California - San Diego
SIATech at San Diego Job Corps Center
1325 Iris Avenue
Imperial Beach, CA 91932
County: San Diego County
Tel: (619) 429-8500,
ext. 1104
Principal: Ms. Sally Klein
sally.klein@siatech.org
Overview
The San Diego Job Corps Center is located in Imperial Beach, the most southwesterly city in the United States. The center is on land leased from the navy and is adjacent to a helicopter base. The center’s student enrollment is 665. Nineteen trades are offered to trainees including construction, culinary arts, health occupations and security.
The SIATech program is housed in a building with six classrooms and two offices. Many of our graduates pursue their careers in downtown San Diego or in one of its outlying communities.
One unique aspect of the SIATech program is that when students complete the SIATech curriculum, they present their Senior Portfolio to their classmates as a PowerPoint presentation. All SIATech classes, select Job Corps staff, family members and friends of the senior who is presenting are invited. Graduates are allowed to invite up to ten guests to the graduation ceremony. After the ceremony, everyone is invited to an open house in the classrooms where the students’ senior projects are displayed.
Principal Profile
Sally Klein joined SIATech as principal of the San Diego school site in 2007. She comes to us with 18 years of educational experience. She has worked on the high school and middle school level and has administrative and counseling experience. Ms. Klein holds a B.A from Azusa Pacific., an M.S. from Azusa Pacific, and she has a PPS and Administrative Credential.
Success Stories
Stefan is a San Diego native. Prior to entering Job Corps and enrolling in the SIATech high school program, Stefan said he was just sitting at home. Personal and social distractions kept him from doing his best in the previous schools that he attended, and he commented that his parents did not pay much attention to his education.
Within the SIATech program, Stefan has done well. Some of his favorite things about SIATech are his English class and the school's helpful teachers. Stefan feels his future is "bright because I notice I have a lot of potential if I apply myself." Stefan is on track to graduate from high school in March 2009. After graduation, Stefan plans to work in the welding trade that he has learned through his Job Corps training. Click here to read Stefan's poem, Losing Doesn't Define a Loser.
More Success Stories:
SIATech San Diego Students Selected for the Young Legislators Internship Program
Read about SIATech student Michelle Picos.
Recent News
SIATech Student Shares her Story
Amanda Dillard's Final Essay
Independent is a word one uses quite frequently. Following no one else’s rules EXCEPT that of your own, being your own boss, doing exactly what you want when you want too. These to some would be called independent, for me it is so much more than that. It’s the satisfaction of knowing that you alone accomplished something with no one probing you to do so. The choice to decide what is best for your own being. The initiative you take, persevering to push yourself forward through every hard ship and struggle.
As a child I was closely monitored in every way possible. I was forced to conform to my father’s standards. When I say every way, I mean EVERY WAY. I was not allowed to listen to the radio, I was not allowed to watch the television, I was not allowed to spend time outside of the house, unless at school, I was forced to go to bed at exactly eight. The list could go on and on, but you understand my point, I had no freedom.
Any thing less than expected was unacceptable. There were many days when I would escape into my tree house. It was my get away. I would sketch and paint on the walls of far away places, which only existed within my imagination, places of serenity and peace. I could only escape for so long however; you see, my father’s voice was of a great volume and abruptly took me out of my place of comfort.
I was a kid, coping with my restrained environment, though I had a little brother and an older sister, neither one could understand my perplexity. I had this on going need to be who I was and express to the world every idea and creation, which inhabited my brain, almost all the time. I could only keep silent and wait for my time to come. I was talented. I could sing, dance, and relate with any person that I came into contact with. I took lessons of sign language and arts in the private school I was enrolled in. I wrote proficiently, and this has carried into my adult hood. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to thrive in these areas as a child.
Feeling so trapped by all the barriers my father had set upon my life, led me to “act out”. At first my parents decided I needed therapy. They said I was a troubled child, I was reprimanded constantly. The negativity present in my household began to eat me up inside. This repetition which I experienced made me cold, rebellious, and depressed. When a human is not allowed to breathe, he will suffocate and die. This same concept pertains to someone’s mentality. If some one is put down, told they are nothing, punished for mundane things which occur due to the inevitable learning process of a human being; they will start to believe these things to be true and the passionate flame within them will eventually burn out.
When I was sixteen, my flame burned out. I tried to commit suicide. Obviously, my attempt failed. After coming home from the psychiatric ward that I was sent to, I felt that I had obtained a new state of mind. However, the same psychological abuse still existed within the house. Throughout high school I would ditch classes to smoke pot or hang out with my boyfriend to alleviate myself from some of the stress occurring at home. This only made matters worse. After tenth grade I moved in with my boyfriend and stopped talking with my family altogether. Because I depended on drugs to get me out of my misery, this was only a temporary fix to deeper underlying issues. Seeing that I had not dealt with the past issues with my father, my relationship failed miserably. I needed to run. That was my first thought, just run and don’t look back.
This is what had led me to California; I am here to claim my independence. I never really dealt with the issues at home, but I have accepted my father the way he is, and
I now see he had my best interest in mind; though he didn’t know how to show it. I am currently dealing with the psychological and emotional damage he did, I am not ashamed to say this.
Everyone goes through trials in their lives which weaken them, but after the initial weakening, makes them stronger. As much as I wish that things had been different, I don’t spend time dwelling upon it. It is what it is and I am now in the process of healing. Through therapy and pushing myself to be the best person that I can be; I hope to be free from my past one day. I know that day will come. Healing takes time, I am only nineteen and I am grateful I have been able to face this occurrence so that I may grow and mature from it. I hope to motivate others to do the same.
I will have a purpose in this world, I will be independent and free to be who I am. I won’t stop trying until I do so.
Thank you to Amanda Dillard for sharing her writings. And, thank you to SIATech San Diego Instructors Sara Lewis and Tom MacCabe for their commendable work with Amanda and their other students.
California Assemblymember Mary Salas Gave Speech at San Diego SIATech Graduation
On January 29, Mary Salas attended the SIATech San Diego graduation of 70 students. Salas also honored the three students who served as legislative interns during the past semester. One of those interns is SIATech graduate Daniel Tate, pictured with Mary Salas. While many legislators recognize the importance of dropout recovery, Salas has gone the extra mile of directly providing work experience to these at-risk students. The SIATech interns provide important insight to the needs of communities impacted by high unemployment and dropout rates. Mary Salas has recognized that unique perspective. Her internships for SIATech students enabled their participation in public service and increased her capacity to reach the broad range of community needs in her District.
SIATech looks forward to continuing the legislative internship program in San Diego as well as increasing the number of internship opportunities for its students at other school sites.
More San Diego SIATech News
California Assemblywoman Lori Saldana (CA 76th Assembly District) toured the San Diego Job Corps Center on December 8, 2009. Gerald Nicdao introduces her in the math classroom.
