Job Corps opens welcome built by students

By Nate Luscombe

Staff Writer

CHICOPEE The Westover Job Corps cut the ribbon on its new welcome center last week, officially opening the student-constructed building.

Student Government President Brian Shelton cut the ribbon during the brief ceremony.

John Arthur, business and community liason for the Job Corps, said the building would be the first thing anyone coming to the Job Corps would see.

John Pederson, executive vice president of the Management and Training Corporation (MTC) for the U.S. Department of Labor, said the building was "without a doubt," the "finest building" he's seen built through the Vocational Skills Training program.

A person walking into the building and looking at the construction would look around and say, "Look what those professionals did," Pederson said.

"But, in this case, those professionals are right over there," he said, pointing in the direction of a group of students who gathered for the ceremony.

Pederson said the Vocational Skills Training program of MTC gets students to work on hands-on projects to gain their construction skills.

"Students usually do park benches, or gazebos," Pederson said. "At Westover, they do buildings like this."

Job Corps Center Director Kelly King said the building was the fourth built by Job Corps students in the last three-and-a-half years. A ground-breaking ceremony is scheduled for this summer for a new academic building, King said.

King said students will be able to take special pride in the building because they helped build it. "They can walk through and say, 'I did this,'" she said.

Students from nine of the 16 vocations at the Job Corps were involved in the project. Those students received help from various training partners, including Ken Rainville of the International Union of Painters and Training; Shelley Robinson of the International Plastering and Cement Masons Industry; Harry Newbill of the American Welding Society; Ed Mange, John Gallery and Rich Nicholas of the Home Builders Institute; Glen Avery and Scot Goulding of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America; and Jason Laverty of the International Masonry Union.