Esmerelda Herrera, Scott Lankford, Gianna Brockington-Walker and Dwannell Bunting, Jr., are among the 11 newcomers to Antioch College, which enrolled and housed those displaced by the tenuous Job Corps program — a vocational education agency that the U.S. Department of Labor has sought to cut. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Antioch College steps in as Job Corps future uncertain
- Published: August 4, 2025
When the U.S. Department of Labor announced the suspension of the national Job Corps vocational education agency on May 29, Scott Lankford wasn’t sure what he’d do next, or where he’d go.
Lankford, now 21, entered the program at a Job Corps center in Phoenix, Arizona, as a young adult looking to get his life on track and launch his career. While in the corps, he got the housing and healthcare he had previously gone without, and was able to garner a handful of technical certifications in clinical medicine.
That track was upended when the decree came down at the federal level to close that Phoenix Job Corps center, along with the other 98 centers across the country, by June 30.
Upon hearing that news, Antioch College stepped in.
Earlier this summer, Antioch flew Lankford and 10 other young people from the Job Corps program to Yellow Springs, enrolled them in a summer academic program, and gave them dorm rooms, a meal plan, on-campus jobs and a path to pursue four-year degrees.
Having come to campus in late June, Lankford is now slated to begin working on the campus farm and has plans to major in history. He aims to stick around to get his bachelor’s degree from Antioch — occasionally going away for a far-flung co-op, getting the field experience he craves — and looks forward to the small-town living of Yellow Springs.
“I’m not sure what I would have done,” Lankford told the News last week. “When we heard Job Corps was closing, I didn’t have an alternative plan. It was stressful. Before Job Corps, I was couch surfing and didn’t know what to do with my life.”
He added: “But I love it and I’m glad to be here.”
The corps, still in flux
While Lankford and the other 10 displaced Job Corps students — most of whom are from Washington, D.C., and the Southwest — now have a secured home at Antioch College, the future of the national vocational agency is much more tenuous.
Earlier this summer, Labor Department Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a press release that, after a review by the department, federal auditors determined that Job Corps is “no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve.”
“The department’s decision aligns with [President Donald Trump’s] fiscal year 2026 budget proposal and reflects the administration’s commitment to ensure federal workforce investments deliver meaningful results for both students and taxpayers,” the release read.
Established in 1964, Job Corps provides vocational training to approximately 50,000 low-income youth, aged 16–24, from across the country annually; it’s the largest residential career and education program in the nation. Ohio’s three Job Corps centers — located in Dayton, Cleveland and Cincinnati — serve more than 700 students, according to Job Corps data.
A “transparency report,” released in April by the Department of Labor’s employment and training administration, analyzed the financial performance and operational costs of the program and found that the average Job Corps graduation rate was 38.6%, that the program cost $80,284.65 per student per year, and that a total of 14,913 “serious incident” infractions occurred in 2023 — including acts of violence, inappropriate sexual behavior and drug usage.
In the weeks since the Department of Labor’s announcement to pause the Job Corps programs in phases through June — laying off staff and sending students home — a number of legal actions have been waged to keep the agency open.
On July 25, a district court issued an order that prohibits the Department of Labor from closing the country’s 99 privately operated Job Corps centers — an order that received praise from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which claimed in a public statement that the Trump administration had “exceeded its authority” and “unlawfully shuttered” the program.
“This program has consistently reduced unemployment and homelessness, empowered underserved communities — especially for Black and Brown youth — and breaks the cycle of poverty through education, training and opportunity,” Scott McCoy, deputy legal director for the law center, said in a press release.
For now, the 99 Job Corps centers remain operational.
In speaking with the News, Shane Creepingbear, Antioch’s dean of admissions and dean of community and external relations, echoed the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Some of the most vulnerable people in society go through the Job Corps,” Creepingbear said. “Foster youth, unhoused youth, a lot of students of color. That’s what I mean by vulnerable. These are people who go into these programs to learn trades, get into the workforce and make lives for themselves.”
He added: “So, these are students who might not have had any stability in their lives before Job Corps, and for the rug to get pulled out from under them is really messed up.”
Making room for more
Creepingbear said he and other Antioch administrators, staffers and faculty made the decision to take in the 11 Job Corps students at a time before the wave of litigations began — when the program’s future was entirely uncertain, and when many of its enrollees might have had to “go back to the streets,” Creepingbear said.
“Some of these young people have families, but others don’t. Some have places to go, some don’t. Those are the kinds of situations Antioch was trying to avoid,” he said.
Creepingbear added that Antioch College President Jane Fernandes — who’s had a longstanding relationship with the Potomac and D.C. Job Corps branches — initially was prepared to take in as many displaced Job Corps students as possible. After several meetings with representatives from nearly every branch of the college — academic affairs, residential life, dining, financial aid and others — the college landed on the more feasible path of taking in just over 10 Job Corps students, and folding them into the existing on-campus summer housing program.
“There are already 20 or so students staying with us this summer,” Creepingbear said. “So, in that respect, we didn’t have to create this out of nothing.”
At present, Creepingbear estimated there are around 120 students enrolled at Antioch College, though he said he’ll be able to provide a more definite figure later this fall when the institution conducts its annual enrollment census.
While Creepingbear didn’t share the hard costs of Antioch taking in the 11 Job Corps students, he said that they’re being on-boarded like regular students — getting academic orientation, room and board in Birch Hall, on-campus resources and are taking a typical first-year course with faculty member Emily Samborsky.
“This is like a bridge program for them,” Creepingbear said. “We’re helping them get acclimated to campus, learn about Antioch and get jobs around campus. It’s like an on-boarding program that will help them get ready for a typical fall term with a full course load.”
Settling in
Giannia Brockington-Walker, 23, came to Antioch last month from the D.C. Job Corps branch. Originally from Philadelphia, she entered the corps at 16 to become a certified nursing assistant, and then again at 22 to get certified as a pharmacy technician.
“But at a certain point, I said I’m done with certificates and wanted to go to college,” Brockington-Walker said. “Antioch and its four-year program seemed more reliable than any other option.”
Like Lankford, Brockington-Walker is already settling into her new — albeit unexpected — home in Yellow Springs. She’s doing data entry in the college’s admissions department and plans to major in psychology. In the fall, she’ll likely apply for a job at Yellow Springs Pharmacy, and until then, hopes to take care of kids at The Antioch School or the Yellow Springs Community Children’s Center.
“When I heard Job Corps was maybe closing down, I wasn’t scared as much as I was disappointed,” she said. “There were so many things I wanted to do in D.C. — I thought I’d be there for another five years. I really couldn’t have imagined I’d ever be in Ohio, but I’m glad to be here.”
Also from D.C., Dwannell Bunting, Jr., 21, said he loves it at Antioch.
Always sporting a tie, slacks and a nicely pressed shirt, Bunting told the News that he’s looking forward to what the next few years at Antioch will hold. For now, he’s working as a dishwasher in the campus kitchen.
“I’m undecided on my major, but that’s OK,” he said. “This is absolutely a better option than what I could have done if I left Job Corps. A four-year degree and an education? Yes, that’s way better.”
When asked what brought him to the corps in the first place, Bunting put it simply:
“Poverty,” he said. “I’ll just leave it at that.”
One Response to “Antioch College steps in as Job Corps future uncertain”
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I wish these young people well, but the numbers in this article don’t reflect well on the Jobs Corp program. Costing $82,000+ per student per year while yielding a 38% graduation rate? If someone were to propose an entirely new program promising those results at that cost it would never be approved or funded; in neither public nor private sector. The fact that the program has been around for 60+ years and produces those kind of numbers is unconscionable. There are far better models out there, like the Thompson Working Families Scholarship at Bowling Green State University that boast phenomenal results at a fraction of the cost. The key to the Thompson scholarship is that it requires accountability from all parties involved.