Welcome to the Good News Fridays segment! Each week here on Geek Alabama, Good News Fridays will feature something good, wholesome, positive, and overall something great. After a long and stressful week, we all need something good to read or watch on Fridays! Enjoy a heartwarming post below!
The Lost Angels Career Center pays students to work and sets them up with careers in aerospace.
As a teenager, Aaron Valencia didn’t think much about his future. He struggled with drug addiction, homelessness and family members in and out of prison. He wouldn’t have guessed that one day he would be running a free vocational training center for youth just like him.
In 2014, Valencia created the Lost Angels Career Center, formerly known as the Lost Angel’s Children Project, to provide at-risk youth with stability and set them on a clear career trajectory. The California center pays 18- to 24-year-old students to learn skills like welding, auto-mechanics and 3D design over 12 weeks.
“These are younger versions of ourselves,” Valencia said. “These are young people who need a support system, need somebody who believes in them and says, ‘I see what you’re going through, man, I got you. I got a path for you if you’re ready. Let’s go.'”
After the program, the center helps students get a career in the aerospace industry. Lost Angels boasts a 95% graduation rate and a 97% hiring rate, getting hundreds of young adults jobs at companies like NASA, Northrop Grumman and MS Aerospace.
Categories: Good News Stuff
