Don’t give up. That is the advice Jessica, one of our newest GED graduates, would give others working toward passing the GED exams. As a mother of three girls, she has a busy, full life. Making time to study was hard. For Jessica, it was worth the hard work and sacrifice to follow her dream of becoming a nurse.
As a teenager, Jessica, the oldest sibling, was forced to drop out of high school to help her family. She worked full time and cared for her younger siblings. As she got older, she watched her younger siblings complete high school and go to pursue college and careers. When her newborn twins spent months in the NICU, Jessica was inspired to pursue a career in nursing. Her first step was to complete her GED.
Jessica came to NFCC for GED tutoring. She was paired with a couple of different tutors but really hit it off with our volunteer Mr. Bud.
“Every teacher has their way of explaining things. With Mr Bud, it’s like everything that he was teaching me, he was teaching just for me to understand. If I didn’t get it one way, he’d explain it another way until I got it. He’d also push me when it got tough. He’d say ‘come on, you can do this,’ and it really helped a lot,” said Jessica.
She faithfully attended her tutoring sessions and studied hard. Despite having to take a break after her youngest daughter was born, Jessica stayed on track and received her GED this Spring.
“Jessica has really had to do a lot of juggling with her schedule and childcare,” said Wynona Kuehl, NFCC Program Manager. “The sacrifices and the skills she has to have just to get here and sit down and study and clear everything else out of her mind. Those are the skills that will carry her to being a successful nurse and where she’ll be able to walk down that hall proud and help those patients.”
Jessica says it was her daughters who kept her motivated.
“I’d look at my kids every day and I’d think, I need to do this for them. It inspires me to keep going,” says Jessica. “It feels great to accomplish this because, wow, I finally did it!” said Jessica.
Soon Jessica will begin the next steps toward entering the nursing field. She’ll work with NFCC’s workforce development program to help map out the best path forward.
Would you like to help students like Jessica learn the skills and knowledge needed to pass the GED exam? Sign up to be a GED tutor. Training, curriculum and materials are provided.
Want to learn more about taking advantage of NFCC’s free GED tutoring? Fill out this interest form.
