DENISON, Iowa (Iowa Media Wire) — It’s business as usual for Denison Job Corps students after a federal funding freeze nearly closed down the school.
A lawsuit is keeping these schools open and allowing students to continue with their studies and even graduate. The future of Denison Job Corps had many businesses and students worried during the potential shutdown a couple of months ago.
Daelinn Garcia began the nursing program at Job Corps back in 2024.
“That’s been like one of my major goals in life since like high school years, since my junior year,” said Daelinn Garcia, a former Denison Job Corps student.
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Garcia hopes to become a Licensed Nurse Practitioner in the future and is currently working at Crawford County Memorial Hospital in Denison to achieve this goal.
For her, Denison Job Corps was the only way to achieve her dream.
“For me, like, I don’t have the materials to go to schooling outside of Denison, so that was one of my opportunities. Like it’s a really hard decision to get away from Job Corps and then get things situated and stuff, and I just didn’t know where life was going to bring me next,” said Garcia.
When federal funding was first paused for Job Corps, Crawford County Memorial Hospital had dozens of Job Corps students who were interning.
“All students were pulled from our clinical sites here at the hospital, and then they reported to center. And during that time frame, you know, this is the partnership that we had, we were working out the weeds with Iowa Works. We were kind of just everything was really on pies, and so we functioned business as usual,” said Dana Nemann, the director of education and patient experience with Crawford County Memorial Hospital.
In late June, students would return to Crawford Hospital, and Garcia even graduated, getting her one step closer to getting her dream job.
“Job Corps means a lot to me because I was at my highest, lowest, however you want to call it, but it really helped me a lot,” said Garcia.
“From the conversations that I’ve had with students. You know, they were very thankful to be able to take and apply those concepts and those skills that they learned at Job Corps. Inside a true clinical environment. There is still a lot of uncertainty, you know, because they don’t know, ‘Is the program going to stay open, is it not?’ And so we just tell them for the time that you are here, we’re going to do due diligence and we’re going to do the best that we can to give you the tools and resources to make yourself successful,” said Nemann.
The lawsuit is still pending. Hospital officials said they will help students for as long as they’re here.
