Nicky came to YouthBuild Santa Rosa with few high school credits (only 55, less than one full year of high school), but he was already 22 years old. He started in the Pre-YouthBuild classroom, recovering both skills and credits.
At the next semi-annual recruitment for the YouthBuild Santa Rosa program, Nicky entered, completed the four weeks of Mental Toughness and was hired by Community Action Partnership.
Over the last year and a half, Nicky has taken and passed the GED, and has passed both the English/Language Arts and Math California High School Exit Exams; he needs to earn only 14 more credits to complete his high school diploma.
Nicky also participated in the Lego Robotics competitions with YouthBuild Santa Rosa, where the Youth Botics team placed 5th overall, competed in two rounds of the finals, and earned the “Rookie Team” award.
In the fall of 2011, Nicky took the Solar Photovoltaic Design and Installation class offered for YouthBuild Santa Rosa students by John Lloyd, and passed the class. In November 2011, GRID Alternatives (www.gridalternatives.org/) was installing solar panels on their first project home in the North Bay, and Nicky jumped at the chance to be involved with the installation.
Since that project in early November, Nicky attended Ground Crew Leader training and Roof Crew Leader training with GRID Alternatives. In late December, Nicky had an interview with Solar Works in Sebastopol that went very well; so well that he was called back for a second interview, which went so well that Nicky was offered a job.
On January 6, 2012 Nicky went to the Human Resources office at Solar Works and completed his hiring paperwork and his first day of work with Solar Works was January 10, 2012!
