The following is from our partners at Central Oregon Community College:

We’re excited to celebrate the success of our Construction Pre-Apprenticeship cohort at the Madras Campus earlier this year, delivered through our mobile training unit. This group demonstrated exceptional dedication and growth throughout the six-week program, with two of the most notable achievements being a 100% completion rate—with all students meeting the certification requirements—and an incredible mock interview session featuring both industry and workforce partners.

The mock interview event brought together a range of valued community partners, providing students with the opportunity to practice their interview skills and gain real-time feedback from professionals in the field. Participating employers included Knife River, Griffin Construction, Kirby Nagelhout, Top Notch Electric, and Kah-Nee-Ta Resort – who tailored their feedback with a focus on maintenance-related positions. The Madras Chamber also joined to lend support and connection to local opportunities. In addition, WorkSource Central Oregon brought out their mobile service van to provide onsite resume review and interview prep. We were also grateful to have representatives from COIC’s Youth Compass Program, who not only helped by funding student stipends for this cohort but also participated in the mock interviews and shared information about ongoing career support and wraparound resources.

The success of this cohort is a powerful reflection of what’s possible when students are supported by a network of committed educators, community organizations, and industry leaders. Our Pre-Apprenticeship Career Coach, Amy Johnson, continues to play a vital role in creating and expanding these engagement opportunities—helping students gain clarity in their career paths while building pipelines for industry partners to meet workforce needs and connect with future talent.

We also want to thank James Rodriguez for working so collaboratively with us to host the training at the Madras Campus on a short timeline, and to his team for providing consistent support to students and staff throughout the program.

And a very special thank you to Josh Lagalo and his team at COIC for always finding creative and meaningful ways to support youth in our region. For this cohort, their ability to leverage grant funding to provide student stipends helped remove critical barriers to participation and created access to opportunity for some of our region’s most disadvantaged youth.

Finally, this 100% success rate would not have been possible without the dedication and guidance of our instructional team, Greg Hipkins and Lucinda Torrez. Their expertise, encouragement, and care made a lasting impact on each student’s experience and success. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this achievement—it truly takes a community.