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Lowe’s Continues Support for Job Corps Grads
 Three recent graduates of the Home Builders Institute's Job Corps programs are among the more than 200 students who have benefitted from the HBI/Lowe’s Building Careers Scholarship Fund.
The fund was established in April 2004 to help Job Corps graduates defray the cost of making successful transitions into jobs in the home building industry.
Lowe’s Home Improvement presented HBI with a $50,000 check at the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas in January, bringing its total contribution to the scholarship program to $300,000.
Among the students recently singing the praises of Job Corps and Lowe’s:
- Richard Coutinho, a standout graduate from Elliot Nadeau’s facilities maintenance class at Grafton Job Corps Center (JCC), thanked both Lowe’s and his instructor for helping him get and maintain a job with The Siding Guy, a siding company in the Boston area.
“Lowe’s is making a big difference in the lives of students like me,” said Coutinho. “I wouldn’t have the job I wanted right now without the Lowe’s scholarship.”
- Kenyona Jones relocated to Portsmouth, Va. to start a new life. After seeing a commercial for Job Corps, she decided to move to Washington, D.C. to enroll in Ray Coston’s electric class at the Potomac JCC.
Jones chose HBI’s electrical program because her father and cousins did electrical work back home in Chicago — often with her working with them — and she wanted to learn more. She was an excellent student in Coston’s class and a leader as well, and was consequently recommended for the Lowe’s scholarship.
Jones is employed by Eagle Maintenance in Washington, D.C. and is applying for electrical apprenticeship programs with M.C. Dean in Chantilly, Va.
“I am very grateful to Lowe’s and HBI. I’m glad that Lowe’s is working with Job Corps because Job Corps changed my life,” said Jones.
- Cayan Thaxton, a graduate of Tony Meade’s electrical wiring program at Flatwoods JCC, has recently been hired to start in an electrical apprenticeship with Shaw Industries in St. Paul, Va. Shaw Industries has embarked upon a long-term project building a power plant.
Thaxton used the Lowe’s scholarship to relocate from Pittsburgh to Castlewood, Va. to take advantage of this opportunity.
HBI, the workforce development arm of NAHB, is the largest national training contractor in Job Corps, placing more than 2,000 young people annually in jobs in residential construction. NAHB members work through their local home builders associations to help develop the curriculum, mentor students and provide internships or work-based learning opportunities.
For more information on the HBI/Lowe’s Building Careers Scholarship or to hire an HBI Job Corps graduate, e-mail Keith Albright or Maria McIntyre at HBI, or call them at 800-795-7955 x8911 and x8912, respectively.
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