As one of ten children and living in a single-parent home, Aisha Abdullah spent much of her time caring for her ever-growing family.  With young brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews that needed care, there were many school days missed and homework assignments left unfinished.  With so much on her plate, her first year of high school was marked by poor attendance, poor grades, and a poor attitude. Her older sisters provided no guidance, as they all had babies before they finished high school. Her retreat from family responsibilities was to run the streets.

Aisha’s turnaround came when she meandered into EducationWorks (EW) Beacon Center located in the Audenried High School, where she met staff member Bianca White.  Bianca saw a young woman headed for trouble. Her first move was to encourage Aisha to attend school every day. Aisha returned to the Beacon Center as often as she was able. The Aisha-Bianca dynamic clicked: “Bianca was my mentor; she was the older sister I was looking for.” With Bianca’s and the Beacon Center staff’s help and guidance, her school attendance dramatically improved. She joined the Audenried Beacon Center Youth Council and was elected its president. In that role she discovered that she was a natural leader and had the genuine desire to serve her community.

Arielle Kirton, a student at SIATech Inland Empire, admits that her life was filled with fighting, smoking, drinking, and running away from home prior to coming to Job Corps. She rarely attended school; and when she did, it was just to hang out and get into more trouble. She had no respect for teachers or staff at all. Some of the lowest points of her life were a stint in Juvenile Hall and a fight that seriously injured another student by throwing her arm through a window.

Since coming to the Job Corps and the SIATech High School program, she has realized a complete turnaround in attitude and actions. She doesn’t know exactly when it happened, but she concluded that her life was not going anywhere because she still had the same behaviors as before.

Fabiola Damas is a fine example of a hard working trainee at the Long Beach SIATech site. A resident of San Pedro, California, Damas has met and overcome many obstacles throughout her life: a rough childhood, the wrong crowd, and some wrong choices in life led her to eventually drop out of high school.  Damas remembers, “I was watching television when I saw the commercial for Job Corps. It really got my attention….  I knew that this was the only opportunity for me to start all over again.” She made a call, and a few days later, she was accepted into Job Corps.  

Though an intelligent, unique, and determined student who wishes to succeed in the “real world,” Damas, in the past, was not always confident that her efforts would be met with success.  Though her past led her in the wrong direction, she was ready to welcome necessary change to ensure her personal success in life.  Because of Job Corps, Damas believes she is at last on the road to realizing her dreams.