Cleaisha Kidd
Age: 21
Hometown: Chesterfield, VA
Region: Philadelphia
Center: Blue Ridge
Dates enrolled: 7/25/2017- 11/07/2018
Certifications: CNA, High School Diploma

Cleaisha Kidd decided to attend Blue Ridge Job Corps Center because she needed to stay out of trouble. She wanted to make something of herself, and many people in her family have pursued nursing, so she decided to do the same. She believed that it would provide a stepping stone to the life that she wanted to have, and a life that she deserved.
The first night Cleaisha arrived on center, she remembers how everyone welcomed her with open arms and how kind all the staff and students were to her. She specifically valued the structure that was offered at Blue Ridge, something that she had never really had. “The thing that stands out to me the most is how time is structured at Blue Ridge. Everyone knows where they need to be during class time, and even afterwards, there are specific things to do in recreation or in the dorms. Knowing exactly what needs to be done, and when, helped eliminate a lot of the nervousness that I had early on,” Cleaisha stated.
Cleaisha explained that she came from a very humbling background where things weren’t always, functional especially her household, but that is something that she strived to have for herself. She wasn’t going to let her situation back home take away from her focus of being something bigger and better. She was able to achieve that goal by staying in Marion, VA after she graduated. She wanted to start a new chapter in her life, instead of going back into the same situation that she came from. Cleaisha’s advice to future students is “your present situation isn’t your future, and the best of us come from the bottom.” Cleaisha is currently employed full-time as a certified nursing assistant at Valley Health Care in Chilhowie, and she just moved into a new apartment. Her goal is to apply to the local colleges in hopes to be accepted into Psychology degree program.