Over the years, the keys to a successful entry into the world of work have changed significantly.
Henry T. Holmes, from New York, quit school and worked as a store clerk, before heading to San Francisco aboard a ship in 1849, helping start California’s first telegraph company and becoming an owner of Thomas Bull’s lime works here.
Oscar E. Chase, whose mom arrived in the area by ox-team, found Los Gatos public education and a Santa Cruz Business College course were the tickets to getting a job as a bookkeeper for the S. H. Chase Lumber Company of Boulder Creek in the 1890s.
In 1986 the Fine Arts & Practical Arts Fair was introduced at San Lorenzo Valley High School, while Typing, Computers, Electronics, Accounting and Record-Keeping classes were offered through the Business department—at a time where the majority of the school didn’t even have a digital grading…