Jessie and Brian walked side by side into Vision Service Plan's spacious lobby Thursday morning, a young couple in life, each with a dream for the future.

Jessie Mills foresees a career in health care. Music is Brian Ford's passion; he wants to become a recording engineer.

But both need a launching pad. Their trip through VSP's corporate corridors Thursday just might set them on their path.

On Thursday, the teen pair got a view inside the operations of one of Sacramento's largest employers as part of a new partnership between the nonprofit Junior Achievement and Wind Youth Services, a Sacramento homeless advocacy group.

"I want to explore right now," 17-year-old Mills said between jotting notes as she toured VSP's Rancho Cordova headquarters, drawing inspiration from the sleek surroundings. "I can learn something now, and this is something I'm looking toward."

The focus of Junior Achievement's job shadow program is to offer a glimpse of what young people can expect in the working world, said Lisa Culver, a Junior Achievement program manager.

By walking and talking with professionals, young people can learn to develop résumés and identify skills they can market in a job search, Culver said.

"They can get a feel for what's involved in seeking employment, the things they need to be aware of and the skills they need to best represent themselves," she said.

A second pair of teens from Wind toured Sacramento's Sleep Train Mattress Centers on Thursday.

Del Paso Heights' Wind Youth Services is both home and school for kids who have neither, offering a roof, support and schooling for displaced and homeless children and teens.

And both Mills and 19-year-old Ford, bright, confident, self-assured, have taken full advantage.

Both are days away from earning their high school diplomas in an on-site campus of Twin Rivers Unified School District Community Collaborative Charter Schools.

The two are also the faces of Wind as youth ambassadors. Mills helps Wind youths get the medical attention they need through an on-site health program. Ford, meanwhile, is a presence on the front desk, in the kitchen and in the music studio. His compositions will be featured at their graduation ceremony.

On Thursday, they talked tech with information technology specialists; got a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the operation; and sat down for one-on-one interviews with corporate recruiters.

"It's a good opportunity to network, meet people. It's something I can put on the résumé," Ford said.

Deep inside VSP, Mills and Ford toured the firm's data center, an information hub serving the building's 2,000 employees and 56 million VSP members across North America. Banks of servers sat in quiet rows as large monitors flashed series of numbers and code.

"It looks like NASA," Ford said.

And it's run by a man who, 21 years ago, joined VSP as a part-time summer hire, cleaning up computers in the lab.

Today, Frank Marquez is the company's network operator. His message to the pair: "There's always something to learn."

In their three-hour tour, Mills and Ford were learning a lot, and their employer counterparts were learning more than a little bit about their poise, drive and determination.

"They're both graduating, and they did it on their own in a difficult living situation," said Donald Smith, a VSP quality assurance manager. "They've got the motivation to get it done."

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