This winter, we congratulate 22 Corpsmembers for obtaining their high school diploma! In partnership with the Alameda County Office of Education’s Opportunity Academy, they will celebrate this evening in Hayward at a drive-thru ceremony. We’re very proud of these grads, most of whom were originally enrolled at Civicorps Corpsmember Academy, and successfully transitioned to Opportunity Academy in Summer 2021. Many of them continued their studies full time while working full time at our Job Training Center. Many, like Winter 2021 graduates Darnell “Dayshon” and Jeremiah, earned Americorps Awards, which they can apply towards college tuition.
Dayshon and Jeremiah shared a few parting reflections with us:
Dayshon
“[My diploma is a] big accomplishment and I’m happy to finally achieve it.
I did not finish high school. I found out about Civicorps from a cousin who previously worked at [Civicorps], who gave me heads up on where he worked.
I feel like I’ve learned a lot and met a lot of people here. It has helped me out a lot in growing, like being here helped me achieve in getting out of my comfort zone.
I’m grateful for all the people that helped me get to this point – people that were encouraging me, rooting for me, telling me I could do it and especially people getting on me about getting everything done.
I would say a mixture of Corpsmembers and staff here helped out a lot.
Career Interests: robotics, construction, electrical work, PTEC (process technology) and drones
Jeremiah (far right) joined Civicorps’ walk for racial justice and equity, September 2020
JEREMIAH
It feels pretty good to be graduating. I’ve been working towards [this goal] for a long time. Now that I’m finally graduating, it feels like a relief off my back.
Now I can go on to bigger and better things.
Career Interests: focusing on music, rap, hip-hop, putting more music out, working on more videos
“I am extremely proud of our graduates, despite going through a major transition they were able to persevere and stay on track to complete their requirements,” expressed Pathways Manager, Yvette Arroyo-Agredano.
Congratulations to all the graduates. We can’t wait to see what they do next!
