REC Silicon awards laptop to Job Corps student

Hardiman 'flabbergasted' when told of win

MOSES LAKE - Kayshia Hardiman walked away from the recent "The Future Is Here" Job and Career Fair with a new laptop.

Hardiman won a drawing put on by REC Silicon and received a laptop Compaq Notebook personal computer.

A Columbia Basin Job Corps student and a resident of Moses Lake for six months, Hardiman is studying to be a pharmacy technician.

Hardiman said she wanted to attend the job fair, put on by the Operations Task Force.

"I've never been to a job fair before," she said. "I was thinking this could be future employers, and I was hoping to go and find out more information about what I wanted to do and how I'd go about doing it. I really, really wanted to go, even if it was just for setting up, because that's what I thought I was going there for."

When Job Corps Business-Community Liaison Jennifer Thomas told Hardiman she could walk around the event and talk to people, Hardiman said she was even more excited.

"I was shocked, I was flabbergasted," she said of hearing she'd won the laptop. "I kind of didn't believe it. When (REC Silicon Recruiting Specialist Thomas Bloomquist) called me, I couldn't even catch my breath, I was just jumping up and down."

After she completes the pharmacy technician program, Hardiman said she is planning to study business technology, and she anticipated being able to use the laptop.

"This was to reward and (show) recognition for the students that show an interest with their career choices," Bloomquist said. "Basically, the idea was to make sure the students went around to every booth. What we wanted to do was make sure they saw each booth, actually visited and asked questions."

Students received signatures on a handout from booth participants at each booth at the job fair, held Jan. 31 in the Moses Lake High School Commons, and then turned the completed handout into REC Silicon for the drawing.

"We really want them to find out what's available here, what skills (and) what education are required for each one of our businesses in Grant County," Bloomquist said.

Bloomquist said the company selected a laptop for the giveaway because it wanted to give a valuable tool to help students succeed no matter the direction of education they decide to pursue.

"This wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for Job Corps," Hardiman said.