Kadar C.

With no plans for the future after dropping out of high school, Kadar C. found himself at a crossroads as he tried to figure out which way his life was headed. That was until his foster mother signed him up for Job Corps, helping him choose a path of stability and success with a career in facilities maintenance. “I am grateful my foster parents encouraged me to enroll in Job Corps, because I had lost my way.”

While enrolled at the center in Cleveland, Ohio, Kadar was motivated to succeed. He earned his high school diploma from Penn Foster and trained in Job Corps’ Building Construction Technology program, gaining Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 10 and Scaffolding certifications.

Kadar says he appreciates the staff, who were patient with him, encouraged him to stay focused, and took the time to listen to him when he was struggling.

“Job Corps changed me mentally and pushed me into a better, successful life,” he said.

Kadar graduated in December 2019 and now works in facilities maintenance at the Grande Pointe Healthcare Community.

Jennifer R.

Jennifer knows firsthand how game-changing it is to have people believe in you. Once a young person coming out of foster care, getting into trouble, and not sure how to survive on her own, Jennifer is now a lawyer and executive director of the Youth Law Center.

There, she works with legislators and foster care organizations to advocate for young people in foster care, and with juvenile justice systems to ensure young people in these systems get the support they need to thrive.

It was at Job Corps that Jennifer first began to see herself differently through the encouragement of admissions representatives and a dorm mother who all noticed her strong work ethic and academic potential.

“If you had told me that someday I was going to be a lawyer and run a $2 million organization, I would have laughed in your face; I could never see myself even graduating high school. My Job Corps experience really changed the way that I saw myself as somebody who is capable,” she said.

While Jennifer is appreciative of the job training and internship experiences that taught her skills she still uses today, it was her participation in Job Corps’ Academic Olympics that gave her the confidence to continue her education.

When taking the practice test to determine what classes she needed in order to complete her high school equivalency credential at Job Corps, Jennifer tested among the highest scorers on center for vocabulary and spelling, and because of this she was able to compete regionally in the Academic Olympics.

“What was extraordinary for me about that experience was that I had always been labeled a dumb kid, and I didn’t think of myself as somebody who was smart at all,” Jennifer said. “That really established for me the mindset that I needed to think of college as a possibility for me later on once I left the center.”

This experience changed the course of her life. After Job Corps, Jennifer went on to get her associate degree from San Joaquin Delta College, Stockton; her Bachelor of Arts degree from University of California, Davis; and Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Davis.