Staff Writer
LORING — 59 students celebrated their graduation from the Loring Job Corps Center on Nov 21, including five local students.
Loring Job Corps graduate Elijah Keller poses with his parents who came all the way from Rhode Island to watch their son graduate.
Local graduates included Christopher Castaway from Limestone, Robert Gartley from Presque Isle, Maurice Ouellette Jr. from Van Buren, Dana Patten and Cameron Tardie from Presque Isle.
What many considered the most emotional portion of the ceremony is when student speaker LaShonda Countryman spoke to her graduating class and all who attended.
“I believe that if I hadn’t come to job corps, I would be dead,” she said. Countryman continued on to tell her tragic but hopeful story about overcoming adversity.
Native to New Jersey, Countryman had to drop out of high school to care for her terminally ill mother. She worked a below minimum wage job to help with the bills. Countryman’s mother died when she was 18.
“After she was gone, everything was taken away from me. I was 18 years-old, no job, no education, just the clothes on my back and $2 in my pocket,” she said, “I felt like my life was over until I came here to Job Corps.”
“LaShonda is an amazing young lady,” said Dottie Martin, Dean of Learning at the Loring Job Corps center, “you hear stories like that over and over with some of these kids.”
Cameron Tardie is another example of how Job Corps helps students achieve what otherwise might not be possible.
“Had Job Corps not been here, I would have tried to finish up High school, but I would have struggled,” said Tardie. He decided to participate in the Job Corps program his junior year of high school.
“I decided that high school really wasn’t my thing, “ he said, “it wasn’t working out for me well. I figured Job Corps was the best way and my last chance to get an education,” Tardie added.
Tardie plans to further his education at NMCC for diesel.
Graduate Elijah Keller was fortunate enough to have his parents attend the ceremony. They traveled all the way from Providence, Rhode Island to watch their son graduate.
“It feels very good to see him graduate,” said his father, Abraham Keller, “he’s going to do great things. With God above he will be a great man.”
The attitude of the students who graduated from Job Corps can be surmised in the last statement of Countryman’s speech: “To all the graduates,” she said, “never give up.”
Aroostook Republican photos/Natalie Bazinet
Quaison Malone, president of the Student Government Association at the Loring Job Corps Center, directs his speech to the Job Corps graduates. LaShonda Countryman, student speaker, listens.
Cameron Tardie from Presque Isle was one of the 59 graduates of the Loring Job Corps Center.
