The Excelsior Springs Job Corps Center will host a signing day event for students committing to the training program 1-4 p.m. Sept. 15.

Guests will include Mayor Sharon Powell and featured speaker

GG Owens, community relations coordinator for JE Dunn Construction in Kansas City.

The event is part of a nationwide group of signing day events provided by the U.S. Department of Labor and National Job Corps Office to relaunch the program and encourage Job Corps students after a prolonged pandemic. For Job Corps, it has been a long time since the agency could publicly celebrate students with guests coming to the center and enjoying a campus experience.

“We are celebrating our new students the same way colleges celebrate their new student-athletes, because the rewards are the same,” said Rachel Torres, Job Corps national director. “It’s about commitment, learning and the drive to succeed. Our students are super-motivated to skill up, join the workforce and live their best lives.”

The Excelsior Springs event will feature a student singer, who’ll begin the program with the national anthem. Sean McNabb, business and community liaison, will moderate the event. In addition to Powell and Owens, featured guests will include Lori Sams, center director.

There will be hors d’oeuvres served by the center’s culinary arts students, and beverages will be provided. In addition, Job Corps trade students are crafting centerpieces for the tables that will be offered as guest door prizes.

Guests are asked to park their cars in the public parking lot in Excelsior Springs beside Dubious Claims, located at 451 S. Thompson Ave. They will then board an Excelsior Springs Chamber Shuttle and ride from there to the center, receive a brief tour of the 26-acre campus and be dropped off at the event space, located at the Social Hall. Guests will be transported back to their vehicles afterward.

For the safety of students, to enter the campus, all guests must provide proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID test within the last three days and be willing to allow security to look inside their bags as they walk through a metal detector. The center requests that guests bring no medicine, alcohol or weapons with them.

“We are blessed to be located in a community that has always offered our students love and support,” said Tammy Harrelson, director of outreach and admissions and career transition services. “This celebration is meant to bring back our friends and partners, let them reengage with the students we have and let them share in showing our students how special and important they are.”

There are 121 Job Corps centers across the country and at least one in every state. Missouri has three centers – one in Excelsior Springs serving the entire state, one in St. Louis serving the St. Louis metro area and a final location in Puxico, which focuses predominantly on training students in conservation work.

The Excelsior Springs Job Corps Center features 11 skilled trades, as well as the only Junior Naval ROTC program that’s located at a Job Corps center. Through offering the 11 trades, the center offers opportunities to pursue construction careers and service careers, and an advanced training program.

To register for signing day, visit https://forms.gle/ D5bpyBQ5er1PUXnk9.