By Kirsren Kirtley, Senior Reporter
If you had to choose between becoming a nurse, a secretary, a beautician or a teacher, which choice would you make?
Karen Koehn chose to become a teacher, and she said she wouldn’t change a thing.
Koehn explained that while she was attending college in the 1980s, nurse, secretary, beautician and teacher were the four main career paths women had to choose from if they were going to make a living outside of the home.
“They told us we could be anything we wanted to be, but women really couldn’t in the ‘80s,” Koehn said.
Koehn said she ruled out three of the four career choices almost immediately.
She said she didn’t like typing class, so she didn’t want to be a secretary. She couldn’t prick her lab partner’s finger in science class, so she ruled out nursing, and she was a tomboy who liked sports, so becoming a beautician wasn’t an option, either.
Koehn, who has been the Career Guidance Counselor at Northwestern Technology Center in Alva for 30 years, grew up in a family of five children, and neither of her parents attended college.
Koehn said that, although she had the ability to make A’s and B’s, she was a B and C student throughout her high school career and only did what was needed to graduate.
She joked that she finds her career as a guidance counselor a bit ironic because she was never a big fan of school.
She said her school counselors never paid much attention to her, even after she scored a 20 on the ACT on her first try with no preparation.
“As long as the police and principal weren’t calling the house, life was pretty good,” Koehn said when describing her home-life growing up.
Although her parents valued education, she said they were focused on keeping a roof over their family’s head and raising five children.
Koehn never planned on attending Northwestern but said that it ended up being the best place for her.
Koehn has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, a master’s degree in education.
She taught as a school teacher for two years before becoming a school counselor. She is also active in multiple aspects within the Alva community.
What is Koehn’s favorite part of her job?
“The kids. That’s who I do it for,” Koehn said. “Kids are wonderful. Kids are really pretty cool.”