My Life as a Job Corps Student

My name is Tiffany, I am 19 years old and I graduated valedictorian of my high school in 2007. You might be wondering why I chose to come to Job Corps, a place that has the reputation where all the so far unsuccessful teens and adults go ages 16-25. Today is June 13, 2008; last year at this time I received a phone call from Job Corps asking me if I could be packed and ready to move away from the small town of Allegan, the place I have called home for 18 years up to a big city I was unfamiliar with, Grand Rapids, on June 24, 2007.

June 24th I arrived to “my new home” I was very nervous but so excited to begin my journey as an adult away from the nest. There were eight other teens who were in the classroom where the whole journey begins awaiting everyone else’s arrival as well, I joined them and was never more scared and nervous in my life. Now it all begins… I went through a ton of paper work that day at 4:00 p.m I was dismissed to join society of the campus and roam around as I pleased.

June 25th and everyday since then I have been awakened at 6:00 a.m to sign in which lets staff know nothing major happened to me during the night.

7:30 a.m I have to be up and dressed in uniform for role call to begin in the small lounge on my wing. After role call everyone is dismissed from role call it is time to go clean your room so that your room will score the highest score possible a 60. Anything less than a 60 and your room must have had a flaw which means someones bed wasn’t tucked in properly or something was dirty such as your bathroom or sink area or maybe even your floors.

8:00 a.m We all have to be in class ready to work. I currently hold the position as the Student Assistant for the Center Director’s Office. You may only reach this position if you are clearly a well behaved student of the Gold card status. You must also be very office trained and proficient to your duties and skills. On Mondays only we have what they like to call a business meeting in the auditorium letting us know about future events, recognizing the students who made achievements, and informing us of our over all behavior of the weekend. The business meeting is usually dismissed around 9:00 and then back to class.

9:45 We are aloud a 15 minute break to use the bathroom, go outside and get fresh air, or just chill with our friends.

10:00a.m It is back to class!

11:30a.m We finally get to go to lunch. There are two cafes here on the Grand Rapids center, an east cafe and a west cafe. The ease cafe is for gold, silver and green card holders who choose not to eat with the rest of the color cards in the west cafe. I choose to eat in the west cafe with all my friends who have not yet made it to silver or gold card.

12:30 p.m Lunch is over and back to class.

2:00 p.m We have another 15 minute break. I hang out in the student lounge with my boyfriend and two best friends. The student lounge is a room with wooden benches to sit and converse on.

2:15 p.m Back to class!

4:00 p.m It is time to go over to the dorm, the training day is over! 😀

4:15 p.m Everyone is required to attend role call. After role call you are allowed to return your room.

4:45 p.m We may leave the dorm floor to enjoy the rest of the day. This is also when the computer lab and laundry room is unlocked. Recreation is unlocked and the games begin.

5:00 p.m Dinner is served in the west cafe only.

6:15 p.m The cafe closes down.

8:30 p.m Snack is served on both female and male residential floors.

9:30 p.m Is curfew. This means everyone has to go back to their dorm floors and do the assigned detail of their room. This is when I go to recreation and serve as recreation president.

10:30 p.m I send the rec aides to their dorm after they have completed their assigned detail.

11:00 p.m I finally get to go to bed and await the morning.

The Curfews: Monday-Wednesday- 9:30 p.m Thursday we sometimes have G.I which is general inspection to make sure our dorms are clean and up to 60 standards, we have to be back on dorm floor by 8:00 to clean and do details. We sometimes don’t have G.I if everyone had achieved a 60 on their room.

Friday and Saturday we have a 12:00 a.m curfew unless you are silver card then it is 1:00 a.m or gold card, 2:00 a.m.

Sundays we have a 9:30 curfew again to prepare for school the next day.

On Saturday and Sunday we get breakfast/lunch at 10:30-12:00. 12:00 p.m we are required to be back up on the dorm floor to do assigned details until 1:00 p.m when we are free to leave center.

I hope this has answered all your questions and if you have any I did not answer please feel free to message me and I will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have. Please have a blessed day and spread the word JOB CORPS ROCKS!