Success Stories
The following are only a few examples of how Job Corps helps our graduates make success last a lifetime.
Music Industry Impresario Troy Carter
Troy Carter manages several recording artists including Lady Gaga
When he was a young boy growing up in West Philadelphia, Troy Carter dreamed of becoming a music industry success.
The 1990 Job Corps graduate is now the CEO of Coalition Media Group, a Beverly Hills, California, artist management and digital marketing company who includes among his clients mega music sensation Lady Gaga.
Carter received his GED from the former Chesapeake Job Corps Center in Port Deposit, Maryland. He said Job Corps "helped me experience independence for the first time" and meet people from different walks of life. Carter used those skills as he later worked with music stars like Sean "Diddy" Combs, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Will Smith, Eve, and Nelly.
Carter said America needs institutions like Job Corps because building world leaders "starts in school" with students who "don’t stop dreaming and work hard."
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Chef Monique Williams
Chef Monique Williams (front, center) and her culinary arts students with Food Network Chef Robert Irvine
With a pinch of passion, a sprinkle of creativity and a generous amount of determination, "Chef Moe," Monique Williams, has been able to turn her cooking aspirations into a recipe for success.
Her journey began as a culinary arts student at Woodstock Job Corps Center in Maryland - the same school where she landed her first job. After several years of teaching and inspiring other young chefs, Williams became the first former Job Corps student to become an advanced culinary instructor at Anne Arundel Community College.
She was recognized during the 45th Anniversary of Job Corps celebration, and later joined her Woodland Job Corps Center culinary students to cook with Chef Robert Irvine from the Food Network show Dinner: Impossible. "The opportunity to make a life-changing difference in the lives of other young people is very special to me, and I will forever be grateful to Job Corps for giving me that," said Williams.
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Judge Sergio A. Gutierrez
Judge Sergio A. Gutierrez in his chambers
Job Corps' motto is "Success Lasts a Lifetime" and no where is this more evident than in the story of Idaho Court of Appeals Judge Sergio Gutierrez, who received his GED and even learned a little carpentry at the Wolf Creek Job Corps Center in the early 1970s.
With 13 children, Gutierrez's family struggled to make ends meet while his father sought work as a farm laborer in California's San Joaquin Valley. Thanks to a loving grandmother, Gutierrez learned to read using a Bible, but as family hardships grew in his teen years, Gutierrez fell in with a bad crowd of what he admits were older "hoodlums."
But while looking for work at a job service office, he learned about and enrolled in the Wolf Creek Job Corps program. This he said placed him in a scenic, welcoming, environment which helped him realize his potential and "gave me an affirmation that I could do something with my life." He earned his GED and received carpentry training from Wolf Creek, then left to work and get married. He eventually earned both an undergraduate and a law degree, practiced law, and was appointed to the Idaho Court of Appeals in 2002.
Judge Gutierrez attributes his success to the Job Corps program. "I was not going down the right path, and the program literally saved my life," he said. "I believe Job Corps is one of the best programs taxpayers can support because my story is one that repeats itself across the country," he said, adding that young people "are waiting to develop and contribute to their families and their communities thanks to Job Corps."
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Page last updated:
Tuesday, August 30, 2011