JOB CORPS NEWS

NEWS, STORIES AND UPDATES FROM JOB CORPS CENTERS NATIONWIDE

Job Corps Students Graduate From Qualcomm Hire A Youth Program
Tags: San Diego Job Corps Center

Job Corps Students Graduate From Qualcomm Hire A Youth Program

San Diego Job Corps students Cristina Landeros, Tanya Nuno, and Dominick Di Cataldo graduated from Qualcomm’s Hire A Youth (HAY) Program, marking Job Corps’ third year of participation in the program.  The commencement ceremony took place on August 9, 2013 at the Irwin M. Jacobs Lecture Hall at Qualcomm’s Headquarters in San Diego, California.

Job Corps students worked with young people from Barrio Logan College Institute, Pro Kids, Reality Changers, Second Chance, San Diego Futures Foundation, and Youth and Leaders Living Actively in completing Qualcomm’s 5 week paid HAY training program.  Each student was assigned a volunteer mentor from Qualcomm and received training in resume writing, job interviewing, and creating business plans, while working at the company. 

Qualcomm, a global semiconductor company, designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services. A Fortune 500 Company, Qualcomm is San Diego County’s largest for-profit, private sector employer.   This year marked the 5th year of Qualcomm’s participation in HAY, which was initiated by the San Diego Workforce Partnership in 2009.  The company has fully-funded the program each year, which has benefitted 110 students.

Cristina Landeros recently completed the Office Administration Career Pathway at Job Corp’s Imperial Beach Center and worked as an Administrative Clerk in the Qualcomm’s Human Resources Department. “It was a cool, nice place to work,” she stated.  “Everyone was so helpful and friendly to me.”  It was Cristina’s first workplace experience and said it helped build her confidence.  “I learned to communicate better in a business environment, and would like to be an executive assistant for a business like Qualcomm.”  She credited her Job Corps Office Administration instructor Alicia Callas for preparing her to be successful in an office environment.

Job Corps Computer Technology students Tanya Nuno and Dominick Di Cataldo recently completed their Job Corps training and praised their instructor Peter Schurek for helping them prepare for their future careers.  Tanya was assigned to Qualcomm’s IT Hardware Asset Management Department.  “It made me realize there are great companies like Qualcomm to work for,” she advised, “and I can be happy working and pursuing a career.”  As part of her group’s business plan assignment Tanya enjoyed helping prepare a video.  The video drew praise from her fellow students and Qualcomm employees.  “In the future I would love to own my own business and make commercial or animation videos,” she stated.

“My ideal job would be to work at Qualcomm’s Desk Top Services Department where I could help their employees,” advised Dominick Di Cataldo.  Assigned to the company’s IT Department working on Android Application Development, Dominick especially enjoyed working on a two-week research project.  When he finished his research he made a presentation to the department’s manager and his mentor at Qualcomm.  “We had a very constructive conversation,” he stated.  “It felt like a collaboration of equals, as they made me feel like a professional.  It was also good to know that my research was useful to the company.”

Print This Story