Faces of Workforce

Rahmatullah, who speaks Farsi (his native tongue), English, Pashto (spoken in Afghanistan) and Urdu (spoken in Pakistan and India), worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan for nearly three years.

With the help of the TechHire team at the San Diego Workforce Partnership, Michael started in a paid internship at Journeys Map, an application that helps users land their dream job or career by charting career paths and sharing new occupations based on users’ interests. This internship was Michael’s first job in the U.S. that aligns closely with his interest in information assurance, the practice of assuring information and managing risks related to the use, processing, storage, and transmission of information or data and the systems and processes used for those purposes.

Jessie Island is a decorated veteran and a father to a 4-year-old son. Until recently, Jessie was looking for a better paying job and was in dire need of a special driver’s license that would give him the salary and benefits he needs to support his family.

Four years ago, Pamela Olvera visited the South County Career Center and tapped into available funding for training to pursue her passion of cooking. She used the funding for culinary school, and now owns a cafe in Point Loma called the Northside Shack.

Growing up Jesus Jhair Gama describes himself as, “that kid who was called upon whenever there was a technical issue at home.” He enjoyed working with technology and was a self-taught repairman. In his early days of repairs, he immersed himself in information, watching videos and reading as much as possible about the mobile phone industry.

Motivated by a desire to give back to his family, high school student Rolando was looking for work experience and a paycheck to afford things for himself like clothes, shoes and fun experiences for his siblings. In his words, Rolando has done some ‘not so great things’ in the past and wanted to make up for it by giving back to his family members.

“I never thought I would know anyone from Microsoft,” said Desjonae Hixon, who spoke at Opportunity Summit 2018: Initiate alongside Carmen Summers, the Southwest Region Technical Sales Director for Microsoft Public Cloud. The panel brought together youth who shared their personal experiences alongside

Ahmed* was a medical doctor in his native Iraq. He, along with millions of others in areas occupied by ISIS, a jihadist group with historical ties to al-Qaeda, have fled from the violence and conflict to other cities and countries

Roberto Solis Rodriguez had the ideal situation—he scored a paid internship while in school and the company where he interned liked him so much he got hired on full time at the end of his internship, before he even completed

Christopher Johnson was in the first cohort of the New Beginnings workshop series developed for individuals re-entering the workforce after being involved with the justice system. Here Christopher shares his story in his own words as told during a workforce development board meeting.