Jessica Martinez is a corpsmember in LACC’s Young Adult Corps program. She specializes in recruiting and training new corpsmembers, and was recently elected by her peers as President of LACC's Corpsmember Leadership Council.
I joined the Los Angeles Conservation Corps (LACC) December 8, 2003, not knowing how much it was going to change my life. This was not easy to do. It took learning leadership skills, studying hard and learning to forgive to get were I am at today.  So let me start from the beginning.
A month before I applied to LACC, I was paroled out of the California Youth Authority (CYA) system after serving three years and eight months. I had no work experience and an unprofessional attitude towards work and the world. At that time I didn’t realize that I had the potential to be a leader. The main reason I joined LACC was to complete my high school education and get a high school diploma. So I put a lot of time and effort into studying and becoming a better person. The teachers also put a lot of time into me. I had to change emotionally, physically, and mentally. It was a lot of work. Amazingly, I began to have more goals. I started to realize what I wanted to do in the future. I decided that I wanted to work with 18 year-olds that have to leave Child Protective Custody with nowhere to go. I wanted to do this because this was my story and I believe that sharing my story and how I was able to overcome it could make an impact on others. The second step I took in changing my life was joining the LACC Leadership Team. I felt that this could be a good start in helping others my age. I attended every meeting and made sure to go above and beyond on the tasks that were given to me. Ironically, my attitude got better and with the help of the Leadership Team staff coordinators, I began to learn how to work with others better. After three months, I was able to work up to President. LACC staff saw potential in me from the beginning and I am now able to be an example for others by demonstrating good leadership skills. The next step that I took towards my future was applying for Recruitment Assistant. In this position I am responsible for assisting with the recruitment and training of young people applying to become corpsmembers. I go out in the community and talk to my peers about the program and represent the LACC at local community events. I feel in this role I am learning how to also be a teacher. I teach the new corpsmembers that come in “the ropes” and motivate them to complete the program and maintain a positive attitude. This has become my motivation on a day-to-day basis and helps me maintain my new outlook on life. In my time here at LACC, I have accomplished a lot - more than I expected. Forgiveness played a big part in accomplishing many of my short-term goals at LACC. Forgiveness was the hardest step but taking that step made the other steps a lot easier to take. Before LACC, I had a lot of trust issues and wasn’t able to forgive the mistakes of my parents. I blamed them for what happened in my life. I didn’t realize, until I came to LACC, that I have choices, which have consequences, and if I make positive choices I can make a better life for myself despite the actions of others. I was not a team player, but at LACC I learned how to start and finish a project with the help of others. Now I am actually not only working with a team, but am teaching weekly informational session to groups of people every week. I learned so much at LACORPS and am so appreciative of the support that I have received. There were many, many, many lessons that I learned but I have to say that the most life-changing lesson that LACORPS has taught me is that everything in life is not simple and everyone, regardless of their situations and/or backgrounds, has to work hard to accomplish their goals. I had a long bumpy road so far in my life but thanks to the strength of LACC, I am more prepared for the other obstacles that life will throw at me.