Kiona Kuykendall is an official journeyman boilermaker, traveling around the country to work on projects where she uses her advanced welding skills on difficult projects every day.  

Growing up in Shirley, Ark., Kiona wasn’t always sure of what she wanted to do for a career. After getting her high school equivalency credential, she was working on her family farm when a cousin of hers told her about Job Corps.

She enrolled in the Cass Job Corps Center in Arkansas, where she decided to train in Welding.  

“When I was growing up, I was always with my grandpa doing some kind of shop work, and I wanted to learn a trade where I could use my hands,” she continued. “Plus there’s always work for welders.”  

Being a female in a trade usually associated with males didn’t faze Kiona at all. In fact, when she decided she wanted to get her Advanced Training in Welding from the Albuquerque Job Corps Center in New Mexico, she made it her personal mission to succeed in a field where many of her peers were men.  

Kiona graduated from Job Corps in May 2015. While getting her Advanced Training, she applied to be a boilermaker apprentice back in Arkansas. The boilermakers invited her back, where she passed the necessary tests and became a boilermakers union member.  

Due to the training she received at Job Corps, she was able to graduate from apprentice to journeyman boilermaker in under the four years the union usually requires. She now travels around the country doing what she loves and making more than $60,000 a year.

“College wasn’t an option for me financially, so when my cousin told me that I could go to Job Corps, learn a trade and get prepared for a career, I decided to enroll,” Kiona said.  

She’s grateful for the opportunity Job Corps has given her, and she has spoken at recent graduations at Cass to show new graduates the proof that the program works.  

“I tell people all the time that, if I can do it, they can too. You can come here and become whatever you want.”