[August 2008]

A life-changing inspiration can strike at any time or place. For Myra Whisman, it happened in 1995 in the middle of a Morgan County laundromat during an especially decisive laundry day.
 
“It hit me that I needed to go back to school,” Myra said.
 
She dreamed of entering a medical career, but more than 12 years would pass before she earned a college degree and became a registered nurse. Along the way, the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) program was there to give Myra the personal and financial support she needed to make that dream a reality.
 
As a public health nurse with the Gateway District Health Department in Rowan County, Myra now enjoys a good salary, a good work environment, and the good feeling she gets from helping people avoid illness and hospital visits.
 
But the road that led her where she is now was rocky and winding.
 
After she finished high school in 1987, Myra attended Morehead State University (MSU) for about half a semester to study nursing. But she was not ready for college and had just gotten married.
 
So she dropped out.
 
“I decided I would play house,” Myra said.
 
That house filled quickly. In 1995, Myra was 26 years old with a husband and three kids, including a three-month-old daughter.
 
She had been doing her best to help her husband support the family by working in fast food and other minimum-wage jobs. During her moment of inspiration in the laundromat, Myra realized she would never have the better life she hoped for without finishing her education.
 
When she set out on that journey, she could not have known how long it would be until the day a 38-year-old Myra tearfully accepted her associate’s degree in registered nursing from MSU. That day might not have happened at all without help from the Gateway Community Action Agency (CAA) and its WIA program.
 
Gateway delivers WIA programs in Morgan and Menifee Counties under contract with Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP). The Gateway CAA office in West Liberty is also an access point for the JobSight network, a collaborative partnership of workforce and training agencies administered by EKCEP in 23 eastern Kentucky counties.
 
WIA Career Adviser Sidney Castle helped Myra access financial assistance that allowed her to overcome major challenges that had slowed her progress toward her degree.
 
“She had the desire. She had the determination. She just didn’t have the financial means,” Sidney said.
 
Myra had been taking classes when she could afford them and when she could fit them around her parenting and work schedules. In 2004, she hit a roadblock too big to mount on her own when she learned she was going to be laid off from her job as a clerk at the Gateway District Health Department’s West Liberty branch.
 
“I even refinanced my home because I knew I was going to be out of a job,” Myra said. Although she understood the layoff was unavoidable because of budget cuts and other factors, she was scared she might lose everything.
 
Myra said she now considers that layoff a blessing because it increased her determination to finish school, and her desperation led her to Sidney’s door.
 
“When she came to us she was just at her wits end,” Sidney said. “She said, ‘Sidney, if I can’t get some help I’m going to drop out.’”
 
Sidney told Myra WIA could offer her tuition assistance to supplement her financial aid. Myra learned WIA could also help her pay for books and uniforms, and cover the costs of meals and the daily commute from West Liberty to Morehead associated with her college experience.
 
The extra help through WIA was what Myra needed to put all her focus on finishing work toward her degree.
 
“If it wasn’t for the WIA program I wouldn’t have been able to finish nursing,” Myra said.
 
Before she finished, however, life hit Myra with one more hard right turn. Her brother, Clay Williams, died suddenly in January 2007 just two days into her final semester.
 
Myra said the only classes she missed were during the funeral, but she was so upset she could not focus on her coursework and could barely take a test. Failing classes that semester meant she could never enter the nursing program again, so she chose to temporarily withdraw.
 
But Sidney refused to let Myra give up. She convinced her to get counseling to deal with her grief and return to finish school the following semester.
 
“How could you give up a dream you’ve been working years to achieve?” Sidney said. She told Myra that her brother—like Myra’s husband and kids—supported her quest for a degree and would have wanted to see her finish.
 
When Myra finally graduated in December 2007, she became the first of her mother’s children to obtain a college degree.
 
“When I went across the stage and got pinned, I knew that I’d finally succeeded at what I was trying to do,” she said. “It was awesome and there were a bunch of tears.”
 
Myra’s example was not lost on her kids. Her oldest son, Robbie, is 19 and studying communications at MSU. Her middle son, 17-year-old Aaron, is still in high school but also taking night college classes through MSU.
 
While still in college, Myra had continued her relationship with the Gateway District Health Department by doing contract work for the facility. Health district officials told Myra they would try to find a job for her if she earned her degree.
 
Fortunately for Myra, the health district planned to open a new facility in Rowan County, and Myra was hired as a public health nurse there in January 2008.
 
Myra has since passed her nursing board examinations—paid for with WIA’s help—and is taking online courses to obtain her bachelor’s degree in nursing.
 
Myra said she hopes her story will help raise awareness of the WIA program. She said reading a newspaper story about another successful WIA participant helped her find out about the program in 2004.
 
And she is sure others are out there who feel just like she did in that laundromat more than 12 years ago. Those who want to go to back to school but feel like life has closed that door should see if WIA can help, Myra said.
 
“You’re never too old to learn. If you want to do it, go do it,” she said.
 
Sidney said Myra is an excellent example of how WIA can change the lives of those who really want something better for themselves.
 
“Myra always had the desire and determination,” Sidney said. “WIA gave her the opportunity and she took that opportunity and succeeded.”
 
For more information on Workforce Investment Act services available in Morgan County, contact Sidney Castle at Gateway Community Action Agency at 606-743-4141. In Menifee County, contact Doug Elam at 606-768-2369.