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Lowe’s Helps Job Corps Grads Begin Industry Careers
Two recent graduates of the Home Builders Institute's Potomac Job Corps Center are among the more than 250 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.
Since the scholarship fund was initiated, total contributions from Lowe’s Home Improvement have reached $300,000. For the past four years, Lowe's has presented $50,000 checks to HBI during the International Builders’ Shows (IBS).
Earlier this summer, Casey Gomez and DaShaun Custis, two of the latest recipients of the Building Careers Scholarship, completed their electrical training program with HBI instructors Ray Coston and Ken Fletcher. Both graduates were able to find jobs at the Fluor Corporation in Richmond, Va., which specializes in engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance and project management.
Gomez and Custis needed to relocate to Richmond, and the scholarship provided them with enough money to secure a deposit on an apartment, which they share with fellow Potomac Job Corps graduate Nelson Farid.
“Saying that we are grateful to Lowe’s for its continuous contribution to the Building Careers Scholarship is a gross understatement,” said HBI Chairman M.M. “Mike” Weiss. “Sometimes it’s easy to assume that once a graduate finds a job they are on their way, but there are real costs to starting off on your own and for the past five years Lowe’s has filled a critical need and helped defray these costs for students like Casey and DeShaun.”
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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