Job Corps student gets wish: cap and gown for graduation

Provided photo by Loretta Clark: Lyniah Winn graduated last month from the Iroquois Job Corps.

MEDINA – A student at Iroquois Job Corps got her wish to graduate in cap and gown, thanks to the staff at Job Corps.

Lyniah Winn, a resident of Rochester, arrived at the Iroquois Job Corps in July 2022. Since then, she has earned her Penn Foster High School diploma, her driver’s permit and completed the certified nursing program.

Since Covid in March 2020, the Job Corps has not held actual graduation ceremonies, said Jeanette Barr, senior administrative assistant.

Win expressed sadness she wouldn’t have any pictures of her in cap and gown to share with her loved ones and to have for herself, said Marissa Aldaco, Iroquois Career Transition Services clerk.

“I called around to see how I might be able to help her,” Aldaco said. “I found and borrowed a cap and gown and helped her get the permissions needed to invite her mother to the center to have pictures taken with her. Lyniah is the first student I have encountered since the ceremonies were halted during Covid who had said she wanted photos in a cap and gown, so I really wanted to help her.”

A week ago, Winn and her mother returned to the Job Corps to have her picture taken in her cap and gown.

“She and her mother were beaming with pride,”  Barr said. “We are all proud of her.”

This summer, Winn and her mother will be invited back to the Iroquois Job Corps for the first in-person graduation celebration since Covid.

Winn plans to work with her mother at St. Ann’s Community Senior Living Center in Rochester.