Excelsior Springs Job Corps Center Welcomes Citizens Back to Campus for Signing Day

Excelsior Springs Job Corps Students beginning the program. Photo by S. Jason Cole

The Excelsior Springs Job Corps Center has been closed to the public since the start of the pandemic. Over the last two years there have been some students working in the program, but onboarding and completions were in no way close to those numbers before the pandemic. In an effort to restart the program and encourage students, the campus invited the public to return to campus for a Signing Day event on September 15, 2022. As part of a national celebration, the event featured new students, a signing ceremony, tour of campus, and featured speaker.

“We are celebrating our new students the same way colleges celebrate their new student athletes, because the rewards are the same,” Job Corps National Director Rachel Torres said. “It’s about commitment, learning and the drive to succeed. Our students are super motivated to skill up, join the workforce and live their best lives.”

The Excelsior Springs campus has career vocational training in advanced manufacturing, construction, healthcare, homeland security, hospitality, and transportation. The campus encompasses 26-acres and has its own water tower, housing over 400 students at a time. The program is for youth ages 16-24 who have barriers to the workforce. Students are provided meals, transportation, education and training at no cost as part of a federal program founded in 1964 by R. Sergeant Shriver during the Johnson administration as part of an effort to bolster the workforce and help those with barriers find livable wages and employment.

Excelsior Springs Job Corps Center Director Lori Sams hands student their certificate of commitment during Signing Day event. Photo by S. Jason Cole

“For decades this community has supported the mission of our Job Corps Center and provided us with long-standing partnerships,” Center Director Lori Sams said. “Since COVID impacted the status of our center and the lives of our students, those partners have stood by us and supported us despite the difficulties COVID presented. Now, on the first Signing Day our center has ever hosted, we are welcoming back our partners and our community. It means so much that they have stood with us through this difficult time and we can’t thank them enough for their participation in celebrating these young men and women. I speak for the entire center when I say we are all looking forward to our partners joining us as we continue to carry out our mission of lifting up youth and providing skilled workers to the workforce.”

The Signing Day ceremony featured a student singer who began the program by singing the National Anthem. Trade students crafted centerpieces showcasing each of the trades. Hors d’oeuvres were served by the Culinary Students. In attendance were many local leaders, including Excelsior Springs Mayor Sharon Powell, who opened the program congratulating students on their decision to improve their lives and welcoming them back to the community.

City of Excelsior Springs Mayor Sharon Powell addressed the students on Signing Day. Photo by S. Jason Cole.

Featured speaker for the event was JE Dunn Community Relations Coordinator GG Owens, who has had a long history in partnership with the Center finding work for students who complete. GG spoke about the importance of the training they’re receiving and how it will help to prepare them for a better future; that organizing the space in your room is just the first step in organizing the rest of their lives. Naturally energetic, GG encouraged students to grasp the opportunities that the program will offer them, including getting their GED, drivers license, or advanced training. She also brought their attention to her business card that she had left for each of them to use when they complete the program. GG is known for finding high paying positions for students completing the program to go into.

An Excelsior Springs Job Corps student signs on to the Security trade while Center Director Lori Sams watches. Photo by S. Jason Cole.

“It’s been two and a half years since we’ve been able to welcome our partners and community members onto our campus,” Business and Community Liaison and event mediator Sean McNabb said. “And for two and a half years, our partners and community members have been champing at the bit to get
time with our students again. I can’t count how many partners have come to me and said, ‘We love the Job Corps students, when can they come back?’ or ‘We miss seeing the Job Corps students in our community. How are they doing?’ It means the world to us that we are able to bring our students, our partners and our community back together in one space to share in the celebration of our youth and the commitment they are making to Job Corps and their future success.”

The construction trade option at Excelsior Springs are Carpentry, Painting, Welding, Facilities Maintenance and Cement Masonry. The service trades are Culinary Arts, Medical Office Support, Certified Nursing Assistant, Clinical Medical Assistant and Security. The final offering is the advanced training program facilitated by the Transportation Communications Union that teaches students to work on trains.

TCU’s advanced training program is special in the sense that students who have already completed their first trade at any Job Corps center, have demonstrated dedication and good behavior, and are interested in furthering their skills can apply for an advanced training program they are interested in at any center in the United States.

If accepted, Job Corps provides the means to deliver those students to the program they’ve selected where they begin training in that second trade. This means that Job Corps has people coming to Excelsior Springs from all over the country to benefit from the partnership and training
program provided by TCU.

Students who complete their trade are also invited to apply for the Job Corps college program. This program provides the first two years of expenses paid to a community college program, in addition to continued room and board for students who are accepted into the program.

There are a plethora of options for students at Job Corps. At the end of it all, to help set the students up for success, Job Corps also pays them a biweekly stipend during their training and upon completion a larger sum of money to use in helping set themselves up for their future.

“We are blessed to be located in a community that has always offered our students love and support,” Director of Outreach and Admissions and Career Transition Services Tammy Harrelson said. “This celebration is meant to bring back our friends and partners, let them reengage with the students we have, and let them share in showing our students how special and important they are.”

For more information on the Job Corps program and to see employment opportunities, visit their website.