Personal Care Aide Course In Big Bear!

At the Career Center of Big Bear, we are starting a Personal Care Aide course August 18th! If you want to jumpstart your career into the medical field, this is a great way to do so! We are all very excited for this class to begin. The Career Center will be hosting this course, where a teacher will come up to Big Bear three days a week for four weeks to train our students in this profession. 

Once I found out that the course was coming up to our mountain town, I worked with my Career Mentors and an online editing program called LucidPress, to make an official Career Center of Big Bear PCA Flyer. This said flyer has been passed out digitally and on paper-and we are getting amazing results! It looks like this course will be filled to the brim with students who are passionate about this course and are eager to learn. I am so glad that we are able to bring this opportunity to the community of Big Bear! 

-Sarah Avignone

Ryan Schwantner Success Story

When Ryan first started at the Career Center of Big Bear in 2012, he had a lot on his plate. His girlfriend was four months pregnant and because of this new development; many problems arose at home, he didn’t have a stable job and needed to move on towards the next chapter in his life. 

Ryan fought through the hard times and completed Customer Service, Computer Skills and Financial Freedom, along with many Life Skill projects which helped him in his future jobs and personal financial issues. He maintained great attendance and gave everything his all. He has and continues to go above and beyond  to provide a great example of himself for his child to look up to. Ryan is bettering his life, and in turn, bettering his family’s life.

Mr. Schwantner is now working four stable jobs. He works at the Bowling Barn and The Fun Plex as a Game  and Computer Mechanic, employed at Far Sight Studios as a game tester, and is also working at West Coast Amusement as a Contract and Vending Tech.  Fueled by his passion of graphic design, he is able to work in an environment he loves. His dream jobs enable him to be able to provide for his growing family, which is now a family of four. He has two sons, four stable jobs, a home to call his own, and a broadening career path. This is Ryan’s version of success.

-Dezi Guillen

Chautauqua High School Presentation

Earlier this month, Sarah and I went to Chautauqua Highschool to give a presentation about The Career Center and what our program could do for them. We were introduced by the principal, Doug Lane, to all of the school's students gathered in their meeting room. Doug introduced us as the next step in students futures. We then talked with them about our WIA program and the Career Center in general. A lot of the kids seemed really interested!

After our presentation was over Doug gave us their meeting room to stay during break to talk more with anyone who had any questions or wanted to sign up. We got a total of eight people who have is their contact information and set up days to meet up with Cheryl, The Career Center of Big Bear Mentor.  It was so great to see these kids find our program and what we do something that they would like to be apart of!

-Dezi

Leadership Connection is Right Around the Corner..

The Thursdays of the month of April were slated to be our Leadership Connection Planning Meetings. Dezi and I, along with our Career Mentor,Cheryl, had been meeting with the Big Bear Chamber of Commerce to discuss and plan out our May Leadership Connection. We had been figuring out who our speakers will be, where we will be touring, and what aspects of small town careers we want to focus on. At our last meeting, with Teresa attending, we had finally come up with a complete schedule! Our Leadership Connection this year will start off with a Boat Tour and Lunch on the Lake! We will get a tour of the lake and some good food to go with it! Then, off to the Fire Department we go for our next Leadership Connection meet-up, where we get to see the inner workings of the Department and what working with them is like. Our third stop will be the Radio Station, where we will learn all about what it takes to sell, promote, and work with music. Last but not least, we will be having our tour at the Big Bear Hospital and hosting our Completion Dinner. I am so excited to see the final result of all of our planning! I believe that our WIA Students this year are going to have a blast! I cannot thank the local businesses and Big Bearians enough for their kindness and willingness to help us help our youth! I look forward to seeing the local leaders inspire the future ones! More posts about this coming soon! 

-Sarah Avignone and Dezi Guillen

Gardening with The Community!

On Monday, Sarah and I went over to the Big Bear Community Garden to reach out to them about our program and what we can offer them. We talked a lot about our WIA Program, and how we are trying to generate as many opportunities for the youth in our community as possible. As Ambassadors, we also wanted to make it clear that while The Career Center is here to help out our young adults of Big Bear, we are also here to help the businesses and organizations of Big Bear. We want our small town to thrive and be successful, and if our students can help in this town's succession, we want to do just that. After sharing our individual stories of how this program helped us, we answered their questions about our Work Experience part of the program and how it all works.

Afterward, Dave, one of the employees of the Community Garden, explained to us what they are trying to do for Big Bear and its inhabitants. Dave told us that they are wanting to grow more vegetables and fruits for the food banks and schools, so that our community can have fresh grown food. Their garden is completely organic and mindful of the environment, they are wanting to make a difference. We, The Career Center, are helping young adults build strong foundations for their futures, while the Community Garden is providing healthy foods to the less fortunate and to Big Bear's youth. It is amazing to be able to talk and work with another organization so geared towards helping others.

-Dezi Guillen and Sarah Avignone

High Desert Road Trip!

The Career Center of Big Bear gathered up a crew and took a road trip to the High Desert’s America’s Job Center! Living in a small mountain town like Big Bear, opportunities to further your education are slim, and hearing about America’s Job Centers gave us Big Bearians hope!  America’s Job Centers are WIA funded programs for adults, helping them receive advice and job training to ultimately find their perfect job. We had about twenty people attending-WIA and Non-WIA Students- who were very excited to find out more about this program. Only an hour away, this center provides financial aid to pay for a certificate program of your choice. Most of the crew had great first impressions and can’t wait to get started! The crew will be taking training in careers such as EMT, CNA, Aircraft Mechanic, etc. America’s Job Centers is a great opportunity to lead us to success!

-Dezi Guillen and Sarah Avignone