While most of us are unsure of what we want to do with our future, senior Jinju Tak and junior Gaby Quezada have their futures all planned out.

Taking vet technician and cosmetology academy classes at West Potomac high school, Tak is aspiring to become a vet while Quezada hopes work as a licensed cosmetologist.

“I’m hoping to be able to further my studies becoming a vet in the future,” said Tak “however if it doesn’t go as planned I’ll probably move onto becoming a vet technician because this is something I really want to do in the future.”

In order to get a head start with their careers at the academy classes, both girls competed in the Skills USA annual competition that support

“My academy teacher asked me if I wanted to participate in the Skills USA competition, it looked really interesting I decided to put myself out there,” said Tak.

The Skills USA Work Force Ready System provides assessments for Career and Technical Education that are supported by industry, education and policy leaders.

“The program is trying to prepare the teenagers to get involved into careers and technical education,” said Quezada, “It tries to prepare the teenagers to the real world of having careers.”

Each year, Skills USA holds a competition for all the students in academy classes to compete with each other. At the event individuals and groups are judged on how well they carry out the question that goes with their career.

“My question was how to blow dry a curly hair into a straight hair without any use of straightener,” said Quezada

On the other hand, Tak researched on the restraints of a cat and a dog.  Both of the girls’ hard work paid off when they placed at Districts, Regionals, and went to States.

“[Qualifying at regionals] as a first timer was shocking that I beat everyone there,” said Quezada, “it’s my first year and I’ve never been in a competition like that it was thrilling.”

With her newfound talent and confidence in cosmetology, Quezada plans to stay in cosmetology academy to get her license and work as a licensed cosmetologist by 19. She also plans to go to college and study business so one day she’ll be able to open up her own salon or a cosmetology school.

“[Cosmetology] is definitely what I want to keep doing in the future,” said Quezada.