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Utah’s graduating seniors have big dreams. Can the state contain them?

Highland High student reporters and The Salt Lake Tribune spoke to graduating seniors about their plans.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Elena Duarte at Highland High School in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Elena Duarte at Highland High School in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

Abi Airhart enrolled in cosmetology school as a high school junior — not because she loves doing hair, but because she likes to keep her options open.

Twice a day for two years, every weekday morning and evening, the Highland High School student has driven to and from her school in Salt Lake City‘s Sugar House neighborhood to Sandy, where she learned to cut, color and style hair.

She signed up for the program, offered through Canyons School District’s Career and Technical Education Center, because she didn’t know what she wanted to do after high school. She will graduate this month with a full cosmetology license and a career at her fingertips, should she choose to pursue it. But she’s already considering other paths — ones that will help her reach her other goal of becoming a mother one day.

She is one of more than 53,000 seniors who are part of Utah’s Class of 2025. Roughly 88% of them will graduate this spring, if the group follows recent state graduation rate trends, making them one of the largest graduating classes in Utah on record. COVID-19 disrupted their formative middle school years. Their generation feels pressure to be exceptional. They’re anxious but also more empathetic.

As part of a collaboration between The Salt Lake Tribune and Highland High’s student newspaper, the Rambler, we interviewed a handful of the school’s seniors to understand how they’re thinking about their futures, and how Utah might fit in.

Some, like Northeastern University freshman-to-be Nate Horowitz, will leave Utah to fulfill their dreams. For others, staying in Utah is both a dream fulfilled and a practical choice.

Roughly half of Utah’s high school graduates go to college in the first year after they graduate, according to data from the Utah System of Higher Education. Of those that do, a large majority — roughly 80% — will stay in state. Enrollment at Utah colleges and universities is increasing.

As the future college Class of 2029 (or later), these teenagers are entering a political battleground. Utah’s higher education institutions have had to respond to state legislation that bans diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and requires professors to post their syllabi online; they have braced for budget cuts; some have implemented new curricula to align with new laws.

Graduating seniors aren’t thinking about that yet. They’re weighing the cost of staying and studying at home with the chance to explore somewhere new; they’re asking what choices will best prepare them for a good job and a living wage.

Plenty of them “don’t really know what they’re doing,” Airhart said. They’re young. They’re making one decision at a time.

(Courtesy photo) Abi Airhart, a graduating senior at Highland High School, studied cosmetology and will start school at BYU in the fall. She wanted to keep her options open, she said.

Flagship school

Every student who spoke to The Tribune said going to college was encouraged, if not implicitly assumed, by their families, peers and mentors.

Eli Johnson started thinking about college during his sophomore year. His friends and teachers at Judge Memorial Catholic High School made it clear that college was the expectation, he said.

“It was just always a constant thing that everybody at [Judge Memorial] is going to college,” Johnson said.

His biggest considerations in choosing where to study were cost and culture. He’s not sure yet what he wants to study or what job he’ll want. Right now, he wants to be an EMT, but knows that could change.

So saving money by opting for in-state tuition seemed like the practical choice to him. This fall, he will start college just up the road at Utah’s flagship college, the University of Utah.

Johnson said he spoke to older friends who are already enrolled at the U. about what it would be like before committing. Is it a party school? He’s not much of a partier, he said. What is life like on campus, or off it?

“I was reaching out … because I’ve never been to college, and it’s really kind of stressful,” he said.

Johnson will live in the dorms for his freshman year to experience campus life and meet new people, he said. He might move back home eventually to save money on room and board.

He doesn’t know yet whether he’ll settle down in his home state after college. He doesn’t feel completely tethered to Utah — he’s always been attracted to the East Coast and would like to see what it has to offer. But neither does he feel rushed to leave.

“I really like it here,” Johnson said. “But I don’t think I’ve seen a lot of the world yet, and I don’t think I’ve experienced enough to say that I want to live here for the rest of my life.”

Johnson also “constantly worries” about whether he will have enough money to afford life in Utah, he said. He wants a family one day, and he understands that the cost of living here is rising.

But more important than how much money he makes, or even where he lives, is the kind of impact he has on the world, he said.

“For me, it’s what I’m going to do and how I’m going to live my life day-to-day,” Johnson said. “I really like the idea of being helpful. ... Just knowing that my job has an impact, like a real impact, on somebody’s lives.”

That’s why being an EMT appeals to him, he said. The impact is clear and immediate. He’s part of what might be someone’s hardest moment.

“With how many people there are in the world, sometimes you can kind of feel insignificant,” Johnson said.

Utah “has really grown a lot, and I’m starting to feel like my impact in the world overall might just be insignificant,” he said. “I might just have to be happy with helping out a small few people. Like, as long as I help somebody in my life, I think that’s perfect.”

‘Actual’ college

Elena Duarte said when the time came to choose a place to continue her learning past high school, she pivoted. She had applied to culinary school and taken culinary classes while in high school. She thought that was her future.

Instead, she decided to go to college. “Like, actual college,” she said.

Duarte was so focused on culinary school that she missed deadlines to apply to traditional four-year colleges, she said. So she will study business and computer science at Salt Lake Community College in the fall. Federal financial aid will help pay for at least the first year, she said.

Then, “if everything goes well,” she’ll transfer to the U. in 2026.

Her mom is thrilled she’s going to college, Duarte said. Like Johnson, Duarte said college was expected of her.

And in the end, Duarte decided a college degree would give her more options for a successful adulthood. She’s always liked coding and data analysis, she said, and wants to build a marketing career that combines those skills.

A culinary career isn’t off the table, Duarte said, but it’s on the back burner for now.

Duarte said Utah’s high cost of living might push her out of state one day. But she has a support system here — her 19-year-old brother still lives at home, and “we all just help out with each other.”

Seventeen is young to make such big life decisions, Duarte said. So she, like many of her peers, is taking them one at a time. She would advise her younger classmates to do the same — and to keep their options open.

“Have a couple of different plans in case you change your mind,” Duarte said.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Nate Horowitz at Highland High School in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

Leaving Utah to appreciate it

College was never a question for Horowitz. The bigger decision for him was where he wanted to study.

Horowitz applied to six schools, including the U. But he knew early, he said, that he would likely leave his home state.

“I think all along, I wanted to try something new and explore outside of Utah,” Horowitz said. “And I consider myself a city guy, so I thought it would be fun to live somewhere a little bit bigger.”

He’ll move to Boston in the fall to study engineering at Northeastern University. It was his first choice — he applied in the early decision period — because of its location and its “co-op” program, which pairs students with local engineering firms for hands-on training and experience.

Horowitz said he considered Utah — it would have been cheaper. And had he been less certain about his future career, he might have made a different choice.

But it was important to him to leave home, Horowitz said. He thinks the value of a new experience will be worth the cost, and he thinks job opportunities will be more abundant and pay will be higher in a city like Boston.

Horowitz said he doesn’t know when or if he’ll come back. “I’ve heard that you have to leave Utah,” he said, “to appreciate it.”

Open options

Airhart likely won’t become a cosmetologist — at least not right away.

When she joined the program two years ago, Airhart said, she didn’t think she wanted to go to college. Twelve years of school were enough, she thought, and the license she earned would set her up for a career right after graduation.

Then Airhart watched her sister enroll in college and make new friends. “It just looks fun,” Airhart said.

So Airhart will enroll in Brigham Young University in the fall, with a scholarship. She will study nursing, she said — another “smart” choice that could set her up for a secure career.

Airhart thinks about her future practically, she said. She doesn’t love cosmetology or nursing any more than she loves any other job. She wants a family, she said — and a job that supports that goal.

“I don’t want to be just that mom that’s never home,” Airhart said.

She also doesn’t need to move away to fulfill that dream. And, aside from traveling, she has no plans to leave Utah.

The decisions she has made so far were made in service of a somewhat distant future. But for now, she’s focused on preparing for the immediate next step: being out of her comfort zone at a new school, with new people and new experiences. She’s excited, she said — and nervous.

“I don’t think I’m prepared for how hard it will be,” Airhart said.

Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.

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