The audience listened with rapt attention as Bill Pagaran, inspirational speaker and president of the non-profit organization, Carry the Cure, spoke to an assembly of Alaska Job Corps Center students on Friday, Feb. 9. The dynamic speaker walked back and forth in front of the students as he emphasized the individual worth and value of each and every person in the room. He told his own personal story, from a life filled with abuse to when he realized his own value as a human being. He spoke about suicide, and he reiterated the importance of accepting yourself.

“What are you born to do?” he asked. “You were born to do something no one else is born to do.”

When he was not speaking, the room was filled with music as his group played everything from the electric guitar to traditional drums and the traditional flute, all celebrating Native American roots. When they were drumming traditional Native music, Craig Beans, a Carpentry student at Alaska Job Corps, also drummed in front of his fellow students.

He also led what he called a trash can rhythm jam, when students from the audience came up to find their own rhythm by using unorthodox items like a basketball, a bucket, trash can lids and even a trash bag. The assembly ended with a friendship dance, where students held hands and looped around the gym to the rhythm of the music.

“You are unstoppable,” Pagaran repeated. Students were emotional as they listened to his words. As he talked about suicide, the students pledged out loud, over and over again: “I commit to life.”

The Alaska Job Corps Center is a federally funded career training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor and managed by Chugach Educational Services, Inc. The Center is committed to providing the highest quality programs for young adults by offering instructions in academics, trades and life skills through innovative methods that respond to the unique individual and group needs of today’s youth.

Story and photos by BCL Carin Meyer.