Job Corps students build Head Start

Area students are using a community-service project to get a head start on their careers.

"I want my own business, and this is a start for me," said Raul Ruacho, 22. "It's my first footstep."

Ruacho and his colleagues at Sierra Nevada Job Corps are volunteering their time to build a Head Start facility for the Washoe tribe at the Stewart Complex in Carson City.

"It's just awesome," Head Start Director Dorothy McCloud said. "It's a win-win situation. While they're getting their experience, we're getting our building."

The job corps is in Reno, but housing students come from throughout the West. The program is dedicated to helping students ages 16 to 23 achieve academically, vocationally and socially.

Ron Porter of the Home Builders Institute teaches them to do electrical work and guides them through the process. Other teachers focus on plumbing, maintenance, cement and plaster.

Porter said his students, who are mostly high school dropouts from low-income families, are learning more than a trade.

"They get the pride that comes with building and the pride of completion," he said. "A lot of these kids don't have many wins in their lives so that's a big step for them."

The building should be completed by the fall, when 40 children ages 3 to 5 will attend early-childhood-learning classes.

Head Start now uses two rooms one of the tribe's community buildings. The new building will have four classrooms, adding one for infants up to 2 years old.

Matt LaFrance, 18, is proud of the role he is playing by doing electrical work on the new center.

"This building is going to have power when we're done," he said. "That's pretty cool."

And the students enjoy the feeling of camaraderie while working together.

"If I didn't, I wouldn't be out here smiling and singing," said Nate Lomakema, 19.