Students gain career skills (Left/Right) and the Rev. Dr. José Rodríguez presents a certificate of completion (Center). | Photo: Jhon Franco Gamboa

Thirty-six high school students recently participated in three camps sponsored by Christ the King, Orlando, and Jesús de Nazaret, Orlando, and focused on preparing them for careers after graduation. The program, conducted in three locations in three different counties, was done in partnership with the Renacer Foundation and made possible through a $150,000 grant from Careersource Central Florida.

The Rev. Canon Scott Holcombe instructs a student in the kitchen at Canterbury Conference Center. | Photo: Jhon Franco Gamboa

Careersource’s Summer Youth Program gives students the skills to develop into a new workforce. Each camp took a different focus, such as one hosted at St. Matthias, Clermont, centering on business management, which drew seven students. Henry Mendoza, director of Community Outreach and Health Initiatives for Christ the King and Jesús de Nazaret, said the response to and education provided by the camps were “amazing.”

“We had really, really good outcomes,” he said. “We had some good ideas for business relating to sustainability and how to develop businesses in this new world.”

In Seminole County, 18 students gathered to learn about hospitality as well as culinary arts and business at the Canterbury Conference Center in Oveido.

“They have the facilities to teach the students hospitality, culinary and culinary business,” Mendoza explained. “So, the students who were there, they were learning about all things related to hospitality: how to run the front desk, how to run events, how to lead the cleaning staff, the housekeeping, things like this. And it was the same with the kitchen.”

Students work on a green jobs project at Christ the King. | Photo: Jhon Franco Gamboa

At Christ the King in Orange County, 11 students learned about green jobs and the future of environmentally friendly career paths. Mendoza said those jobs are in high demand, and skills taught included how to install solar panels, how to run electric vehicle stations and conservation.

“They were doing sessions on how this area is affected and how they are planning to change that with conservationism and planting trees, things like that,” he said.

Although Mendoza said CareerSource has offered these type of programs for years, this is the first time Christ the King and Jesús de Nazaret have participated. The churches plan to apply for the grant again next year.

“Careersource told us that we did a really good job, so they requested that we need to apply for the next year,” he said.

Mendoza credits the Rev. Dr. José Rodríguez, rector, Christ the King, and vicar, Jesús de Nazaret, for starting the relationship that led to this amazing opportunity. The church has been working with CareerSource for at least six years because of a natural disaster that brought new congregants from Puerto Rico.

“We do vocational rehabilitation here,” Mendoza said. “Since Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, we received so many people here in Central Florida. So we started a program with people that came from that disaster to do vocational rehabilitation. We do training in learning English, how to do resumes, things like that, and they are getting paid by Careersource. We did that with adults, but this is the first time we are doing this with youth.”