Before, they were young people needing direction, structure and often, a high school diploma.
After months – or even years – of hard work, they transformed.
Now they’re working as paint mixers, riggers and stripers on the Longview Bridge, going into the U.S. Air Force or Army or working as home health aides at Necanicum Village. Several have enrolled in colleges and are pursuing their careers.
Recently, 35 students at Tongue Point Job Corps Center participated in one of the quarterly held graduation ceremonies – 25 are already employed or entering Clatsop Community College.
Guest Speaker Susannah Karlsson, a 1997 Tongue Point graduate, told the students about her own rocky road to Tongue Point, and what followed – a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and – just recently – a degree from Stanford Law School. She’ll be taking the bar exam in New York City, and has a job waiting for her at a civil rights organization there.
Her journey might sound extraordinary, but there’s nothing extraordinary about Karlsson, she insisted. “I’m not so special,” she said.
Karlsson grew up as a foster child in the drug and crime-ridden Hilltop District of Tacoma, WA. She landed at Tongue Point, where she learned the tenacity to see her dreams through. As Job Corps grads, the group is right at the place where it all started for her.
“It’s enough. You can be whoever you choose to be,” Karlsson said.
First, Karlsson got a receptionist job at a hotel, then a spot as an executive assistant. Next came a job as legal assistant and then, Columbia University.
Looking back, the qualities she bolstered at Tongue Point became key to her success, she said. Flirting with failure isn’t the end, so don’t let it get you down, Karlsson told students. “I almost got kicked out of here three times.”
It’s moments when everything almost slips away where you decide whether you will give up or keep on pushing for yourself, Karlsson said. “I learned that I was worth fighting for here. So much is yet to come for all of you,” she said.
“I’m not smarter. I’m not better than you. I just worked harder, and you have it in you.”

Excerpted from The Daily Astorian 7/25/11 Picture by Alex Pajunas, Daily Astorian