In her home country of Venezuela, Belkys worked in the banking industry. When she moved to the United States six years ago with limited English skills, Belkys was hesitant to look for a customer-facing position in a bank, despite her valuable experience in the field. When she moved to Roswell, she needed a job and answered an ad for a part-time childcare associate at North Fulton Community Charities. In this role, her Spanish-speaking skills were an asset, and she was quickly hired.
As she cared for children while their parents took our English classes each evening, Belkys became motivated to improve her own language skills. She wanted to return to her career in banking and knew she needed to speak conversational English. She signed up for NFCC’s morning ESL classes. Belkys found the classes gave her a great foundation in English, and they were fun! Her classmates knew her to be outgoing and funny – pushing them to take chances when they practiced conversation and laughing joyously at the unexpected twists as they improvised together. Belkys worked hard and quickly moved up from Level 2 to Level 5 – the highest offered at NFCC.
Belkys was thrilled when she was offered a chance to participate in a finance training course offered by the Latin American Association. The course conflicted with her hours at NFCC, so she had to give up her part-time job but she continued with her English classes. After completing the 10-week finance training, Belkys was offered a position as a Universal Banker with Truist. On her last day of class at NFCC, her classmates threw Belkys a party to celebrate this amazing achievement, and NFCC awarded her a certificate for completing the program.
When asked what she liked most about NFCC’s ESL program, Belkys said she loved working in a group and had a great time with each of her teachers. She felt safe coming to a clean comfortable building each week and trusted her environment enough to test her skills and practice what she learned.
We miss seeing her smiling face each week, but we are thrilled to share in Belkys’ journey to achieve her goals. Muchas felicidades, Belkys!
