Angela Roberts calls it a vast understatement to say until recently her life had always been stuck in a pattern of failure and broken dreams. When she finally decided to break that pattern, it was the support of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) that enabled her to escape the series of dead-end jobs she had been stuck in for most of her life and earn the nursing degree that led to her current job at Manchester Memorial Hospital.

In November, Angela was honored for her determination in getting re-educated and reaching her career goal when she became one of only nine people in the state recognized as Outstanding WIA Alumni for 2002 by the Kentucky Cabinet for Workforce Development. Angela received her award at the 2002 Workforce Investment Act Awards Luncheon in Frankfort on November 20. Angela was nominated for the award by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP), a Hazard-based agency which administers a wide array of workforce programs for adults, dislocated workers, and economically disadvantaged young people in 23 eastern Kentucky counties.

Angela credits the support she received from WIA as the major factor which allowed her to keep alive her goal of finishing her nursing degree at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) despite financial hardships, the strain of balancing studies and motherhood, and a catastrophic personal event which nearly sidelined her education just as she was ready to complete it.

The road just to get to that crucial point in her life was a long and rocky one. At only 16, Angela had dropped out of high school. At the time, she didn't think a thing about quitting school to work at a local fast-food restaurant for a meager $3.35 an hour.

"I had never gone anywhere in life," Angela said. “Sometimes you get stuck in that rut and you don't get to fulfill your dreams."

At that point, she really didn't know what direction her life would take. She could feel what she now calls "the chain" beginning to take hold of her life, snaring her and pulling her into years of low-paying jobs and, at times, no work at all.

When she realized that "there's got to be more" to life than being a nonworking mother to two children, Angela decided she was finally going to break "the chain" no matter what it took. First she obtained her GED. Then Angela—already in her thirties—enrolled in classes at EKU. Health issues forced her to drop out of college for one semester, but she recovered and launched back into her studies and soon was accepted into the registered nursing program.

Although she was succeeding in her classwork, the financial strain was almost too much to bear. Angela was paying for twice-weekly 60-mile trips from her home in Clay County to Richmond for her classes at EKU; later she added twice-weekly 75-mile trips to Lexington for her clinical rotations at Saint Joseph Hospital. Concerned, Angela went to the Clay County JobSight (at the Daniel Boone Development Council) which provides WIA services in Manchester under contract with EKCEP. Jo Ann Nolan, a WIA case manager there, helped Angela enroll for WIA assistance.

It was WIA that made the difference.

"I really feel like she wouldn't have made it through without that support," Jo Ann said.

However, the challenges weren't over for Angela. Last spring, not long before she was scheduled to graduate with her associate's degree in nursing, her father became ill. Angela had to travel back and forth to his Ohio home to care for him as his health declined. As a result, her class work and grades suffered, and she failed her last semester by less than a half point. To make matters worse, she had reached the two-year limit of the WIA program.

"After my dad died and I failed that semester, I was thinking, 'I've done all of this for nothing,'" Angela said. But she was dedicated to her education, and was willing to do whatever it took to finish it up.

Once again, Angela's career counselor came through. Jo Ann understood that Angela's slide was due to circumstances that couldn't be helped, and she went to bat for Angela, as she had all along. Jo Ann recommended and was granted an extension for Angela's WIA assistance, allowing her to return to school for the one additional semester of classes she needed to complete her degree.

"Without it (the extension), I know I wouldn't have been able to finish out another semester," Angela said. "That made it possible for me to go ahead and fulfill my dream to be a nurse."

That extra semester was all it took. Angela graduated from EKU in December 2001. She passed the state nursing board exam two months later and was hired by Manchester Memorial Hospital almost immediately.

Now Angela works as the night shift on the "Med/Surg" floor, where patients receive care after being admitted from the emergency room or after they come out of surgery.

Although her new job has removed her from a life of dead-end, low-paying jobs, Angela is not content to rest on her past successes. After she completes her first year of work, she plans to begin taking additional classes at EKU to earn her a four-year bachelor's degree in nursing.

"I can't see me quitting my educational work now that I've gotten a taste of it," she said with a smile. "I'd ultimately like to become a surgical nurse."

Seeing Angela reach her career goals has been good for the WIA staff at Daniel Boone Development Council, also.

"It makes you happy to see that you've helped somebody through something," Jo Ann said. "She's realizing her dreams, she's got a good job, and we were there to help her do both."

Angela is never reluctant to credit the WIA as being the deciding factor that allowed her to keep going even when obstacles threatened to stop her.

"I feel like I broke the chain, and education is the only way to do that," Angela said. "Those people might think they're stuck, but as long as there are places like the Daniel Boone Development Council and the support of the WIA, they can break the chain just like I did. I'm living proof."