Newsletter Photos - August 19, 2010
(Left) Stephanie Boraas, Economist, Division of Labor Force Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics and (Right) Rachel Krantz-Kent, Branch Chief, American Time Use Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Graduate Cameron Davis
Graduate Clare Viehmeyer
Job Corps Participants
Around DOL
Job Corps Celebrates 46 Years, as a Prominent Alumnus Reminisces
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Since Job Corps began on August 20, 1964, almost three million students ages 16 to 24 have received free training to become skilled white collar office workers and blue collar tradespeople. Others have continued their education to become doctors, nurses, lawyers and business leaders.
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, Oregon, 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."
Workers are His Business . . . but the Saints are His Passion
 DOL employee Jim Pierce. |
Jim Pierce, a 28-year employee of the U.S. Department of Labor, recently visited the White House, where President Barack Obama and members of the New Orleans Saints' football team gathered to attend the traditional meeting between the president and the latest Super Bowl winner.
Pierce's dream trip had its launch when the department's Deputy Chief of Staff Jeff Navin had a request from the White House to send one representative from the department to attend the event.
"As we looked around to see who could represent the department, we remembered one of the elevator posters that Office of Public Affiars had produced," Navin said, recalling the poster that featured Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs' (OFCCP) employee, Jim Pierce. "In the poster that featured Mr. Pierce, one of the things that he noted was that he was a lifelong New Orleans Saints' fan.
"We had highlighted him in FRANCES, a poster, and a video for his longtime federal government work and service to both the department and to OFCCP, and he was clearly a fan of the Saints."
Pierce, who has worked for the federal government for more than 40 years, was selected to make the deserving trip down to Pennsylvania Avenue.
The deputy director for the OFCCP's Division of Program Operations in Washington, D.C., Pierce has been a Saints supporter for many years, having grown up in Pineville, Louisiana.
"It was just amazing to be at an event where the president of the United States was commenting on the Saints. It was a great experience to be in the presence of so many Saints fans. Just being there, along with everyone else, was not something I ever would have expected," Pierce said.
