Hayley Smith
Editor-in-Chief
There are many different options for students after completing their time at a community college. Two of those opportunities are to either continue their education or go straight into the workforce.
After graduating from Butler, sophomore baseball player Caleb Cox has chosen to further his education and baseball career at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock. The opportunity to play at a Division I college is one that Cox is excited for.
“To advance in my baseball career, I plan to work to perfect my offensive and defensive skills at Arkansas-Little Rock, with the plans of playing professional baseball afterwards,” Cox said.
Cox is working towards a degree in business management and entrepreneurship with an emphasis in Spanish. He wants to receive this degree in order to become a successful business owner.
“My plans after college include playing professional baseball for as long as possible,” Cox said. “Then, (I plan) to get into college or professional baseball coaching. After that, I plan to return home and take over my father’s business, Thunder Academy, a baseball academy that offers private baseball lessons for kids of all ages.”
Some students choose to go to a university to focus on their schooling. Take sophomore Stacy Tuxhorn for an example. Tuxhorn will transfer to Kansas State University to eventually earn a degree in social work.
“I have always had a want for helping people, but when my sister got a foster child, I fell in love with her and decided I wanted to help people like her, children that were in her situation,” Tuxhorn said.
Tuxhorn hopes to see more diversity and a higher maturity level at a university. She is excited to be studying in an area that she wants to study, instead of completing her general education courses. Mainly, she is hopeful to meet many new faces and continue her education.
Sophomore Garrett Hartman has made the decision to go into the workforce after earning a mass communication associate’s degree of science from Butler. He is currently employed at Sam’s Club in Wichita, and one plan of his is to continue working with that company.
“I talked to the people I worked with about my degree and they really liked me so they didn’t want me to leave Sam’s,” Hartman said. “They said they had a marketing department in Georgia, and the opportunity seemed too good to be true. I already had an ‘in’ with the company and they only required an associate’s degree of some sort of marketing field.”
Although he will not have a degree from a university like some of his competition in the workforce, he knows that marketing is a field that is about how well you can do the job, not necessarily the education that you have. He has worked in sales since 2014 when he was employed at Winston Brands (Collections Etc.), which was a call center for magazines.
The possibilities for life after Butler are endless. Every student has a different idea on what they want to pursue, whether that is continuing their education or going directly into the workforce.