Gary Job Corps Celebrates Student Achieves, Participation In Blood Drive

Job Corps is a no-cost education and career technical training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor that helps young people ages 16 to 24 improve the quality of their lives through career technical and academic training.

The Job Corps program is authorized by Title I-C of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 (supersedes WIA 1998). For more information about the Job Corps program at a national level, please visit their Official Public Web Site.

Donating Blood to Save Lives

The Gary Job Corps Center’s medical trades volunteered their time and lifesaving blood at the 2019 blood drive at the Gary Job Corps Center’s Activity Center on August 30, 2019 hosted by the organization We Are Blood.

We Are Blood has drawn Central Texans together since 1951 to provide and protect the community blood supply. By inspiring people to donate locally and to take pride in this precious shared resource, we’re making sure all Central Texans will continue to have access to life-saving blood when they need it. For more information see weareblood.org.

 

A Mile Above the Rest

The Gary Job Corps Center (GJCC) has another hero! Mary Miles (pictured) had entered the GJCC program in April to become a Certified Nurse’s Assistant, was at the student post office last week checking on a package when she discovered that the staff member behind the desk was slumped over in his chair and unresponsive. 

Mary said that she had previously witnessed the symptoms of a person that was diabetic with low blood sugar and knew she needed to get help.  Mary ran to get help and then immediately returned to make sure he was ok.

Emergency personnel responded to the scene to assist the staff member. Due to the quick thinking of Mary, the staff member recovered and was back to work the same day. Thank you Mary for being our hero…what a great way to start your career as a certified nurse’s assistant.

GJCC Alumni Working at Agilent

Shannon Horton is originally from St. Martinville, LA where he had dropped out of high school at the age of 17 and was working a lot of menial jobs. Shannon had been working at a job were his boss was buying drugs during lunch breaks and he wasn’t getting paid regularly.

He said he wasn’t surrounded by good people and didn’t want to have anything to do with them any longer.

Shannon remembered one of his friends had been telling him about his experience in Job Corps, so on a lunch break he walked into a Job Corps recruiting office and signed up. “I left with the clothes on my back and got on a plane,” said Shannon.

While Shannon was at Gary Job Corps, he received his Press Operator Apprentice trade diploma, GED, and started the college program at Austin Community College. Shannon says he was focused on getting his trade and going to college because he didn’t want to return to the life he once knew. Shannon took advantage of what was offered at Gary Job Corps, including getting to experience being a student leader in the dormitory and spending time doing recreational activities in the gym.

After graduating Gary Job Corps, Shannon started working as a temp at Agilent Technologies and was hired on full-time soon after. Shannon found that the machines he had learned to work on in his trade at Gary Job Corps, helped him learn the machines at Agilent Technologies. Shannon says that he also learned independent living skills at Job Corps which helped him not only to keep his job but to become successful.

Shannon said, “I realized that I had found a career and not just a job. I worked my way up through the company and now I’m a Production Supervisor.” Shannon now lives in Bastrop, TX, is married with three children, and owns his own home. “Because I went to Gary Job Corps, I now have a successful life,” said Shannon.

GJCC Workforce Industry Council

Gary Job Corps Center hosted a Workforce Industry Council  (WIC) on  August 29, 2019, where community partners visited and surveyed the center trades to see if the training was meeting industry standards and to make recommendations that would allow the trades to align curriculum for what employers are looking for when hiring new employees. 

During the luncheon, Ted Breihan from Ted Breihan Electric Company,  that has been attending the WIC since the 70s, was honored for his many years of dedicated service to the WIC, and the Gary Job Corps Center’s students.

He was thanked for his outstanding support and continuing to positively impact the lives of the disadvantaged youth of Texas.

Companies that attended were TPWD, Hays County Constables Precinct 1, Centro Esperanza, ST Aerospace,  MJ Supply LLC, Dealers, Travis SMISD, Texas Parks & Wildlife, Redwood Community, Thermon, Lockhart ISD, Ted Briehen Electric Co, Walmart Pharmacy, and Cross Texas Electric.