Each week, staff at Wind River Job Corps nominates a student who has shown excellent behavior towards their academics and peers. To view all nominated students, click here.
Student has the recipe for true grit!
There are a handful of end-results that define success at Wind River Job Corps. When students graduate and get a job in their field – that’s a good day. Other avenues for success are when students go into advance training at another center, or move on to college.
But students that pursue this specific avenue for success are truly ambitious, as their vocational skills, physical capabilities, mental assets and leadership qualities will all be tested. Maybe that’s why they are called “The Few.” That career path is found in the military, and for Christian Lucero-Montana, Job Corps Student-of-the-Week, that would mean a career in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Christian came to Riverton’s Job Corps campus four months ago, from Apache Junction in Arizona. He soon began his training as a heavy truck driver. That training will help Christian gain a commercial driver’s license so he can drive the big tractor-trailer rigs across the nation’s roads, or anywhere else the Marine’s might want to send him.
“Christian works hard and you rarely know when he is having an off day,” says center director Dr. Kristin Benson. “He couples this with an outgoing nature and appreciation for others’ efforts. These characteristics are the recipe for true grit.”
Eventually, through his time with the Marines and using his experiences in transportation, Christian hopes to find his way into a Quality Control Management position. This is a student with a vision of the road ahead.
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WIND RIVER JOB CORPS serves up to 300 campus-based and non-residential students generally originating from the Rocky Mountain states. The center provides over 16 career tracks offered through eight vocational programs, including pre-apprenticeship opportunities. These programs have been determined and developed based on the current high-performing job market trends in the region. Included in vocational training are employability skills and community engagement. Wind River Job Corps is the newest of the 124 Job Corps centers located throughout the United States, opening in 2015. It is operated by the Alternate Perspectives, Inc. for the Department of Labor and is located at 4200 Airport Rd in Riverton, Wyoming.
JOB CORPS is a program administered by the United States Department of Labor. The program helps income-eligible young people ages 16 through 24 complete their high school education, trains them for meaningful careers, and assists them with obtaining employment. Job Corps has trained and educated over two million individuals since 1964. It is the largest nationwide residential career training program in the country and has been operating for more than 50 years.
At Job Corps, students have access to room and board while they learn skills in specific training areas for up to three years. In addition to helping students complete their education, obtain career technical skills and gain employment, Job Corps also provides transitional support services, such as help finding employment, housing, child care, and transportation. Job Corps graduates either enter the workforce or an apprenticeship, go on to higher education, or join the military.
API Alternate Perspectives Incorporated (API) is a certified small, woman-owned company with corporate headquarters just outside our nation’s capital. API’s mission is to help individuals and organizations achieve their goals and realize their dreams by providing them with new ways of thinking to create new ways of doing. API staff have extensive Job Corps experience in almost every aspect of the Job Corps program. The API Operating model begins with building a “positive normative culture” at each center defined by four norms: respect self, respect others, respect community, and strive for excellence. Students and staff at the Wind River Job Corps Center are expected to adopt and embrace these norms to learn, grown, and strive for continuous improvement. In addition to Wind River Job Corps, API operates the Westover Job Corps Center, and Shriver Job Corps Center, both in Massachusetts.