Job Corps students fill season positions

BANGOR – Finding quality employees who can stay for the whole season is always an issue for employers in some of the most sought-after vacation spots, but some companies are finding that students from the Penobscot Job Corps Center fit the bill just right.

“A lot of kids go to college and leave the first part of August, but we have cruise ships until September and October,” said Group Sales Manager Diane Smith of the Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co. “We haven’t had that problem with students from Job Corps.”

Job Corps business graduate Patrick Banyaniye, 22, of Providence, R.I., for the second consecutive year has the title of a “reservationist” at the front counter of Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co., but he also is responsible for ticket and retail sales, along with product and work area maintenance, Smith said.

“I prefer Job Corps students,” Executive Chef Gary DeWispelaere of Sebasco Harbor Resort in Sebasco said. “There’s a stigma in some areas about their backgrounds, but I could care less about what happened yesterday. What they do today determines who they’ll be tomorrow. They can transform themselves into what they want to be.”

DeWispelaere said he has been hiring Job Corps students for 25 years, from centers in Treasure Island, San Francisco, and Penobscot Job Corps in Bangor. He has hired more than 250 students because they have been “very respectful and accepted our needs and our philosophies. The quality of the staff is the quality of the product,” he said.

DeWispelaere currently has two Penobscot Job Corps culinary arts students working as cooks – Jurelle Williams, 18, of Waterbury, Conn., and Chis Stancil, 19, of Bridgeport, Conn. DeWispelaere plans to hire one more Job Corps student this summer. The executive chef said that he is pleased with the prospect of having students through the end of the season and not just until they have to go back to school.

“Seasonal employees represent quite a bit of our people,” said Training Coordinator Donna Barson for Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla.

The ability to find quality seasonal employees is “vital, especially for Disney which has such high standards.”

Barson was responsible for training 20-year-old Penobscot Job Corps culinary arts graduate Elizabeth Carey of Shelton, Conn., as a cast member at Pizzafari Restaurant in the Animal Kingdom at Disney World.

“Seasonal employees help us through difficult times,” Barson said in reference to Disney’s peak tourism times of the year.

“The people we’ve had from Job Corps are excellent employees,” Smith said. “They come here willing to work. They want to learn. They show up on time and are motivated, wonderful employees.”

Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co. has had Job Corps students as employees for only two years, but Smith said the company would continue to work with Job Corps to provide work-based learning opportunities.

“We really like Job Corps kids,” Smith said. “It’s been a positive experience. Whatever [Job Corps] is teaching them, keep it up.”

For more information on Job Corps, call (800) 949-1937, ext. 305.