Without a high school diploma and no real job skills, Ashirae Brown (27) found herself unable to find work. Her father, Dennis Brown, is a Joliet Job Corps Center alumnus. He encouraged her to attend the Cleveland Job Corps Center to obtain career training and her high school diploma.

Challenged with not wanting to be away from her daughter, Ashirae had to make the hardest decision of her life. With a desire to provide a better future for her daughter, Ashirae decided to follow in her father’s footsteps, and she arrived at the Cleveland Job Corps Center in May 2017. Ashirae earned her high school diploma while enrolled through the Center’s partnership with Penn Foster. Additionally, she obtained her Medical Assistant, ServSafe, Health Insurance Portability, and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) certifications. She was a member of the Poetry Club and wrote beautiful poems about black history and women’s encouragement.

“I didn’t have much direction in what I wanted to do before I came,” admitted Ashirae. “Cleveland Job Corps was liberating because the structure it provides helps prepare you within your career and for everyday life!”

Ashirae works as a medical assistant for one of the leading medical centers in Cuyahoga County, the University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. This fall she will be attending Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), pursuing licensure in their Registered Nursing Program. The once self-proclaimed introvert feels that her life has changed because of Job Corps. “It helped me get to know myself better and to get out and meet people,” said Ashirae. She is very excited about her future and what it has to offer.