Erica reached her goal to become an LPN on July 30,2021

August 12, 2019 was my first day at Whitney M. Young Job Corps. I felt a bit apprehensive as I didn’t know what to expect but fortunately for me it was amazing. The center, staff and students were great and the environment was conducive for learning. I quickly finished my CNA trade and studied for my Accuplacer test in hopes of going to advanced training in New York for LPN.

January 27, 2020 was my first day at my new center in Cassadaga NY. I started learning the curriculum and was eager to become a nurse. Unfortunately, due to Covid we all were sent back home, we tried online learning for a while and lost the entire class apart from 4 students. Our school decided to just stop us and restart us with a new class in August 2020. The same thing happened, and we lost most of our class, as it’s difficult to do 4 hour lectures and have homework everyday while being home. The rest of us got back on Campus March 2021. We had in person clinicals at a rehabilitation center where I had the opportunity to pass meds, give wound care, take vital signs daily, discontinue a hypodermoclysis drip, administer insulin, do blood sugar checks, flush a catheter and give general patient care. It was a long journey spending hours on zoom, studying all night, taking proctored exams, and waking up at 5am for clinicals everyday but it was all worth it because we graduated July 30, 2021 and I was salutatorian. I’m very grateful for all the support, help and guidance that I received from Whitney M Young Job Corps and I wanted to give an update and say thank you so much.

Erica with advanced training students from Cassadaga Job Corps Academy