old male who wants to either play in the NBA or own a team. He says: [To become a basketball player] you
got to stay in school. I want to go real far [in school]. I’m finishing the whole nine yards. I’m finishing
college, high school.” He does not draw connections, however, between school and the NBA and explain
why it is important to stay in school. Andre, a 14 year-old male, also wants to play professional sports –
either football or basketball. He says,
I play basketball. I like basketball a lot. I play real good, but I play football better, and that’s why
I’m looking for that as a career. And if not then basketball. Yeah, I want to go to college so I can
play football, like play college football and move on from there. That’s why I’m going to college,
study, get my grades together.
Some youth have aspirations about playing professional sports but recognize that sports might not
work out as a career. However, their alternative plans are still difficult to achieve. Adrian sees little future in
pro sports, so he wants to own his own clothing line business. Deshawn is a 13 year-old male who wants to
play in the NBA or NFL, but acknowledges that if this does not work out then he wants to have a business
selling houses. However, he has no educational expectations to match this. Similarly, 12 year-old Anthony
wants to be in the NBA and says he will go to college so that he will have job in case he does not make the
NBA. However, he has no other alternative career aspirations to match his college expectations and does not
know what he would study in college. He explains, “I gotta study something [in college], so like, if I don’t
make it to the NBA, I have a good job.”
Many of the youth who have mixed career aspirations want to be in professional sports but also have
other career ideas. Tyrone is a 10 year-old male who says he wants to play basketball or football, or be a
doctor, and he does not have a good understanding of how education would fit into this:
That’s what I plan on doing…Football and basketball. I’m going [to school], I’m finishing, I might
even, I know I’m finishing high school, and college. I’ll probably even go to get my master’s
degree. Or my doctorate degree… I either wanna be a basketball player, a football player, or I’m
gonna go to college to be a doctor.
These students seem to presume that simply attending college will lead to a good job, and that you need not
necessarily have a career in mind as you make your plans to attend college.
Family plans
The youths in this category were much less likely than the youths who have aligned expectations to
discuss their family plans as relating to their career. The youths with aligned and unaligned, as well as
12
Convention