How An Apprenticeship Helped Me Skip College & Own My Education

To make your future more known, you must own your education.

No matter how unknown the future is, your ability to adapt and learn in new environments will carry with you the rest of your life. Good education makes the future more known. Good education requires ownership.

Praxis allowed me to own my education.

Searching for Alternatives to College

In high school, I realized that college wouldn’t allow me to own my education. I was told I would have to go into extreme debt, take required classes that offered little flexibility, and there were no promises other than a degree. Nothing was self-guided.

Success is earned through effort and iteration. Success is not given to those who theorize and conceptualize in classrooms all day. You must act, produce results, then learn.

Praxis gave me the tools and support systems needed to produce real results, and learn while doing it. I was in the driver’s seat for the first time. I was on a joy ride, and I still am.

What I Did After High School

I first heard about Praxis on Fox News during my junior year of high school. At the time, I was working at Chick-fil-A, and still exploring my options after graduation. So I didn’t think much about an apprenticeship program, but little did I know, in a few years time, my entire life would look far better than I could have ever predicted.

Once I graduated high school in 2020, I spent a gap summer deciding what I wanted to do. That July, I applied to The Praxis Apprenticeship Program. And I got in!

I started my apprenticeship experience in August of 2020.

Over the next 3-months I learned everything I needed to actually get hired. No degree required. No debt required.

Landing My First Professional Opportunity

Just four months into the apprenticeship program, I got hired full-time at PandaDoc: a $1 billion software company.

My former classmates are still in college trying to finish their 4-year sentences.

Ten months later, I got promoted as a full-time Sales Development Representative. I’m 20 years old. I have zero debt, a great job, a year of real-world experience, and most importantly, a supportive learning community with Praxis.

Praxis was the best thing that ever happened to me. I’m still deeply connected with the online community and I’m still learning from them.

My education has never stopped and it never will. Knowing I’m the one in charge of it makes all the difference. You can’t put a price on that!