Ron rings the Bell of Success

 When Ron Allen came to Northlands Job Corps Academy in Vergennes, Vermont from Griswold, Connecticut in August of 2009, he stood 5’ 6” and weighed a mere 115 pounds. He was, in his words, very much “the little guy.” He also wasn’t sure what he was going to do with his life.

Two years later, Ron has completed the challenging welding program at Northlands and has packed on 25 more pounds of muscle. The latter was evident as he grabbed hold of the Bell of Success cable and got it ringing very loudly in no time at all. The bell-ringing has become a tradition at Northlands for students going on to advanced training. Ron will be attending the St. Louis Job Corps Center for their TCU program, specifically to learn about working on transit lines.

As he prepared to leave, Ron looked back on his time at Northlands. “It challenged me to get out of my element and learn new things,” he said. “I came here knowing nothing about welding, and look what I know now! I had to work very hard to get into the TCU program, but I did it.”

Ron plans to go to college to study mechanical engineering after completing his advanced training program. His goal is to “change how the world looks at energy.” When someone remarked what a big goal that was, Ron replied, “Never underestimate the little guy.”