Erica Gillespie is starting out the new year as a registered nurse, thanks to her hard work, dedication to herself and her children, and some assistance from the Full Employment Council.
Gillespie joined the Full Employment Council as a youth, taking advantage of such programs as Face Forward, Summer Job League, and the Youth Program, which funded her first scholarship for training. Gillespie successfully completed the courses needed to become a certified nursing assistant. But for Gillespie, becoming a CNA was just the first step. From there, she utilized the Full Employment Council to continue her education in healthcare.
Programs like Missouri Works Assistance, TECH Hire, and Skill Up allowed her to enroll in the Registered Nursing program at Penn Valley - Metropolitan Community College. She graduated as an R.N. in December of 2020.
“The most rewarding part of this journey was for my children seeing all the hard work it took to get here,” Gillespie said, adding that it was important her children saw that she never gave up, “no matter how hard it got.”
Healthcare workers are superheroes, said FEC Counselor Judith Rollison, who helped Erica on her journey.
And now Erica joins their ranks. Congratulations!
Ready to write your own success story? Check out what the FEC can offer you at www.feckc.org/training.
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