Esmeralda C. was born in Edinburg, Texas the first of her family born in the United States, she graduated from Edinburg High School in 1997 but the only prospects for employment in South Texas(the Valley having the highest unemployment rate in Texas) were minimum paying positions.  Esmeralda for the past eight years worked with her family as migrant workers picking vegetables in Michigan.  Her future was not the “American Dream”, her sister had attended the Gary Job Corps Center and upon graduation secured a good paying position with the State of Texas, Department of  Human Services, this maybe was her opportunity to fulfill her destiny, Esmeralda moved to San Marcos, Texas in May 1999 and enrolled at the Gary Job Corps Center.  Esmeralda completed the Business Office Technology Trade and obtained a Texas Driver’s License while a student.  She graduated in June of 2001 and applied for an administrative position (on the Gary Job Corps Center) which she acquired in Student Records, currently she is a Payroll Clerk in the Finance Department.  When asked about what she thinks of Job Corps, Esmeralda gladly says “Job Corps Works”, I went from minimum wage jobs to being self-sufficient and a home owner”.  She has mentored over 40 students over the past year and sharing with them the possibilities of sticking with the program and allowing it to work for them.