the company’s leadership and 51.7% of its entire workforce are white. At Facebook, 60.9% of its leadership and 39.1% of its workforce are white. At Apple, 59% of its leadership and 47% of its workforce are white. Although current overall U.S. data is a little difficult to find, these numbers are consistent with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s report from their 2014 private sector survey which showed 68.53% of all employees in U.S high tech industries were white.
In the NFL in 2020, 57.5% of the players were Black or African American.
Why is it that young adults who are interested in going into industries – entertainment and tech – with percentages of white employees that are consistent or close to the white percentage of the population in this country, are able to freely pursue college experiences devoid of any restrictions? Real-world experience before and during their time at college are considered things to celebrate. Taking advantage of any and all opportunities and benefits the schools or anyone will give you is absolutely encouraged. It would be considered deficient if you didn’t discuss any and all options with everyone you possibly can at any time..
Granted, I only picked two industries here – entertainment and tech. But I could have chosen any number of other college degrees leading to jobs that young adults want to grow up be: education, communications, health, engineering, science, etc., and the demographics of the workforces in those industries would look very similar to the U.S. population at large. And the students in those disciplines would also have the same unfettered freedom to do everything that they want so they can grow up to be the best at whatever it is they want to be.
Yet, if someone wants to grow up to be an NFL player we throw roadblock after roadblock in their path. We load them down with rules and restrictions. We penalize them and sometimes even go so far as to keep them from doing the one thing they want to do. It’s as if we want to make it as difficult as possible for them to grow up and be what they want to be. Why is that?
Well, in the immortal words of Michael Douglas’s character in “The American President,” “If you can answer that question, folks, then you’re smarter than I am.” All I know is we have thousands of kids in this country who dream of doing one thing, and we should be giving them the opportunity to achieve that goal, not putting barriers in their way. If that means unlimited athletic scholarships, unlimited transfers, representation at any time, and opening the NFL to anyone capable of playing, then I say we not only should do it, we need to do it. Otherwise, the numbers above make it pretty clear what it is we’re really doing. Let young adults grow up to be what they want to be.
