Job Corps student places in top 3 in national oratory contest

PALMER - Megan Dauphinee, 23, knows the importance of heroes, and she knows that anti-heroes are every bit as important.

Rather than a childhood marked by loving parents and a safe home, Dauphinee's early years were steeped in drinking and drugs.

She recalls her 14th birthday with painful clarity: instead of celebrating, she spent the day at her older sister's funeral. Then three months later her mother died.

Dauphinee turned to her dad. But soon she was drinking, doing drugs and had dropped out of school.

By the age of 17, Dauphinee was pregnant and had only an elementary school education.

"I had nothing to offer this child but unconditional love," she said during her speech at the Alaska Job Corps Center Dec. 13. "How could I teach this child to yearn for excellence?"

Her speech was selected in December to represent Alaska in the 2012 National Job Corps Student Oratory Competition and was named among the top three finalists in the nation last week.

Next, she travels to Washington, D.C., to compete for the competition's top honor.

"I don't believe without these programs I would have sought out college in my future," said Dauphinee, now 23, married to Brogan, the mother of two children - Aiyana, 6, and Matteo, 2 - and a college student.

She said when Job Corps staff first urged her to share her story in the national oratory competition, she wasn't sure she had time to do a good job. But Job Corps staff encouraged her to try, Dauphinee said. They told her it was a good opportunity and to go after it, even just for fun, she said.

"I stay busy. It's part of life," Dauphinee said.

Sharing her story is difficult, she said, but the events in her speech happened years ago. "I've been working through this my whole life. It didn't just happen."

But rather than use her past as a stumbling block, she said she prefers to see it as a stepping-stone.

"I use my past as something that drives me," Dauphinee said.

Thanks to the life lessons she's learned at Alaska Job Center, she said she knows how to roll with life's punches.

"Setbacks and delays will always be present," Dauphinee said. "But so long as I keep my eyes on the prize, I will succeed."

In her speech, she credits Alaska Job Corps staff with building confidence in her and showing her the possibilities.

"Because of Job Corps, I know that overcoming difficult circumstances can lead to incomparable achievements," Dauphinee said.

As for her plans after college, she said she wants to assist other adolescents in similar circumstances.

"I'm extremely grateful to my family, friends and Alaska Job Corps Center," she said.

Job Corps business and community liaison Barbara Hunt said this is the first year the Alaska Job Corps Center has had a student's entry do so well in the national contest.

"Locally, we had seven contenders who all had amazing stories and tributes," Hunt said. "Student success stories are really the face of Job Corps."

Judges from the community heard the top three speeches and picked Dauphinee's speech as tops, Hunt said.

Finalists were Maresence McClinton, Summer Horton and Dauphinee.

In fact, the competition between first and second place was so close that judges awarded an unplanned second prize to recognize the caliber of students' work, she said. Horton won second prize, a $20 gift certificate to Fireside Books in Palmer.

Summer Horton

Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman readers read about this Job Corps student and her service dog Radar in the March 22, 2011, edition.

"I wasn't stuck in a tower, but I was trapped all the same," Horton said to open her Dec. 13 speech.

Summer Horton said she struggled for several years with her handicap before enrolling at Job Corps.

"Instead of aisles of food, I saw walls of color I couldn't make sense of," she said. "I didn't understand how this could be the life I was meant for."

Horton wanted more for herself, and she wanted to be able to help others. But she knew she needed help.

"Without the right supports, there are some towers you simply can't climb out of," she said. "That's when I found Job Corps."

So she took a risk and applied to the program.

When she hiked up her princess' skirt and jumped, she said Job Corps staff was there to catch her.

"From the bus drivers who pick me up in the morning, to the cafeteria workers who feed me, to the instructors and fellow students, everyone has been so helpful," Horton said. "I wanted my life to change, but I didn't know how to get there on my own."

Though she has already excelled beyond what she once thought possible, she is now enrolled at Mat-Su College and has a raft of new dreams on her horizon.

"When you see me 10 years from now I will be helping others, I will have my master's degree, I will own my own home and I will be 100 percent financially independent," Horton said. "I'm so proud of what Job Corps has helped me to accomplish."

Maresence McClinton

The poised, confident Maresence McClinton standing in front of a packed cafeteria at the Alaska Job Corps Center almost never existed.

"I was two seconds from giving up when the phone rang - I'd been accepted to Job Corps," she said.

McClinton was born in Fairbanks to a teenage mother who had two more children and was hooked on crack by her 20th birthday.

The Alaska Office of Children's Services took the younger two children, but McClinton lived with her grandmother, who adopted her when she was in the sixth grade.

At her grandmother's house, things weren't perfect either. There she said her grandfather and uncle were in and out of jail for drugs and alcohol. Then while waiting to hear if she'd been accepted to Job Corps two close friends died.

"Kids who don't have positive role models wind up making bad choices," McClinton said. "I'd like to be a positive role model for them."

She said she credits Job Corps staff with putting her on a path toward success.

Next, McClinton plans to pursue a master's degree in social work, she said.

Administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, Job Corps is the nation's largest and most successful workforce development program and offers free-of-charge education and vocational training to youth ages 16 to 24. Since the program was founded 47 years ago, it has served more than 2.5 million high school dropouts by providing housing, job training and opportunity.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.