Battleship Duty For Job Corps Youths

Steve Murray
Wednesday - September 26, 2007
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The new partnership between the Waimanalo-based Hawaii Job Corps Center and the USS Missouri produced immediate results with the recent hiring of two students by the memorial group.

Card Subille, a student from the Marshall Islands, and Eric Rodrigues of Ewa Beach moved right from apprentice to full-time employees after impressing their bosses on the big battleship, said Julie Dugan, the Job Corps business and community liaison.


“For a six-week period they report to work every day, and we get constructive feedback from the employer,” Dugan said. “The majority of them start as non-paid interns, but they can turn into paid programs.”

The memorial association played host to the students in February during the Job Corps’ Groundhog Job Shadow Day. The event was so successful that the Missouri agreed to become a work-based learning site.

“We take a lot of the kids,” said Beth Remick, the Missouri’s director of volunteers. “This fall we have two with our ship’s carpenter, one with the ship’s electrician and one with our welder.” Remick noted that students also can get business training at the memorial and that they currently have Job Corps students involved with fund-raising and grant-writing, development and business administration.

Dugan admitted that the historic battleship has been a draw for students.

“I think it’s very exciting for them. A lot of them are into the history, and it’sall been a very exciting, very positive work environment as well.”

And while the students learn valuable job skills, the Missouri gets enthusiastic workers who, when their internship is finished, have a hard time saying goodbye.


“We love having the students around,” Remick said. “They just become part of the family. They are just polite, nice kids but we do get attached to them.”

The work ethic the students show has impressed not only the Missouri staff but another organization that looks for those who don’t mind hard work at less than high wages: the U.S. military.

“A lot of those kids are going on to college, voc-tech school and the military,” Remick noted. “Recruiters are just amazed. These kids get up early ready to go to work and with how little they are paid you know they are already ready. It’s a recruiting gold mine.”

The Hawaii Job Corps began 42 years ago and has since trained more than 15,000 low-income young adults for a variety of jobs. Currently, the programs boasts 260 live-in students at 35 work-based learning sites in the Islands. The program is open to men and women ages 16-24.

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