July–August 2026 Completion Ceremony: Eliel Torres

Danny –Introduction to Eliel Torres

We thank you for being part of it, and your family for, you know, for helping out.

I know that everybody who finishes this—not everybody finishes this, by the way, because this is a tough program. So, going through this and finishing it is a huge, huge accomplishment.

The next person, who happened to be actually last on my list, and he’s the last one in here—I’m not going to mention any names.

How was your day at work today?

Eliel: So good.

He started today at work for an HVAC company.

Always a positive, positive attitude and personality, and I know that we would not have been the same without you. So, thank you for allowing us to know you, to learn from you, and tell us a little bit about what’s going on. Come on up here.

Well, as Danny said, today was my first day at Blue Star. My first—so I’m late. I did an install. Took us about four hours, but we got the job done. I’m pretty proud of it.

When I first started coming into this program, I was four months out of high school. Didn’t know what to do. And as soon as I came into this school, a lot of stuff changed. Like, my whole life changed.

I’m 18. I have a job now, fresh out of high school, and I’m so much blessed, you know, for Danny, Chris, Rob, Andrew. I really could not have done it without y’all. Y’all are my family. You guys are like family to me now.

And my mom isn’t here right now. She’s trucking, but that’s the biggest supporter I have. She gave me the amount of confidence I needed to really finish this school, and that’s the only person that I look up to, my mom.

She’s very determined. She’s been the person that’s been pushing me, making me go harder every single day, and I really could not have done it without her.

But thank you, guys.

Very nice. Very nice.

The good thing is, next week, Thursday and Friday, I get to see all of them because we’re going to go through OSHA 10 training. Yay.

So, hopefully we have our EPA results back. I know that I feel very comfortable and confident that at least 20% of y’all have passed. At least. Hopefully, it’s 100%, but I know that y’all did real well.

So, OSHA, don’t forget Thursday, Friday, we’re going to do that. You’re going to get your tools. Eliel already got your tools. And y’all see some of the tools that they got. Those are first-class tools. These are very expensive.

I want to make sure that they have the tools, they have the confidence, they have the skill, knowledge, skills, and abilities, and they have the believability, most important to me, in themselves.

And that’s where the family, where CareerSource or some of the other companies that help us out come into play, because you’re not just helping one person, you’re helping a family and a community. And to me, that’s more important.

HVAC is a great career. It is a super, super huge career with a lot of opportunities. You can go and do anything that you want in the world.

So, with that, I usually at the end ask if there’s anybody who would like to say something, a little shout-out. Come on up, or even at your seat, say anything, like, “Hey, my baby boy was such a good kid.” I don’t know. Say whatever you want to say.

Or, is there anybody who would like to say something before we have refreshments? Come on. One person. I’m going to hold my breath until one person does something.

I would like to give a shout-out—