Angell Job Corps rebounds from closure threat, pandemic to re-fill its campus with young people learning trades

 

By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews

YACHATS – Neither overcast skies nor the occasional downpour of rain dampens the undercurrent of inspiration running through the 16-acre campus of Angell Job Corps north of Yachats.

The campus is home to more than 100 students from across the country who have enrolled to learn a blue collar trade while also furthering their education and honing life skills. Job Corp is the nation’s largest free residential career and education program for low-income young people ages 16-24.

In the masonry shop, 20-year-old Jamie Baker of Bremerton, Wash., holds the corner of what will be a shelf in place while she instructs another student on how to align the screws. In the automotive shop 18-year-old Jesse Pierson from Stayton, gathers tools and consults a computer as he prepares to replace brakes on a donated vehicle.

Both students exemplify the enthusiasm that underpins the spirit at Angell – where weekdays begin with a 6 a.m. wakeup call, breakfast at 7 a.m. and career training and academic classes at 8 a.m.

Baker was a year out of high school and living at home with four siblings when she heard about Job Corps from a relative.

“At home it was kind of dull and nothing was happening and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do,” Baker said. “And after hearing about it, I decided ‘Hey, I’m going to do this.’”

Pierson arrived at Angell two weeks after graduating high school.

“I had heard the saying ‘Jack-of-all-trades’ and that was what I had been working toward all my life,” Pierson said. “I didn’t know which field I wanted to be in so I just looked at my options and auto was the best one that I had no knowledge in.”

There are 117 job corps centers across the country, 24 of which — like Angell — are operated by the U.S. Forest Service in partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor. Each center offers unique programs. Angell, which has an annual average budget between $4.5 and $6 million, specializes in automotive and machine repair, construction, and renewable resources and energy, which encompasses both urban forestry and wildland firefighting.

“I was very open to the idea of doing different kinds of trades,” Baker said. “What I originally wanted to do was auto, and then I saw masonry and I was like ‘I can work with my hands, understand math more and have a fun career that lets me be outside a lot more.’”

History and challenges

Job Corps was created in 1964 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and Great Society domestic reforms. The program was initially modeled after the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps. Today it continues with its mission to improve job opportunities for economically disadvantaged youth.

The organization is still recovering from the pandemic — which sent staff and students home — while at the same time coming under fire from former President Donald Trump who in 2019 wanted to cut the program’s funding. Politicians on both sides of the aisle came to the corps defense, but some centers still closed and layoffs ensued.

Oversight of the organization was moved from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the Labor Department, and at least nine centers were shuttered, including in Oregon and Idaho. The biggest contractor, however, remains the Forest Service.

Angell director and Forest Service employee Steve Delmar has been with the corps 23 years. He came to Angell four years ago after operations at the Idaho center where he worked was transferred to that state.

“Our biggest challenge, along with every other center, is building back our student population after the pandemic,” Delmar said. “Angell kind of augered in and said we are keeping our homeless students, so through the pandemic we had 20 or 30 students.”

A steady stream of graduates and new arrivals means a fluctuating number of students at Angell, which has capacity for 160. In mid-January it had 108 students with another 30-40 on a perpetual waiting list. There are 63 staff members with five vacancies to fill.

The program

Six to 12 new students arrive on campus every two weeks and each is assigned a guidance counselor to help navigate their way to graduation. That means completing career training, securing a driver license and for those who have not done so already earning a high school diploma or GED.

Career training is geared toward employing students in union jobs. Angell’s instructors are members of the unions in which they teach. Job placement or an apprenticeship in students chosen field is part and parcel for graduates and Angell boasts a near 100 percent success rate.

The forestry and natural resources program is a gateway to jobs that include the Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Angell also has a wildland firefighter program, which won the Organizational Transformation Award at the 2023 Pacific Northwest Regional Foresters honor ceremony for excellence and contribution to wildland firefighting.

“We are actually the biggest little program there is,” Delmar said. “We are probably ranked third or fourth in the Forest Service in hours performed and that’s without an advanced fire training program.”

With its closed campus, Angell operates like its own small town. In addition to its extensively-equipped trade shops, there are classrooms, cafeteria, a healthcare center, dormitories with four beds to a room, administrative headquarters, a student union with its own store, gym, ball fields, faculty housing and an organic greenhouse garden.

There is also an active student government that allows students to have a say in decision-making, whether planning for weekend excursions or advocating for and getting dress code changes to now allow piercings and dyed hair.

Student testimonials

Baker, with multiple ear-piercings and a mop of lime-green hair, is on course to graduate in May, but wants to be sure she gets certified in firefighting camp management before moving on. She shared how the corps has benefited her in ways she had not imagined.

“In the dorm we read books that help us figure out how to communicate better, among other things,” she said. “And I had a hard time communicating and I would always get frustrated. But lately that’s actually dwindled down and gotten better over time.”

Baker’s advice for someone considering joining the corps – “which I think is a good idea” – is to research what it has to offer, talk with someone who has done it, and chose the right center “because the place that you go also determines if you will succeed.

“I really like this program,” she added. “It’s helped me out more than anybody knows. It’s given me a little more hope in life. I really do like working and I’m a hands-on learner. I didn’t know how much I was going to love doing masonry but now there’s no chance I’m doing any other trade.”

Baker’s trade instructor Joel Hatzenbihler described her as a “great worker with a great attitude” who is “super eager to learn and gets along with everybody in the shop.”

The masonry curriculum is a “brick and block” program with the goal of getting students into the bricklayer’s union, he said.

“If I send a student to Portland, Seattle or Spokane, that’s a pretty easy thing to do,” Hatzenbihler said. “But if I send a student to say Lakeview or Coos Bay, it’s a little tougher to find union work there. So I’m trying to train them in tile work, concrete work, give them as many skills as possible to use in their market.”

Pierson, who arrived at Job Corps eight months ago and is on track to graduate in June, enjoys the logical nature of auto mechanics and believes he too has found his niche in life.

“I think that it will be a good career,” Pierson said. “Especially since there are a lot of places that are still looking for mechanics. It’s a scarce trade, not many people are auto mechanics anymore so there is a yearn for mechanics.”

Job Corps has helped him with leadership skills — he serves with the Corps’ honor guard — and helped him to grow in a broader sense. His pitch for the program is simple.

“If you need an affordable way to get blue-collar knowledge then this is a great way to do it,” Pierson said. “We have great trades and diverse trades that you can choose from — and great instructors.”

His auto instructor Tyler Shepard added the program has more tools than most mechanics will see in the real world — so many they sometimes have to research how to use them. He described Pierson as “a great student and hard worker who stays on task.”

• Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com

 

• During weekends, Job Corps students are allowed to work in the community to earn extra income and are available for all sorts of jobs. One Yachats’ store manager described them as “the best employees I’ve had.” Anyone wishing to employ a student must do so in pairs, pay minimum wage and provide lunch and transportation. The contact is Tony Tripp at 541-547-5624.
• For more information about Angell Job Corps go to its website here.