Starting Out
I would just get a Baofeng once you have your technician license. Just search amazon for a Baofeng. You could get one of the little cheap $20 ones. They’re cheap and they work pretty well.
Later On
Once you get your general license and are ready to talk over longer distances, I would get something like a Yaesu 991A. My reasoning is that it will allow you to do both the local stuff and the long distance stuff in one radio.
People will debate this forever. It is an all in one radio and I know there can be some minor drawbacks to this vs having multiple dedicated radios, but I have one and I think it’s great. You can do everything with it. It has a good waterfall display. It’s got good power. It’s a good price.