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Turner graduates begin 'their stories'

• Turner Job Corps students get advice from a prominent Albany figure during graduation ceremonies.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Turner Job Corps students who graduated Friday now have a chance to “write their own stories,” graduation speaker former Dougherty School Supt. John Culbreath told the group of about 125 students during Friday’s Spring 2008 graduation ceremony.

“Today is the beginning of your story,” he told the students in the George E. Foreman Gym on the center’s campus. “You can be anything you want to if you’re willing to work hard and obey the rules.”

The students received high school diplomas, GEDs or their career skills certification, Center Director Steve Belk said.

“They have accomplished a feat that many people wouldn’t accomplish,” Belk said, echoing one of Culbreath’s sentiments. “Now it’s time for them to utilize the education and skills they’ve learned and get a job.”

Brenda Lora, a 17-year-old Atlanta resident who studied culinary arts at TJC, said she would go back to Atlanta and find a job in her field.

“It feels good,” she said about finishing at the center, where she spent 10 months getting her GED and career skills certification.

Carl Couch, a 23-year-old Macon resident, said he was still trying to find a job in the electrical field. He graduated from the center earlier this month but returned to campus Friday to attend the graduation ceremony, he said.

“It feels good,” he said about finishing the school. “I can’t even explain it, it just feels good.”

Couch said he was going to continue filling out applications and sending resumes to electrical companies.

More than 200 students were scheduled to graduate Friday, although not all of them attended the graduation ceremony, Belk said.

Culbreath gave the students six pieces of advice to follow as they write their stories: aim high, take charge, do right, get prepared, “be present where you are,” bounce back after failures and be whatever they want to be.

He then gave examples of historical figures who exemplified the advice.

Culbreath told the story of President John F. Kennedy, who, after the Russians were able to put the first man into space, promised to send a man to the moon and safely return him. That promise was fulfilled in 1969, seven years after he made the promise, Culbreath pointed out as an example of how to aim high — both literally and figuratively.

He then told the group how to be present wherever they were.

“Life is a journey, learn to enjoy the trip,” he said. “Learn to enjoy where you are and the people you’re with all the time and your life will be better.”

Concluding his message, Culbreath told the group to write good stories for themselves and then rhetorically asked if they would.

“It’s in your hands,” he said.

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