August 1st, 2025

This week’s photo features NRM Coordinator Kylee L. at Alviso Marina County Park giving a lesson on water to corpsmembers earning their California Naturalist Certification. She explained everything from the water cycle to the importance of wetlands. Corpsmembers walked away with useful knowledge on watersheds in California and how we can work to conserve such a vital resource. Thank you, Kylee, for the engaging and insightful lesson!

For a chance to be featured on the photo of the week, please email your best pictures to social@sjcccs.org or share your team updates on Slack!

WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING TRAINING PATHWAY

We are still recruiting corpsmembers who are interested in exploring a career in wildland firefighting to participate in a new training pathway! This pathway consists of up to five industry-recognized certifications:

• Entry Level Wildland Firefighter

• Hand and Power Tooling

• Basic Horticulture for Parks and Public Land Management

• CalTrans Roadside Safety

• Wilderness First Responder (not required)

• Pre-reqs: FEMA IS-100c, FEMA IS-200, FEMA IS-700b, and FEMA IS-800d (free to take online)

Gain knowledge, skills, and connections that will introduce you to a career in wildland firefighting! If you are interested, please fill out the interest form below. If you have any questions please contact your Corps Futures Coordinator.

AUGUST BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES

A big round of applause for those celebrating birthdays and work anniversaries this month! 🎂🎉 Your contributions make all the difference.  

INTRODUCING OUR FALL 2025 CORPSMEMBER COUNCIL

We're so excited to officially introduce you to our Fall 2025 Corpsmember Council — a youth-led advisory board made up of Corpsmembers from across departments who are stepping into leadership to strengthen our internal community and help shape the future of the Corps.

Please do us the honor of welcoming: Victor T., Sara M., Maken L., Brandon B., Abigail F., Mary T., Jose M., and Maonrri C.

We look forward to seeing all the amazing things you'll achieve in your term!

FORKLIFT CERTIFIED

Congratulations to Zero Waste corpsmembers Saul G. and Manny S. for completing their Internal Combustion and Wheel Electric Forklift training. Keep up the great work! 

USED OIL OUTREACH AT THE SARATOGA CAR SHOW

Last weekend, Zero Waste Supervisor Luz V. and her crew led a Used Oil Outreach and Waste Management event at the Saratoga Car Show. It was a successful day full of fun and cool cars from all over the world. Thank you to Luz and her amazing team, Mary T., Maonrri C., Alan G., and Aden T. for their amazing work! 

A SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE INVASIVE BEETLE PROJECT

For the past 3 months, a rotating team of corpsmembers inspected trees in 38 municipal parks and 29 neighborhoods for signs of the invasive shothole borer beetle. In the process, they learned to identify a variety of common trees such as the Chinese Pistache and the Valley Oak. They had a goal of inspecting 5,000 trees, and they knocked it out of the park with 7,343 total trees inspected! 

Shoutout to the wonderful team of corpsmembers who assisted with this project: Brandon B., Kimberly V., Roberto A., Abigail F., Kailyn L., Hector V., De'Kohven R., Seut C., Yael R., Ethan W., Luis F., Erick M., and Rafael C. We couldn't have done it without you!

LAST RETURNING STUDENT ORIENTATION OF THE SUMMER

On Wednesday, we hosted 22 more returning Charter School students to enroll in courses and take school photos. Thank you Charter School staff for your hard work and dedication, ensuring students are prepared for the coming school year. Because of you, we have 105 returning students ready to keep working towards their future.

DUMPSTER DAY WITH SJ BEAUTIFY

Here's a recap from Zero Waste's first partner event of the 2025-2026 fiscal year! It was a pleasure collecting e-waste, mattresses, and tires from the community alongside San Jose Beautify at their Dumpster Day event. Kudos to the awesome team that helped on Saturday, including Supervisor Ruben T., Zero Waste corpsmembers Maonrri C. and German P., and Environmental Projects corpsmember Richard S.!

HOW MANY CANDIES WERE IN THE JAR?

Thank you to everyone who participated in July's Guessing Jar Contest! There were numerous guesses all over the board, but there can only be one winner. As stated in the rules, you had to guess the closest to the amount without going over. The total amount of jellybeans in the jar is 889, leaving Zero Waste corpsmember Jacob F. the winner, with an astonishingly close guess of 872! Congratulations to the winner — we look forward to hosting more contests in the future!

REFER A FRIEND, GET $100

AUGUST JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Check out some exciting job opportunities for August! 

TECH SAFETY TIPS

Check out these helpful tips for keeping your devices (and data) more secure. 

YOUR FEEDBACK MATTERS

We have a feedback email available to everyone (both staff and corpsmembers). Feel free to scan the QR code above or email feedback@sjcccs.org directly. If you have any questions about this channel of feedback, you can email Jasmine F.