SCHOHARIE --  Capital Region BOCES senior Natilee Yandon knows exactly what she likes when it comes to learning and plans to turn that like into a career thanks to her time at BOCES.

The cosmetology senior from Berne-Knox-Westerlo likes the freedom learning at BOCES affords her and aspires to the freedom of owning her own salon one day.

“I am hoping to get a job in a salon and take some business courses in a college so I can one day open my own salon and have the freedom to be my own boss,” she said during a recent break from styling hair on the Schoharie campus.

Yandon is one of more than 100 students in the two-year cosmetology program gaining the skills and 1,000 hours of training and experience needed to take the New York State licensure exam. The experience prepares students to enter the workforce upon graduation or to go to college and a have a leg up on future business competitors.

Yandon said she likes that BOCES provides hands-on learning and the freedom to learn her own way.

“I like the hands-on and we get to do everything freely,” she said.