With senior year comes also the stress and uncertainty of deciding where our futures lie and what paths we take once our high school career is over. Though seniors have frequent visits with counselors, universities and colleges, and possess an extensive collection of information packets, they’re still left with questions about how they’ll further their academic careers that often goes unanswered.

However, during seventh period on April 19, seniors were given answers in the form of Senior Horizons. Senior Horizons is an event that specifically targets those questions and reassures seniors about their decisions.

For this event, a group of Clark alumni came to Clark Magnet and talk to 23 of this year’s seniors about topics that ranged from school and life to money and being an adult. Humanities teacher Christopher Davis brought Senior Horizons to Clark Magnet for the first time in 2012 when the school his son went to hosted the event themselves. The event occurred for the next two years before discontinuing in 2014. However this year, English teacher Narine Tatevosian brought the event back to Clark and set up the panel for the ten alumni.

Panelists included alumni Mary Abramyan (2011), Mikael Arutunian (2010), Artsroun Darbinian (2012), Anny Edinchikyan (2009), Meg Chil-Gevorkyan (2003), Adrian Hairapetyan (2012), Haik Movesian (2008), Nayri Vartanian (2006), Casey Villanueva (2009), and Lyova Zalyan (2011). Along with seniors, teachers and Clark staff joined the discussion and added further insight to the event.

This year was the first year that Senior Horizons was brought back to Clark Magnet to help seniors. “The purpose of all of this is to just get seniors to network, connect and get questions answered by people who have gone down the paths they want to take,” Tatevosian said after she introduced the alumni. Tatevosian became a moderator of sorts since she would bring up a topic of discussion every so often.

“What I really liked was how most of them went to a community college first and then transferred and became successful, because that is what I want to do too,” said senior Arpi Safaryan. “They validated my decision and I feel much more confident about it now.” The alumni also discussed the nagging uncertainty many seniors feel about their majors and what they want to study or where they want to go and reassured them that it’s alright to be undecided or change your mind.

“It’s normal to be uncertain about what you want to study, but my advice to all of you is to be mindful of everything and find yourself before you go to university,” said alumnus Artsroun Darbinian. “Know what you want to do if you’re going to a four year so you don’t waste money otherwise.” Similarly, Darbinian talked about how he changed his major often from law enforcement to pre-med and finally to engineering.

The alumni also shared personal experiences of life in college and how they juggled work with school, which appealed to many of the seniors in attendance. “You need to have passion when you choose your future,” said alumnus Lyova Zalyan. “Go do something you would wake up every day and want to do.”