Platform : Alternatives to College: What’s Out There?

RHONDA DOW

California Conservation Corps, Los Angeles

I’ve just gotten a one-year extension at the CCC. I’m a CCC recruiter and give presentations at high schools. We have a six-month program now with L.A. Recovery, rebuilding after the riots. There are about 200 Corps members in Los Angeles.

At CCC they give training in first aid, water safety, tree-trimming, tool uses and dealing with fires, floods and earthquakes. After the Landers earthquake last summer, we went there and helped clean up the damage and fixed meals for people who were hurt. CCC pays minimum wage.

When I graduated from Leroy Locke High School, I wanted to get away from home for awhile. My mother kept my 4-year-old daughter and I moved into the CCC residential program for four months. Now I have my own apartment.

It’s something to help young people who haven’t decided yet what to do; it makes them more dependable, more an adult than a child. It’s a challenge. Everyone who graduates from CCC after a year gets an $800 scholarship to help pay for college. I intend to use that to go to Trade Tech.

JIM KONANTZ

Director of Career Development, Los Angeles Unified School District

The state report on what the workplace requires of schools, which was released some months ago, has helped us shape some fine work-based training programs (in the school district). And all our work-based training pays at least minimum wage, sometimes much more. We offer some vocational programs on school campuses and some very intensive training at the Regional Occupational Centers. You can start going there while you are in the 11th grade, while you are getting your high school diploma, and get a diploma and also a certificate of completion from a specific program. And some programs continue into adult education. The largest school training center in the country is Abram Friedman Occupational Center in Los Angeles, with 5,000 students during the week and 1,000 on Saturdays.

We’ve developed the new academies, including the Shell Oil Academy, Pacific Bell, Cedars-Sinai and the Department of Water and Power Academies. With these, established jointly by the LAUSD and businesses, the students have work-based learning assignments. The dropout rate in some of these programs has been so low--we’ve been amazed and very pleased.

JEANNETTE BRYAN

Student, Fullerton High School

When I graduate, I’m going into the Army. I come from a military background. My father was in the Army and the Marine Corps and just retired from the Air Force. I even have an ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War.

I joined the (Reserve Officers Training Corps) program at Fullerton in my freshman year. Col. Jim Ashhurst, our senior Army instructor, encourages women to join and about 40% of the Corps here are women. It’s great that women can be in combat now. It will open a lot of doors. ROTC teaches things like military history, rifle drill and shooting. You learn self-discipline and leadership.

After a few years in the military I’d like to go on to college and eventually become an Army attorney. Sometimes the Army sends you to college, or I could go (while) earning pay as a reserve officer. The military is where my heart is.

JERSON CASTILLO

Student, Abram Friedman Occupational Center, Los Angeles

I’ve been going here 10 months and will complete my shop training and get my GED (general equivalency diploma) soon. The hardest part has been to hang on, try not to quit, try not to miss even one day. In high school I didn’t care, but here I said to myself: “Well, you quit high school, and this is the last opportunity you’re going to have!”

It costs $55 per semester to attend, and I go seven hours a day, five days a week. When I started I thought I wasn’t going to make it, because I couldn’t use the machines, but now it can be fun. The last thing we make is a hammer, and we get to keep it.

CHRISTINE HOFFMAN

Administrator of instructional services, Fullerton Joint Union School District

In our district, we have a lot of informal ties with businesses that facilitate job placements. All of our students must complete a core curriculum that includes subjects like English, math and social sciences in order to graduate from high school. We also offer some elective on-campus programs in business, auto shop and similar fields. Or students can attend off-campus training at the Regional Occupational Program centers. They get a certificate of completion in a particular skill when they finish training there, in addition to earning a high school diploma.

We also have the “two and two” program, where students can take courses that earn credits for a high school diploma and a community college degree at the same time.

NORMA IGLESIAS

Student, Shell Academy at Crenshaw High School, Los Angeles

The Shell Academy just started a few months ago, and took only 15 people (all of whom were at risk of not graduating from high school) You had to have at least a C-plus average to get in, and have to stay in school. They help you get special on-the-job training, and every Monday we meet with a teacher from Shell Oil, Mrs. Margaret Bush-Ware, who teaches things like how to do business letters and be punctual and responsible. She goes over any problems we have.

I already had a part-time job for minimum wage, but the Academy sent me to work also at a Beverly Hills law firm. I do legal documents and file. And I have a mentor there who helps me.

Before, I was afraid of everything. I didn’t know what to say, or what people would think of me. Now I’m more secure.