Susan Bray is not embarrassed to say that she married at only 15, dropped out of high school to work full time in fast food, and became pregnant with the first of her four children when she was 17. Looking back, Susan, now 35, believes that dizzying progression of events helped her build the character necessary to enter college at 32, persevere through demanding classes and clinicals to earn an associate’s degree and begin a career as a registered nurse.

While Susan completed her two-year program of study at Lincoln Memorial University (LMU), the support she received through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) program ensured she could focus on preparing for her new medical career without fear of faltering finances.

“WIA helped cover my tuition, books and fees, meals, and travel expenses,” Susan says. “There’s no possible way I could have done it without that help.”

Susan now works in the Trillium Center at Baptist Regional Medical Center in Corbin, which offers psychiatric and detoxification services to patients seeking to recover from drug or alcohol addiction. Nearing completion of her first year as a nurse, she says she loves her job and considers it the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

“I still have my little Girl Scouts book where I wrote that I wanted to be a nurse, a truck driver, and a chef,” Susan says with a laugh. “I married a truck driver, I’ve had to cook for four kids every day, and now I’m a nurse, so I really did all three.

“But there was one point when I thought I would never finish high school, let alone graduate from college and start a career,” she adds.

Reflecting on that period, Susan says it was the small feeling of financial independence she got from her fast foot income that convinced her not to worry about finishing high school. Reality set in roughly two years later as her former classmates prepared to graduate.

“It was 1990, and I was supposed to be graduating that year, so I decided to try for my GED,” she says. “I got it before the year was out, and I was proud that I did that in the same year I would have graduated.”

After earning her GED, Susan continued to work in fast food and other low-paying jobs for more than 12 years. She also gave birth to three more children, and her husband left his truck-driving career to stay home and help care for them as Susan worked.

“When he decided not to go back on the road, I started thinking that I needed to do something more,” she says.

After her youngest child began kindergarten, Susan started taking night classes through Carson-Newman College in Jellico, TN. Basic psychology and sociology classes ignited her desire to get serious about becoming a nurse, and she enrolled at LMU’s Corbin campus to begin that pursuit in earnest.

A friend who was simultaneously working her way out of a fast food job and into LMU told Susan about WIA after learning the program could help with college-related expenses.

Pam Wilson became Susan’s WIA career adviser at the Bell County JobSight workforce center in Pineville. The Bell County JobSight is a part of the JobSight network, a collaborative partnership of workforce and training agencies administered by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP), which also funds the WIA programs. The Bell County JobSight is operated by the Bell-Whitley Community Action Agency in Pineville.

“When Susan first came in, I knew there were so many obstacles in front of her that I thought she was really going to have to bust her chops to do this,” Pam says. “But she worked very hard, and she’s a real success story with all of what she’s been through, starting with quitting school and getting her GED, getting into college, raising four children, and finally becoming a nurse.”

Susan earned her associate’s degree in nursing in May 2006. She proudly reports that her success has rubbed off on her husband.

“He’s 45 years old and has been out of school since the ninth grade,” Susan says, “but he just earned his GED and is looking at taking classes and changing careers. We’re both trying to be good role models for our children.”

With her nursing career in full swing, Susan says she soon hopes to turn her attention back to college to pursue her bachelor’s degree in nursing. After that, she says she would like to work toward a master’s degree in order to become a nurse practitioner.

The sky is the limit, she says, and she owes a good measure of her success to the assistance she received through WIA.

“If I can accomplish what I’ve done, it’s possible for anyone to do the same,” Susan says. “I didn’t expect to have any help when I started, but then I found the WIA, and it made all the difference in the world.”

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