For Immediate Release

 

Date:                 October 16, 2007

Contact:             Office of Government, Policy and Public Relations

Phone:              (303) 318-8004

Fax:                  (303) 318-8070

Web:                 http://www.coworkforce.com/sjh/

 

 

Governor’s Summer Job Hunt Wraps Up 27^th Year

Teen worker honored by program with award for excellence

 

 

(DENVER) – With school back in session and the weather getting cooler, summer has come to its inevitable end.  And with the end of the season comes the conclusion of the 2007 Governor’s Summer Job Hunt.  Every year since its inception in 1981, the program has promoted successful entry into the workforce through education and workplace experience that leads to self-sufficiency.

 

“This year, Workforce Centers across Colorado provided almost 39,000 young people with assistance in résumé writing, interviewing skills, and job-search strategies,” says Department of Labor and Employment Executive Director Donald J. Mares.  “They connected thousands with summer jobs thanks to community-minded businesses.  Every employer who hired a young person this summer was working in collaboration with our schools to build and strengthen our future workforce.”

 

This year, Workforce Centers presented an award called Reach for the Stars to young people who showed an exemplary work ethic in their summer job.  The Jefferson County Workforce Center recognized Brandi Haggerty, a young woman who has overcome many obstacles in her life but has always kept her goals in sight and worked with tenacity and determination to reach them.

 

When Brandi became a teen mother, she had to work, go to school, study and pay for child care while raising her daughter.  Her father helped as much as possible but Brandi quickly realized that her goal of becoming a nurse would have to be put on hold.  Dissappointed but still determined to become self-sufficient, she decided to get an Associate of Applied Science Degree to become a Medical Assistant instead.

 

She completed her certificate schooling at Red Rocks Community College where she finished with a 3.45 grade point average.  Her next step will be transferring to a four year school where she will obtain a Nursing Degree, while she continues to work and raise her daughter.  She completed her certificate schooling at Red Rocks Community College where she finished with a 3.45 grade point average.  Her next step will be transferring to a four year school where she will obtain a Nursing Degree, while she continues to work and raise her daughter.

 

Brandi has volunteered for various organizations over the past few years.  Recently, she has been volunteering at “Connect to Success,” a program that provides resouces, tips and training for individuals who are experiencing the same kind of obstacales which she has overcome.  She has also completed many volunteer hours working for Jeffco Options for Long Term Care in Golden.  Her supervisor, Bobbi Padilla says, “Brandi has been an asset to our unit.  She is a self-starter and has trained others about our process and computer training.”

 

“What Brandi accomplished this summer demonstrates that the real value of a summer job doesn’t simply lie in a paycheck that young workers collect,” says Dani Crane of the Jefferson County Workforce Center.  “Summer jobs give young people a chance to experience the work world first-hand, to investigate possible careers and to apply classroom and textbook learning to real-world situations.  Today’s students face a whole range of challenges and summer job helps them tackle those hurdles.”

 

 

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Photo: 

Pictured, left to right, are Booker Graves, director of the Office of Workforce Development; Donald J. Mares, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment; Jim Carpenter, Governor Ritter’s Chief of Staff; Brandi Haggerty with her award; 9News reporter and event MC Paula Woodward.