“Job Corps provided what I needed to make it,” Marina Perez said. After Marina’s mother passed away, she found herself living back home working a dead-end job. She was 23 and knew that, with every passing moment, she was missing her chance to do more with her life. Marina first heard about Job Corps when […]
Region 6: San Francisco
Richard Samedra
At the age of 12, Richard Samedra’s family migrated from the Philippines to southern Orange County, Calif., in search of a new life. Richard worked diligently to earn his high school diploma, but soon found himself looking for a better future when he was unable to find a good-paying job he could progress in at […]
Cassandra David
When Cassandra David arrived at the Alaska Job Corps Center in 2019, she was looking for a way to make a stable income and set herself up for independence. Cassandra did not know she would soon end up as a leader in the Construction training program, a typically male-dominated industry. She never let being one […]
Brittany Vega
As the youngest daughter of a first-generation immigrant family, Brittany Vega was determined to make her family proud and create a new path for herself. After she graduated from high school in 2014, college didn’t seem like an option for her, so she started working in retail. Having never attended college themselves, her parents did […]
Kenneth Trapero
Kenneth Trapero enrolled in Angell Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center on Nov. 29, 2016, to study automotive maintenance; but it was not long after enrolling that he found his true passion as a wildland firefighter. After observing Kenneth’s work on the fire line, an assistant fire management officer suggested that he pursue a career with […]
Isaac Romero
When Isaac Romero saw one of the national commercials for Job Corps, he didn’t realize that one day he himself would be in one of those commercials. In fact, after graduating from high school in 2008, Isaac would go on to accomplish many things he never thought possible. At age 18, Isaac found himself […]
Isaiah Caudillo
After high school, Isaiah Caudillo was working as a lifeguard and looking to make a change in his life. He heard about Job Corps through his aunt, who had attended Los Angeles Job Corps Center years prior. He further discussed the decision to attend with his high school principal, who encouraged Isaiah to take advantage […]
Chuck Harp
At the time, 20-year-old waiter Chuck Harp was missing a key piece in his life: stability. He knew that he wanted and needed it, but he wasn’t sure how to get it. After speaking with a family member, Chuck learned that, at Job Corps, he could train in an industry that would help prepare him […]
Christopher Patterson
Christopher Patterson grew up in foster care in Spokane, Wash., and from birth to 5 years old he was in receiving homes. He was then adopted by his foster parents and later placed back into care at age 12 due to years of abuse in the home. Despite the obstacles he faced throughout his childhood, […]
Bosilka Nash
Three months sober from drugs, recently failing out of college, and without a job or direction for her future, Bosilka Nash found herself living at her grandparents’ house, uncertain of how to make her lifelong dream of becoming a nurse into a reality. “Although I was sober, my life was still going nowhere. I had […]