JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – News4JAX has another cool update to a story we have been telling viewers about for more than a month.
A Jacksonville man just hit a significant milestone in his quest to advance his maritime career.
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This all started with a scholarship offer after someone saw one of our previous stories.
It is official. Jorge Avila Molina is now an Able-Bodied seaman. He completed the week-long course he needed for that certification on Feb. 20.
“I did not realize how much of the knowledge was already there,” Molina said. “It is just something that you have to go through in order for them to verify that you do know the knowledge. I do not mind helping others, teaching others and passing on the information that I got passed down just to help them out.”
Molina passed the course at Bluewater Maritime School at 3787 Old Middleburg Road on Jacksonville’s westside.
Baker says with this new certification, Molina can end up making well into six figures.
“That is generational wealth,” Baker said. “It changes your family‘s whole trajectory. That is one of the reasons why we say this is not just a job. You have an opportunity to start, level up and keep leveling up. This is a career.”
Baker explains some of the job duties for an Able-Bodied seaman.
“They become the technical experts on the ship or on the vessel,” he said. “One of the biggest responsibilities is training other people. So they train the other ordinary seamen when they come in.”
Latasha Hobbs is the person who really got the ball rolling on all of this.
She started the push to try and get funding for Molina to take the course as an act of kindness.
It was one of the many things she has done as a way to honor her son Maurice, who was shot and killed in Jacksonville in 2017, just a few days after turning 18.
Hobbs says Molina deserves this new opportunity.
“His story is one of the stories that through all adversity, through all of the challenges no matter what, if you stay focused and you want it bad enough, the American dream is achievable,” she said. “It is just confirmation that Maurice may not physically be here but through me, he is still making a difference. It just means the world to me. This is how I keep Maurice’s legacy alive. This is how I build on his legacy.”
“I thanked her so much so that she is tired of hearing it,” Molina said about his gratitude to Hobbs. “I don’t know how else to explain it. She has been a blessing. I just want to whenever I can be put into a position to be a blessing to others.”
Molina told News4Jax he is optimistic about his future.
In Positively Jax fashion, Baker plans to offer a scholarship every year now as a way to pay tribute to Maurice Hobbs.