“What’s the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers?” Amy Jacobs recalls asking an administrator at her college two years ago.

Today, Amy knows exactly what the Corps is, what it does, where it does it, and why it does what it does.

Amy learned those facts firsthand when she became the administrative support clerk for the Corps’ office at Carr Creek Lake in Knott County. She adds to that knowledge almost daily as she updates the agency’s website with current facts and news items about the lake and surrounding areas, creates a newsletter filled with similar information for visitors, and works with rangers as they present water safety programs and environmental fairs at local schools.

“I also answer the phone, do faxes, answer and send e-mails, pay bills, collect fees, and do travel vouchers,” Amy says. “I do all sorts of things here.”

Amy says her job provides well for her and her son, Hunter. She also says she might not have had the chance to find that job and escape a minimum-wage existence if she had not first found the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) program.

Without the WIA, “there’s just no way” she could have afforded the daily expenses associated with her college experience at the Knott County branch of Hazard Community and Technical College (HCTC), Amy says. Without college, she would never have connected with the Corps. Without her associate’s degree in business management, she would be unable to perform key tasks associated with her job.

“It’s a hand-up, not a hand-out,” Amy says of the WIA. “I needed help, and they made sure I got what I needed so I could help myself.”

Amy relocated from Lexington to her native Knott County in 2001 with only her savings to support her and two-year-old Hunter. When a local supermarket called with a job offer, Amy accepted.

“But I couldn’t raise a child on $5.15 an hour,” she says.

Frustrated by her financial limitations, Amy decided to try college at the HCTC branch in Hindman. Her interest in computers led her to pursue several computer science-related courses within the business management curriculum.

Amy received financial aid that covered her tuition, but she soon became aware that going to college also meant coming up with additional funds to cover travel, food, and childcare expenses.

“Financial aid won’t cover those things, so I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Amy says.

Amy found the solution to her dilemma when she picked up a flyer from the L.K.L.P. Community Action Council that described services available under WIA programs. WIA programs are administered throughout the region by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP) and provided locally by L.K.L.P. under contract with EKCEP.

WIA Career Adviser Bobbie Slone told Amy that WIA could cover her college-related gas and food expenses, and also provide her with funding to cover daycare and babysitting costs for Hunter.

“There’s just no way I could have paid someone to watch Hunter, and paid for gas and food, too,” Amy says. “You can stretch money, but I really don’t think I could have gone to college without the WIA.”

As WIA helped Amy with supportive services funding, she continued to excel in her classes at HCTC. She attained a perfect 4.0 grade point average and made the Dean’s List.

The final element in Amy’s movement toward a meaningful career and a brighter future fell into place during her last semester of college, when an administrator told Amy that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had called the college about a part-time job opportunity and suggested that she should pursue it.

Although Amy—as she laughingly recalls now—had no clue what the Corps was, she warmed to the idea when she learned the job would make her a federal employee. She liked it even more when she learned that she would be working in familiar territory at Carr Creek Lake.

“It was a student co-op position, and they only wanted students who were ready to graduate to apply,” she says.

With a strong recommendation from her college administrator, Amy interviewed for the job. Amy says she was told she would hear something on the status of her application in about a week. Instead, she was offered the job the next day.

“They said I was honest, and easy-going,” Amy says. “If I don’t know how to do something, I will ask. I would rather ask for help and do the task myself than for someone else to do it for me. I guess they liked that.”

Amy’s attitude, aptitude, and ability impressed her Corps supervisors immediately. She was rewarded for those attributes when her job became permanent and full-time less than a month after she began work. Amy also got a pay raise when she graduated from college.

Two years later, Amy says she still enjoys working at the popular outdoor recreational and vacation facility, which was visited by approximately half a million people in 2005. She says she also has the opportunity to move up within the agency, which could eventually take her to any number of the Corps’ operations across the nation. First, Amy says she wants to go back to college to earn a bachelor’s degree. She says the Corps will help cover some of those costs, provided that she takes courses that will help her professionally.

As Amy ponders her hard-earned upward progress, she says she cannot help but think about how much the WIA meant to her in her journey. That journey might never have happened in the first place had it not been for the WIA, and she encourages anyone else who thinks a good career might be out of reach to check out the WIA, too.

“If you don’t take that first step, you’re not going to go anywhere,” Amy says. “But if you take that first step, the WIA will help you the rest of the way.”