Student Success Stories: Angel
02/01/2023
Not every student that we work with at Tri-County Jobs for Ohio’s Graduates (JOG) in in high school. We work with out-of-school (OOS) students, too. These students normally have jobs and lives outside of formal education. They come to us with unique situations, and our OOS staff works hard to make sure they feel welcome, educationally engaged, and inspired to gain their high school diploma or high school equivalency (HSE, formerly known as a GED).
One of our OOS students is Angel. As a part of JOG’s OOS programming, Angel has worked with career specialists in the Medina County JOG office to help her complete her HSE through online classes and in-person and virtual tutoring.
Angel heard about JOG after her younger sister went through the JOG summer work program and mentioned that JOG can help Angel attain her HSE. Angel originally began her journey of getting her HSE in 2018. After continuing to try to attain it on her own during the COVID-19 pandemic, Angel decided to give the JOG program a try. She started off strong in 2021, finishing two of her initial tests: math and science. After those tests, she was given the opportunity for a promotion at her job as a nurse’s aide and took a break from her HSE goals. But she was still determined to finish her HSE, despite her promotion taking up most of her time with sixteen-hour days.
In April of 2022, she was made aware of having a new career specialist, Lauren Eaken, and was inspired to finish the process. Though this meant stepping down from her promoted position, she now had the time and inspiration to dedicate to her studies. She started coming into the JOG office twice a week to finish her last two tests, language arts and social studies.
As of December 2022, Angel finished her final tests and is officially a HSE recipient! When asked how she felt about her journey to her HSE, Angel sighed, “It was a process, but I am happy to achieve it.” She continued, “Lauren was with me when I received my scores for my last tests, and, when she read me my scores, I burst into tears. My goal was to get it done by Christmas, and it feels great to get it done.” This is the first major step of Angel’s plan for her future. Angel shared her next steps: “My plan is to start on STNA [(State Tested Nursing Assistant)] classes and hopefully find a job doing that. After that, I would like to go to college to be a nurse.”
We are very proud of Angel and the hard work she put in to achieve her goal of attaining her HSE. We wish her the best on her future nursing endeavors and look forward to hearing more during follow-up!
To read more about our out-of-school programing, please visit the JOG website here.