After Jordyn Trowel rang the bell signifying she’d graduated from Whitney M. Young Job Corps Center, her friends immediately rushed to take photos together.

Though most students do get photos with friends and instructors as they graduate, with Trowel, they were even more enthusiastic than normal. It hints at one of the qualities that Career Transition Readiness Specialist Kylantiss Frazier says will take Trowel far in her trade – and her life.

“She’s a natural leader,” Frazier said. “People were able to go to her for advice…She was a very giving and concerned person.”

But for Trowel, the leadership roles she pursued were something that she initially would not have done.

“I got out of my comfort zone,” Trowel said, noting that she had even become a dorm leader. “The girls can lean on me. They know they can lean on me.”

And she is happy and proud to have pushed herself beyond what she thought she could do.

“You can learn new things about yourself,” she said.

But even though Trowel had strong relationships with all her friends and they looked to her as a leader, she balanced that out with a strong drive to excel.

“She was very focused on what her plans were, how to get there, and all the steps it would take,” Frazier said, adding that Trowel often independently researched the next steps in her education.

She leaves Whitney with a CMA trade and plans to pursue further education at Jefferson Community and Technical College, where she hopes to eventually become a Nurse Practitioner – to help meet a demand in the workforce, as she explained it.

But as she enters a new job and a new college, she’ll be grateful to Job Corps for pushing her to try new things.