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A Visit to the Place that Made his Successful Career Possible—Decades Later

It’s a nostalgic visit to the Clearfield Job Corps Center for Rodolfo Arreola.

“This is like a dream coming back,” he explained to a carpentry instructor at the Clearfield center, “almost 50 years after.”

That’s right—nearly 50 years ago, Rodolfo was a student at the Clearfield center. He walked around the carpentry program speaking with the students.

“You guys working on a project? Just like I was 50 years ago.”

Today, he’s retired but wanted to take his wife and grandchildren back to his roots, where he learned to be a carpenter. Rodolfo also took the time to encourage current students to keep going.

“I always wanted to come back and visit,” he told a group of carpentry students. “It was a great experience and I hope it’s good for you too. I built a career around this.”

He says he didn’t come to Job Corps for the right reasons back in 1971 but that quickly changed.

“A lot of my friends were coming to Job Corps. I wanted to be with them. I wanted to belong to the group. But then when I got here, I saw all the opportunities, and I decided to take carpentry.”

Job Corps gave Rodolfo the skills he needed. He spent 30 years with the carpentry union and has had a great life.

“Job Corps helped me build a career. And it helped me earn good money. And if it hadn’t been for Job Corps, I’d probably still be working in the fields.”