This fall, Samantha Muñóz Ayala will be among the first in her family to attend college. She was looking for work to cover food, rent and transportation expenses when she heard about CONNECT2Careers (C2C) through a partnership with (YALLA), a college mentorship program in EL Cajon.

“As a first generation student, I’m trying to do anything to succeed,” says Samantha. “Go to school, get a job.”

When she began searching for positions, Samantha found that the C2C portal allowed her to sort jobs by proximity — a feature she found especially helpful. “Having distances is so important since I don’t have a car and I use public transportation,” she says.

Samantha applied for jobs with Rubios, Charlotte Russe, T-Mobile, Goodwill and others. Now she has two jobs — taking retail positions at both Hollister and the Dollar Tree. “CONNECT2Careers really saved me,” says Samantha. ‘I was really frustrated looking for jobs. I couldn’t find anything without [C2C]. [YALLA Program Director] Kathy Caputo told me about [C2C] and it was like a ‘sign.’”

Like many young adults, Samantha wasn’t sure how she felt about using an online portal like C2C’s to search for jobs, but it didn’t take long for her to see the benefits. “At the beginning, I was a little skeptical,” she admits. “I wasn’t going to register for C2C, but I’m really glad I did. When you search for jobs on your own online, it seems like nothing pops up. If I just go to CONNECT2Careers…I find tons of opportunities — it’s great! I really was bummed that I did not have a job. I had a lot of time on my hands. Now I am busy, but I realize it is worth it because I’m learning skills and so many interesting things.”

Because of her positive experience with the program, Samantha recommended C2C to a friend, who quickly found a job at Chipotle. When we met Samantha for an interview, she noticed a job opening at Journeys at Parkway Plaza mall and immediately exclaimed she’d be sharing it with another friend looking for work. Samantha and her friends are just a few of the nearly 3,000 young people looking to C2C to find work opportunities near them. If you’d like to hire a young adult like Samantha, . Young adults interested in finding work can register here.