Mariyah Louis once thought she wouldn't be 27 years old.

Louis entered the foster care system as a teenager and then turned to Cov Corps, a government-funded program that provides free vocational training for low-income students. Now, she has Automatic details Business - Her success is attributed to her work group experience.

“I was almost able to rebuild my life, and most foster youths don’t have that many opportunities in this situation, I have been independent and have taken care of myself since I was 17,” said Louis, 27.

Last week, the Labor Department said it would stay at 99 contract management centers by the end of June, putting thousands of students in a difficult situation. Now, program alumni and faculty are anxious about the looming end date as they scramble to help students who also rely on the Working Corps to provide free housing and food.

The closure is part of President Donald Trump’s massive efforts through massive layoffs, department closures and reorganizations. These efforts have been suspended by federal judges as necessary to reduce government spending, but critics believe that targeted key sector cuts are endangering the safety and health of Americans.

The National Jobs Association and other groups joined the lawsuit against the Labor Department on Tuesday, urging the court to prevent the department from suspending its task force.

The layoffs have left alumni worried like Louis where the program’s current students will go next.

Louis was only 17 years old when he entered the foster care system In Michigan, she stayed until she was 18, and she said she “had no good relationship with the school because of the transition to a foster care worker,” but her interest in staff attracted people after a friend was present.

After Louis entered school, she began working with a trade coach who became a parent’s body.

"I will never forget that man," she said. "He surpassed the trade lecturer. To me, he was a mentor, just like a real-life mentor."

Detroit's WJBK-TV captured the center that took its belongings out of the Labor Department's announcement. Louis said she hadn't slept for several days, and he set up a Facebook group to share resources for alumni, staff and students, and launched GoFundMe to support people affected by the program's closure.

"I feel like they're robbed, they won't have the kind of experience I have and the experience I'm today because being honest with you, I don't think I'll be 27. I don't, I can't." "And I'm married. I'll never see this life outside of foster care."

In Astoria, Oregon, Astoria, Oregon, the Legion Center is still trying to find housing for more than two dozen students who are homeless before launching the program.

“There is a dark cloud on this campus,” McGoldric said. “It’s a heartbreaking thing to see.”

A spokesman for the Labor Department said, “The comprehensive review of the career mission revealed significant systemic problems, including serious serious incidents, poor student outcomes and unsustainable costs, including serious systemic problems.”

Spokesperson Courtney Parella said only 38% of students graduated from the program. Last week, the National Job Search Association paid back on this statistics, saying that the graduate student rate was frustrated by the 19th-day policy and claimed that the graduation rate of the work group has historically exceeded 60%. NBC News has not independently verified these two statistics.

“Our priority is to promote success for each student and ensure a safe transition during this pause,” Parela said. “We have directed the center operators to work directly with providers who help students enroll and made it clear that there is no fixed transfer deadline.”

After retiring from the Navy, Randolph Goodman worked at the Gary Job Corps Center in San Marcos, Texas for more than 30 years. He said the program "has a lot of problems" and "sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work."

"But, you know, that's what we're going to do," he said. "No one else can do what we do. There's no vocational school that can do, no colleges can do that, nothing."

According to the program's archive website, since its launch in 1964, approximately 3 million students have participated in the task force, studying industries from manufacturing to hospitality. The program is aimed at low-income students and provides them with free vocational training and education, housing, catering, basic medical services and living allowances.

According to the department, the Department of Labor spent $1.7 billion on the department’s $13.4 billion discretionary funding in the 2024 fiscal year.

Levi Golden, who studied maritime on the Tongue Task Force, said the pause of the program felt like a "gut." He received his final certification last month and received his high school diploma on Tuesday.

"I would never have obtained my high school diploma if it weren't for the job search regiment. I wasn't able to get a good job," said Golden. He plans to head to Alaska, where he will be a crew member on a tugboat and push materials onto the Yukon River for months.

Golden, 24, entered school in July 2023 and said Job Corps was "one of the best plans" he experienced.

“I’ve always dreamed of working on the water since I was a kid, but I never really knew where to start or how to get there,” Golden said.

He said he believed “it was a necessary procedure and I wouldn’t like to see it shut down.”

The program advocates believe that the job seeker provides a path forward for teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds.

"I believe this program was sent by God to help those who are unlucky," said Christopher Coupette. "It made me sick and I regret to hear it was taken away. ”

Coupette, 32, is now the director of health at assisted living facilities and mourns students for not being able to receive a free education in the program.

"It can help you stand up," he said. "It doesn't hold your hand all your life. It can help you lead your life."

Coupette lives in multiple families, his mother lives with her father after her death, and later moved in with her sister after her father was “not with me.”

"I was just unhappy there," he recalled. "I wanted myself or something. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life."

He decided to join the Working Corps based on his sister's experience in the program, "just fall in love with it completely." Now, Coupette lives in the same city where he participates in the program. He is pursuing his nursing degree, has a daughter, and is preparing to get married in December.

"It all started with the job search corps betting on me and helping me climb the next ladder of life, so I will be a student of Jobs forever," he said.