Majoring Communities: Three seniors and their plans at community college

Going down a rabbit hole of TikToks and Instagram reels, then-freshman Abi Contreras’s feed started to overflow with videos of Latina women majoring in cosmetology. 

Already interested in eyebrows and nails, Abi knew this was the career for her.

Now as a senior two years later, Abi plans to go to cosmetology school at Kansas City Community College. The appeal for Abi was mostly the reasonable time frame of the program and the financial sense it made.

“I found out that all you had to do was graduate,” Abi said. “You don’t have to do much, and you make a lot of money. You can go into it forever, and you’ll never stop having a job.”

Abi already had previous experience plucking and threading eyebrows, helping her friends and family pluck and thread their eyebrows since freshman year. Her ability to do eyebrows started when her sister in-law, Jael Contreras, let Abi use her as her guinea pig.

“She would always compliment my eyebrows,” Jael said. “She told me she was interested in cosmetology. She asked me if she could do my eyebrows, and then I ended up liking how they came out. So she’s been my go-to person ever since.”

Abi is ecstatic to live out her dream career and use her skills in the real world.

“I’m a perfectionist when it comes to small things,” Abi said. “I’ve always liked being in that zone where I get to do stuff with my hands and focus.”

Scrolling through the class list for his sophomore year, then-sophomore Samuel Clark was deciding between art electives like ceramics and painting, finally landing on jewelry.

Clark had never expressed interest in making jewelry, but when class started he got to build various knick-knacks like crowns, pendants and rings out of metal. This gave him an outlet to create jewelry inspired by his favorite games.

Now as a senior, Clark will majoring in jewelry making at Johnson County Community College.

Most of his pieces are inspired by his favorite video game, Elden Ring. Scrolling through inspiration on Pinterest, Clark almost always lands on something inspired by Elden Ring. Most of the jewelry is engraved with different symbols from the game or decorated with vibrant colors.

“It’s something that I really enjoy doing,” Clark said. “Especially when I get stuck. It’s fun to try to find a way to work around those blocks”.

Clark’s jewelry teacher, Jennifer Hensley, inspired him to continue taking Jewelry classes throughout the rest of high school. According to Hensley, even when he first started the class, he had a natural ability for jewelry making.

“Sam always has unique and non-traditional ideas for projects,” Hensley said. “This year he created an etched crown that received an honorable mention at the R&D Forum. His most recent piece was a very technically challenging layered piece that included resin between layers of metal.”

Growing up with a grandpa who’s an old school car enthusiast, senior Christian Lahey naturally had an interest in all things cars.

This passion only grew when Lahey joined the Autotech 1 class at SM East junior year. The first semester of Autotech 1 is learning all about the different car parts and how they work, while the second semester is getting hands-on experience with fixing cars.

“I have a pretty good time doing oil changes with my friends in the class, and helping one of my other friends with wiring on his truck”

After taking this class, Lahey moved on to Autotech 2, getting to work on cars for his whole senior year. Now, Lahey will major in autotech at Iowa Central Community College.

Lahey didn’t consider any other majors, and if everything goes to plan he will work at a high-end car dealership.