SOUTH DAKOTA – For the receiver, the name of an award should add to its luster. The inaugural Anthony Conte -Leadership by Example Award, presented to Boxelder Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center Assistant Fire Management Officer Robert Cota, honors an esteemed Job Corps staffer and reflects the growth of the Job Corps Fire Program.

Anthony Miles Conte was superintendent of the Davidson River Initial Attack Crew, composed of students enrolled in Schenck Job Corps’ Advanced Fire Management Program for twelve years. He passed away suddenly and tragically on April 13, 2018.

The Job Corps Fire program is built on a “Lead by Example” model based upon the core principles of wildland fire: duty, integrity and respect. Cota embodies those values and models them to his students.

“Out of all of my peers, Robert Cota is commonly the one who is not afraid to put it all out on the table and ask the hard questions, raise his hand to things that are out of place when no one else will,” states a fellow AFMO.  

If leading a wildland fire crew is challenging, leading a crew heavily composed of impressionable young people, whose lives have often been marked by instability, can be even more daunting. Cota, who has led the Boxelder Job Corps fire program since its inception, has thrived on the challenge, training and mentoring students while building partnerships across the agency for their benefit.

Cota teaches his student that being on a Job Corps fire crew is a privilege. With positive mentoring, Job Corps students learn leadership skills that help them not only to be better crew members, but it also helps them build confidence within themselves so that they become more rounded persons—no matter what roads they pursue in the future.

“Fire instruction is actually not the number one thing I spend my time on,” says Cota. “Life, employment and communication skills, along with personal growth takes up 90% of my time and it’s the most challenging part of my job.”

The Anthony Conte -Leadership by Example Award is a peer-based award first awarded in 2017 as the Job Corps AFMO of the Year. Wanting to honor one of their own, the Job Corps Fire Program decided to rename the award and Conte was the natural choice. Under Conte’s leadership, the first enrollees in Schenck’s advanced fire management program graduated in 2007 and the DVR quickly gained a reputation throughout the agency for its skills, work ethic and professionalism. The model of the DRV played a pivotal role in paving the way for the 2013 partnership between the CCCs and Fire and Aviation Management that created the Job Corps Fire Program.

“I met Anthony in 2013 as a new AFMO. He wanted to prepare me for the task of building something new and the brick walls I would encounter,” says Cota. “Seeing his program, what he built from scratch, hearing his heart aches and frustrations—all of that was valuable.”

In an emotional virtual ceremony, attended by Conte’s mother Patricia Conte Lynch, his widow Carrie Baris presented the award to Cota on Jan. 25, 2022. “Anthony would be proud and humbled to see what the Job Corps fire program has become today,” said Baris.

Nine years after its inception, the Job Corps Fire program has reached a new level of maturity thanks to leaders like Cota and Conte. Leaders like Cota and Conte strongly advocated for the training, development and well-being of Job Corp firefighting trainees, garnering broad based support for the program. Through collaborative partnership with the National Forests, the Job Corps Fire is dedicated to providing professional leadership and training so that students may develop the interest, knowledge and skills to pursue a career in wildland fire or natural resource management.