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Lowe’s Helps Job Corps Graduates Begin Careers
This spring, Lowe’s Companies Inc. contributed an additional $50,000 to the Home Builders Institute to renew the HBI/Lowe’s Building Careers Scholarship Fund, which helps the institute’s Job Corps graduates make successful transitions to full-time employment in the housing industry.
The Lowe’s scholarship helps students defray such job-related costs as transportation, insurance, relocation and housing, tools and work clothes — expenses that can become an overwhelming challenge to students with limited financial resources as they are just beginning their careers. The funds are also used for school tuition and books by students who are continuing their training.
 Scholarship recipient Kuel Madut arrived in the United States several years ago as a political refugee, one of the estimated 20,000 “Lost Boys of Sudan” who have been separated from their families since conflict erupted in that country in 1983, and he enrolled at the Potomac Job Corps Center in Washington, D.C.
Steve Cousins, HBI’s site supervisor at the center, recalls that Madut was “a go-getter from the day he arrived.” He finished the institute’s electrical and facilities maintenance programs and “was one of the most focused students we’ve ever had at Potomac,” Cousins said.
Toward the end of his training, Madut was hired by a contractor working on a renovation project at the Job Corps center, enabling him to earn some money, gain valuable work experience and become an attractive candidate to prospective employers. He works today as an engineer apprentice for Donohoe Companies, Inc. in Washington.
When he graduated, the scholarship fund helped Madut pay rent for an apartment and to buy a car to commute to his new job and his employer-sponsored HVAC program. This fall, Madut was able to travel home to Sudan to visit his family for the first time since arriving in the U. S.
 Another recent scholarship recipient, Shawn Cook, graduated from HBI’s carpentry program at the Woodstock Job Corps Center in Maryland. Cook had a job waiting with local contractor Ed Drexler, and like Madut, he needed a car for work and was able to purchase one with assistance from Lowe’s.
Cook, affectionately nicknamed “Six-nine” for his height, was an excellent carpentry student and “a good-natured guy who was a joy to have at the job site,” according to his instructor, George Furtado. “Whenever a project required skill and enthusiasm, I knew I could count on Shawn as my go-to guy,” said Cook.
Cook’s employer feels the same way and recently called Furtado to update him on Shawn’s progress. Drexel mentioned that he can work faster than many of his other employees because he is the only one that can reach the top nail plate without a ladder.
The HBI/Lowe’s Building Careers Scholarship Fund is available to qualified HBI Job Corps graduates. HBI, the workforce development arm of NAHB, trains and places more than 2,000 Job Corps students in industry jobs each year.
For more information on HBI and Lowe’s, e-mail Keith Albright or Maria McIntyre at HBI, or call them at 800-795-7955 x8911 and x8912, respectively.
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