Students explain job corps at open house
Berl Tiskus
Tom Clemens, left, visits with student Daniel Hinderliter, Colorado Springs. In the maintenance program, Hinderliter particularly enjoys getting to build items, such as picnic tables, and landscaping. The skills he learns could be used as an apartment manager or he could get into plumbing.
Berl Tiskus
Kicking Horse student Ashley Hall, Pueblo, Colo., gestures towards the eye chart as she talks about checking students’ eyes as part of the certified nursing assistant program
Berl Tiskus
Kicking Horse Job Corps culinary arts students serve up fresh rolls as a treat at the open house on Sept. 26. Instructor Willie Caye teaches culinary classes at Kicking Horse.
Berl Tiskus
Olan Jumbo, Sawmill, Ariz., is studying to be a diesel mechanic.
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
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RONAN —After working a minimum wage job, Mona Ray realized she needed more training and a better job to support her daughter.
Ray now is studying to be a dental assistant. She and her classmates Sharmyne LaForge and Kourtnie Gopher are off-campus students at Kicking Horse Job Corps and attend dental assistant classes at Salish Kootenai College.
Some students live on the Kicking Horse campus and are transported to their SKC classes.
LaForge has five siblings with different tooth problems so she had an interest.
“My plan is to get a foot in the door at Indian Health Service,” she said.
Although she originally planned to get into nursing, Gopher said she sort of fell into the program and likes it.
The young women explained the dental assistant program to visitors at the Kicking Horse Job Corps open house on Sept. 26.
In each of the different study areas, such as diesel mechanics, certified nursing assistant, culinary arts, maintenance, heavy equipment operation and pharmacy assistant, a student explained the program.
Olan Jumbo, Sawmill, Ariz., is studying to be a diesel mechanic. He said the program takes approximately six month “if you are a hard worker.” He plans to go to advanced training in Utah and get his AC (look this up) and then go to South Dakota and get a job in the oil fields.
The diesel mechanic students work on machines from the heavy equipment programs or staff brings in vehicles, Jumbo said.
Jon Hoenshell, West Jordan, Utah, Danzie (John Bob) Dobbs, Austin, Nevada, and Andrew Schlund are also in the diesel mechanic program. Schlund likes small engines, like lawnmowers and the like, while Hoenshell would like to have a farm someday.
Willie Caye teaches culinary classes.
“I take the ‘I-don’t-know’ out of cooking,” Caye said.
Students learn about cross-contamination and personal hygiene, knife skills, all safety precautions before Caye starts them on the salad bar, then baking, soups and sauces and entrees, usually about 13 months.
Every student has a story and a dream.
No longer a strictly Native American facility, Kicking Horse Job Corps takes students ages 16 to 24, based on income. The kids may or may not have a high school diploma. Students who don’t have a diploma take education classes working on their GED, taking classes in social studies, math, history, reading, writing and science, according to Gary Hall, a teacher at KHJC.
All the classes are self-paced, and a student may stay at Kicking Horse for two years, provided they obey the rules.
Some examples of the rules include tucking in their shirt and wearing their steel toe boots if they in studying to be a diesel mechanic or a heavy equipment operator. Students wear scrubs for CNA, pharmacy assistant and dental assistant classes. Students who live on campus keep their dorms neat and make their beds every day. Lights to out at 10 p.m., and then the students are up at 6 a.m.
“(Kicking Horse) wants to send educated young people who make good decisions into the job market to be successful,” Hall said.
