PICTURED LEFT TOP Eli stands outside booths in welding project shop with his trade instructors (L to R):  Pat Connors, Anaconda JCCCC Lead Welding Instructor; Elijah Garcia, Anaconda JCCCC Welder Trainee; Ted Minnehan & Gary Kamps, Welding Instructors

PICTURED LEFT BOTTOM Eli leads tours of welding trade area during 2011 congressional visit (L to R):  Elijah Garcia, Anaconda JCCCC Student Government Association Vice President; Jon Tester, United States Senator for Montana; Ted Minnehan, Anaconda JCCCC Welding Instructor

PICTURED RIGHT Eli interviews with local television station during 2011 preseason wildland fire training:  Elijah Garcia, Anaconda JCCCC Firefighter

“After getting through the training and going on my first fire, I was in love,” said Elijah “Eli” Garcia. During his rookie preparation, Eli was merely “dreaming” about his first fire.  In a TV interview he describes this dream for one local news station that covered some of the 2011 preseason fire training in southwest Montana.

Garcia is now a seasonal firefighter who was hired under the Student Temporary Employment Program/Student Career Employment Program (STEP/SCEP) by the Pike National Forest (PNF) in his home state of Colorado via his enrollment in the welding apprenticeship trade at the Anaconda Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center (JCCCC) in Montana.

For 19 months, Eli has been a welding trainee in Anaconda’s JCCCC program.  He’s earned his high school diploma and led his fellow students in exemplary fashion as their student government association (SGA) vice president.

Though neither welding nor firefighting had crossed Eli’s mind in the past, he’d had equally-lofty sights set on being a Marine.  From his earliest memories he’s been inspired by purpose and reason, seeking out undertakings that allow for accomplishment and appreciation.

“I’ve always been an active person,” stated Garcia. “I’ve been a long-distance runner for a good portion of my life as well as a rock climber and a performer of some of the martial arts like Parkour, kickboxing, and Jiu Jitsu.”

Solid friendships also steered Eli toward self-edification programs such as job corps.  “A creative friend of mine came home on his summer break from another job corps center,” Garcia explained.  “When he told me about it, I knew it was just what I needed.”

Originally interested in heavy equipment operations or heavy equipment mechanics, Garcia was drawn to the Montana-based JCCCC in Anaconda that uniquely offers such trade choices.  However, once he arrived and spent a little bit of time trying out welding, he quickly changed his mind. “To me welding was everything I liked—hot metal in my face, precision in my hands.  It really motivated me to make something that actually took skill and served a purpose.”

Today Eli is at the culminating point in his life where his goals and dreams have become his reality, inspiring others who similarly live objectively and with vision.  He purposefully fights fire in Colorado using skills attained through the welding and firefighting training programs at Anaconda JCCCC.

Upon PNF’s conversion of Garcia from a seasonal STEP firefighter to a permanent SCEP apprentice in the Wildland Fire Apprenticeship Program (WFAP) this fall, Anaconda JCCCC will award him with his well-earned Advanced Manufacturing Certification in welding.  

Eli proudly accepts every success along his path because he’s scouted it, dug it, and paved it all on his own volition. 

Believe ~ Achieve ~ Succeed!