Generation Z: In Their Own Words

Being a senior is stressful when you’ve got to do college applications, SAT scores, college recommendation letters. Being a senior, you’re going to get this “senioritis,” because you think you’re basically done with high school. But you’re not done until you walk across that stage and get your diploma with that cap and gown on.

Cheyenne Campbell, 17, 12th grade

My educational goals would definitely be to continue challenging myself critical thinkingwise, understanding things, mastering and maneuvering through things, even life just itself.

Kayla Collier, 17, 12th grade

My educational goals are to apply the skills I learned in school into real-life situations, and to also be able to pass that knowledge on to other people.

Kha Nhi Duong, 19, 12th grade

I am very satisfied with my education now, because I did not receive, or have the experience with, education like this before, and so now I’m very happy and I don’t want to change anything about my education.

Sierra Duncan, 17, 12th grade

I’m almost done with high school, and I think I personally have come a long way, so that’s something I would like to complete as soon as possible. And on time. One of my long-term goals would be going to college and graduating with my bachelor’s in animal science.

Daneel Dushin, 15, 10th grade

The biggest challenge in my education is finding a good degree and a path that would be beneficial for myself financially, and finding a degree that would be able to interpret my creativity and my musical aspect.

Roberlin Espinal Torres, 16, 10th grade

I want to have a good job, to go to college, have a good career, have a good job, so I don’t have to throw out my back working.

Zachary Gordon, 19, 12th grade

My educational goal is to, after high school, go to college and study education so I can become a teacher, because I feel like the teaching job is a great job, and I’d like to be the teacher who can contribute to the future generation.

Steffi Greene, 18, 12th grade

I’ve noticed in the last few years, education has become more about the ABC’s on our multiple choice tests than me grasping a subject in class. And if I don’t grasp a subject and others do, they’ll move on and I’ll never get the chance to learn it myself unless I do it myself.

Zacckary Hinds, 17, 12th grade

I want to go to college and nursing school and become a good nurse, because I want to follow the trade of my mother in the medical field.

Sherrell Lee, 14, ninth grade

I admit that I wasted a lot of time in my middle school years, and I waited until I’m in high school to start improving. And I want to start very, very early in order to do the things that I want to do in the future, and have a plan and just build upon it.

Esther Richardson, 18, 12th grade

I wish we could incorporate more life skills that we would need, especially when we graduate high school, such as paying our bills, learning how to have a good credit score, how to buy a house, how to save our money ... I’m going to need those things when I become more independent.

Kierra Shaw, 16, 11th grade

Not everybody is a test taker or a school person, and I don’t think learning shoud be defined as such standard things, such as like math, science, history. I feel that learning should be more individual rather than everybody learning the same thing.

Sarit Slatvaev, 16, 11th grade

I want to go to college and major in biology. Afterward, I am planning to go to med school. Being a woman and an immigrant in today’s society, I want to break many different stereotypes concerning women in STEM.

Ester Tavarez, 17, 12th grade

If I could change one thing in my education, it would be to place students in their classrooms rather than their age group. I believe that would help them open up with their other peers and connect more with them.

Esther Thomas, 18, 12th grade

I would change the timing of school. Doctors would say that a teenage brain actually wakes up at 10 o’clock. I’d change the timing for all of the grades to, like, 10 to 4.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .