Joshua Climaco, a junior at Hazelwood West High School, was born in the Philippines and came to the States at a young age. Climaco is making a name for himself as a dreamer through his big career decision. As a highly dedicated and perseverant student, Climaco has always been highly curious about the unknown, which played a big part in his career decisions to pursue neuropsychology.
He came from the Philippines to Missouri when he was just seven years old. He had different interests back home. He wanted to be an architect or engineer, which he found out from his Aunt Grace, who was an engineer; she played a big part in his childhood there. Moving to America without her was hard for him; he had a whole new life to adjust to, with whole new opportunities.
School was a lot different here compared to the Philippines. His school was almost like a college campus with all the grades combined in one school, compared to ours having an elementary, middle and high school. The grading system was also different and a lot stricter. It was definitely an adjustment to make, but he didn’t let a less strict grading system let him fall short; he pursued it, which led him to find what his true interest was.
“I grew up in the poor parts of the city. I saw a bunch of homeless and crazy people outside. I always wondered what it was like to be in their shoes. And that really sparked my early signs in wanting to be a psychologist,” Climaco said.
Nobody in particular made him want to be a psychologist other than himself, but little things and people played a part in his interest. Climaco’s teacher, Mr. Ruckman, was his history teacher during his sophomore year, but was also a psychology teacher for the upperclassmen. Climaco thought he had no interest in psychology at the time, but any time he had a question about the brain, he would ask about it. To which, half the time, the answers were unknown. Unknown to him was an opportunity that was even more of a push than he needed.
Climaco first considered becoming a psychologist when his psychology teacher, Mrs. Kim Pappert, helped him explore various psychology fields. Ultimately, he chose Neuropsychology because he is truly interested in experimenting and understanding the brain.
“My teacher described it as just experimenting on the human brain and just knowing how it works, and that really piqued my curiosity because every time I see something that’s abnormal in society, I always wondered why they would do such a thing,” Climaco said.
Going into Neuropsychology, Climaco’s goal is to find out or help find out more about the brain, digging more into how to heal it and prevent issues from worsening. The brain is still quite unknown, and that only furthers his curiosity in discovering new things. He’s got the motivation and dedication already.
75% of teens go into college undecided about the profession they want to pursue. Scary statistics, but in this case, Climaco is a part of the 25%. Moving forward, he plans on taking all the psychology classes he can to finish out high school, as well as planning to go to Kansas University, which has good courses for psychology as well as a good volleyball team to continue his sport. 10-13 years of college will be rough, but with his hard work and determination, he’s dedicated and knows he will succeed.