John LaPier helps keep all the lines in order on a tall ship named the Hawaiian Chieftain. He’s in the seamanship program at MTC’s Tongue Point Job Corps Center in Astoria, Oregon.

“Before I got here [Job Corps],” he told a group of community leaders, “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

John talked about some of the challenges he had before Job Corps and how the program gave him new hope.

“That’s really showing you what this center and Job Corps in general, that program we call Job Corps, can do for someone like me; someone who had a troubled past and decided to pull his act together.”

John pulled his act together, and today, he loves his new career and is studying to become an able body seaman and qualified member of the engine room.

“The instructors in the seamanship program really look deep within you. And they see that will to want to learn and to want to succeed. And they really drive you to do that.”

John plans to head to Alaska to work on a fishing boat. He sees a bright future ahead. And he wouldn’t have gotten where he is today if weren’t for great instructors at Tongue Point and excellent internship opportunities.

In a couple of weeks, we’ll tell you more about this vessel which you may recognize from the movie Blackbeard. And we’ll introduce you to the organization that has partnered with Tongue Point Job Corps to help prepare students for a future in the maritime industry.