Hawaii Job Corps pushes students toward summit

Photo By Cpl. Harley Thomas | Members of the Hawaii Job Corps staff and representatives from Marine Corps Base Hawaii admire the work students have done in their dormitories March 24, 2015, on the Job Corps Center campus in Waimanalo. The students remain in the program for up to two years, with the possibility of a third year if they are accepted into the Job Corps’ advanced training or college program. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Harley Thomas/released)  

KANEOHE BAY, HI, UNITED STATES

03.24.2015

Story by Lance Cpl. Harley Thomas 

Marine Corps Base Hawaii

KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii - Members of the Hawaii Job Corps staff met with Col. Eric W. Schaefer, the commanding officer for Marine Corps Base Hawaii, and other base representatives to discuss the Job Corps and it’s effects on the local population and community Tuesday at the Job Corps Center in Waimanalo.

The Job Corps is a no-cost education and vocational training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor that helps young people ages 16 through 24 improve the quality of their lives through vocational and academic training. Funded by Congress, Job Corps has been training young adults since 1964 and is committed to offering all students a safe, drug-free environment where they may take advantage of the resources provided to them.

“It all began with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s ‘War on Poverty,’” said Julie Dugan, the business community outreach manager with the Hawaii Job Corps Center. “We’re set up for low-income youth who are in need of academic or career training. We consider ourselves lucky – there aren’t many programs around that are able to celebrate going strong for 50 years. It’s because there is still a need for us. It’s a program
that works.”

Dugan said the staff spends a good amount of their energy making sure the students meet the requirements and are ready to work, and they find the students employment based on their newfound skill sets.

“We don’t only focus on their first job placement,” Dugan said. “We also focus on equipping them with the skills for job retention and promotional opportunities. We’re responsible for tracking their progress, formally, for up to a year after they get their first job.”

The program’s success rate is pretty good, as roughly 90 percent of its graduates hold their first job for a full year, Dugan said. Bob Starkman, the deputy director at the Hawaii Job Corps Center, said this is important because the biggest challenge the program is facing is their retention of learned skills and ideals.

“While the unemployment rate in Hawaii is very low, the unemployment rate for the age group we deal with is almost 25 percent,” Starkman said. “We deal with the least educated or trained group of young people, so our goal is to give them that education and train them to become more engaged in the workforce.”

Starkman said the program is actually quite large, with 128 centers nationwide, serving approximately 40,000 youth a year. He said at this location, they offer nine career technical training programs, all aligned to national training and certification standards, ranging from a culinary arts program to nursing assistance or business trade programs.

“We align our career opportunities to the demand in Hawaii,” Starkman said. “We have the largest geographical recruiting area of any center, recruiting from not only all the Hawaiian Islands, but from places such as American-Samoa, Guam and the Marshall Islands. I’d say about 70 percent of our students are recruited locally and about 30 percent are from those various islands.”

Raymond Suda-Lanoz, a student in the Job Corps program, said that while being away from home is hard, it has been a very beneficial year and two months.

“Being away from my family is hard, but I’ve learned how to strive and do the best I can – not only to make myself proud, but to make my family proud as well,” said Suda-Lanoz, a Maui resident. “This is going to make the future that much brighter for my future family and myself. (The Job Corps) has helped me develop and grow stronger, and it’s made me realize how I could (function) independently. The greatest aspect of this program is the training we receive. It doesn’t matter what trade you are in, you never stop learning.”

Suda-Lanoz said the program helps develop a wide variety of skills, as well as providing the tools to discipline and, ultimately, better one’s self. He said after his time in the program, he hopes to go home to Maui and find a job, or go back to school to study horticulture.

“We’ve always been told to ‘kulia i ka nu‘u,’ or ‘strive for the summit,’” Suda-Lanoz said. “We’ve been taught that we should never settle for less than our best in anything we do and we should strive to reach the top, as only we can determine (our) future. It’s important to live at your fullest potential to accomplish whatever you set your mind to and to know that if you have the heart and the hunger to learn, you can do anything.”

• Date Taken: 03.24.2015
• Date Posted: 03.27.2015 15:51
• Story ID: 158376
• Location: KANEOHE BAY, HI, US