Before Mark Daniel entered JobCorps, he lived life to the fullest by riding motorcycles, running, and doing everything to the ultimate extreme.  So extreme he even dealt drugs.  His parents enrolled him into our program and he admits he detoxed during his first month on center and hated every single second of it.

Eventually he got acclimated to the daily chores and routine of the program.  He started working off center in a Work-Based Learning position at Halcomb Diesel where Otis Halcomb became a mentor and helped him through many hard days.  Mark graduated from our center in June 2007 and completed the Construction Equipment Mechanics program.  Five months after graduation he had a car accident that left him as a paraplegic.

On March 8, 2017, Mark shared with the students that no matter how difficult life is, unless you’re completely paralyzed, nothing can get you down.  Daniel stated, “I want to give hope to others to keep going when life gets tough.”  He credits Job Corps for giving him the foundation and direction needed to turn his life around.

Mark currently works as an Exo-pilot Associate with the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC) robotics company who is currently perfecting an exoskeleton for paraplegic persons.  His next journey includes tackling the American Discovery Trail, 4,834 miles across the U.S.