HIGH SCHOOL HAS EMPHASIS ON FASHION

Many teenagers are interested in fashion, at least as a hobby. But where would you go to learn if you wanted to make fashion a career?

The High School of Fashion Industries, in New York City, is the only high school in the eastern United States to provide occupational classes in fashion as well as a complete academic program for its students. The public school is open to all city residents.

Students can get a degree in areas such as illustration and graphic design, textile and interior design, fashion design and garment construction, fashion design art, fashion merchandising or marketing, and visual marketing. They also can take pre-calculus and Advance Placement English.

School sponsors in the fashion industry, such as Donna Karan and Kenneth Cole, can create opportunities for students.

"Through them, people get internships, and if you really want to become a fashion designer, that's how you start -- internships -- and you become closer to designers," said Zoila Mendez, a recent graduate.

Zoila majored in fashion design art. She learned about the school from her junior high art teacher, whose daughter had gone there.

"He thought it would be a good school for me, where I could grow and I could actually become a better artist," she said.

Erika Parker and Ni Xia Zheng also are recent graduates. Like Zoila, Erika was interested in art in junior high and majored in fashion design art. Ni Xia found out about the school from a friend who attended there. She majored in business merchandising.

To apply, students must submit a portfolio that relates to their major and take an admissions exam. Though the school's main focus is fashion, it also provides non-fashion classes.

"This high school doesn't really just focus on art or fashion. It pretty much focuses on the person as a whole," Zoila said. "It gives you art, but then it gives you algebra and it gives you math and it gives you foreign language and English. It also gives you, like, business courses and computer courses and speech courses -- anything so that you can become a well-rounded individual."

"The course load is heavy. It's what you would expect from a regular academic school, if not more. They expect a lot from you," Erika said.

Each major has special opportunities. Freshmen with art majors create projects that exhibited in the school's museum.

"A bunch of people from different museums in the city came, and they looked at the exhibit and they critiqued our work," Erika said. "You're a freshman, and you've never had any kind of experience with anything like that, and then they come here and they say your work is good. That really boosts your confidence."

Non-art majors have a different set of requirements and opportunities. Ni Xia explained that merchandising majors focus more on business courses.

"They deal with computers, like how the business world runs, how to use the computer and PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Works," she said, adding that they get hands-on experience, too.

"We work in the school boutique, where you become a buyer and actually go out and buy stuff for the school boutique."

Zoila would have liked more extracurricular activities.

"We don't even have a football field," she lamented. "We don't have any type of field at all because we're just surrounded by buildings. And we get to miss out on the dances, on the football games, on the pep rallies, on homecoming dances, on everything. I mean, the only thing we have pretty much is prom.

"It prepares you for your career, but sometimes I just wish I had more fun in high school."

Last school year, 1,800 students enrolled at the high school. Although the school is co-ed, the population is largely female. Because it is a public school, students can attend regardless of their family's income.

"The school thrives on the fact that so many people in that school are not like the type of people who can afford to pay tuition. Those are some of the best artists we have," Erika said.

Not everybody regards the school so highly, though.

"(Critics) don't think we're as smart as other schools because we have such an art-based kind of curriculum," Erika said.

Students go to Fashion Industries to learn more than fashion and design. In fact, none of these graduates is pursuing a fashion-oriented career after high school.

"School is just school. I've majored in art, and I'm going into business," Zoila explained.

Zoila will major in business management at Fordham University in the Bronx. Erika will be an English major at Marymount College of Fordham University in Tarrytown, N.Y. Ni Xia will pursue a degree in pharmacy at the University at Buffalo.

The girls think Fashions Industries prepared them well for college.

"There's a class called independent studies, where you're required to go out and make your own lessons and teach yourself, go to museums and things like that," Erika said. "That helps you for the college part of life when everything you do is not gonna be in the classroom."

But Zoila said some colleges didn't take her seriously. "I applied to a lot of Ivy League schools, and they kind of put me at the end of the list because I don't go to a top school. They see I go to fashion school, and they think all I do is just draw and sew all day."

The girls had advice for high school students interested in fashion who don't have a school geared to their interest.

"Work on projects and search for internships," Ni Xia said. "Apply for colleges that actually have majors in fashion."

"Definitely stay in tune with what's going on with fashion," Erika said. "You can do that with magazines, the Internet, television shows. On your own, try and learn how to do certain things, like there are plenty of books in the library I know about pattern making."

Assistant editor: Julie McDowell, 15.

Reporter: Brit'ney McTush, 13.