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Job Corp - Attention!

by Sgt 1st Class Mark Bell

Two Soldiers assigned to the First Army's 205th Infantry Brigade and Camp Atterbury public affairs office, located south of Indianapolis, spent time away from their busy schedules to help the youth of tomorrow today.

Capt. Greg Lunderberg and 1st Lt. Anthony D. Buchanan spent several hours recently interacting with Job Corps Security Trade students about media awareness and the importance of understanding today's news media.

Capt. Greg Lunderberg, the unit public affairs representative with the 205th Infantry Regiment, talks to Camp Atterbury Job Corps instructor Sheila Hurtado after recent training with students. Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Klika

Using the latest educational training tools, Lunderberg and Buchanan helped students grasp the basics of television interviewing techniques using the "crawl" and "walk" phases of training.

"We were able to get them in front of a video camera and evaluate their mock interview performance,"

Buchanan said. "Afterwards, we sat down with the class and critiqued each student in a positive environment."

He said they experienced the same training that Soldiers get before they do a television interview or press conference.

The Camp Atterbury Job Corps security instructor, Sheila Hurtado, recruited the help of the Army last month to teach her students the ins and outs of the new information age of media.

After participating in numerous military media awareness classes while she was mobilized for humanitarian missions during her 22-year military career in the Indiana National Guard, Hurtado knew the Army would be a good fit for the class.

"I was confident the public affairs office would present a professional, interactive block of instruction to the students," she said. "This has the added advantage of providing the students with community interaction, introducing military career opportunities and a wider base of mentorship."

Buchanan said working with the local Job Corps and other organizations helps bring a better understanding of the military and its role outside the combat zones.

"It's important to work with the community because it brings more awareness to what we do as Soldiers to hometown America," he said.

Hurtado said that media awareness training was relative to the Job Corps students because it emphasizes the fact that, "We are representing the organization in which we work."

She hoped students realized that professional appearance and attitude makes a difference in the way the public audience perceives them when they are interacting with the media.

In addition to the media awareness training, students had classes in life skills such as social development, employability, independent living and multicultural awareness.

At the end of the course, Hurtado said she hoped students understood themselves better and how their actions reflect on how they fit into today's society.

"I hope that the students have become more conscious of how their appearance, words and behaviors affect the way that others perceive their professional abilities," she said.

Job Corps is a Department of Labor function that provides vocational training to "at risk" young people ages 16 and 24 years, according Hurtado.