Pinch. Pull. Snap. Toss. Repeat.

Physical therapy assistant Shana Fuson watches as weathered elderly hands slowly execute those motions over a stainless steel bowl filled with fresh green beans. The hands belong to Shana’s patients at the Harlan Nursing Home. The crisp snap of the beans, their waxy texture, and the earthy aroma they emit as they are “strung and broken” are powerful and important stimuli for those patients, Shana says.

“The more you can make them feel like home, the better they’re going to act, and the better they’re going to respond to your treatment,” she says. Activities like stringing beans also help patients re-learn basic life skills after an injury or other trauma. As such, they are as much a part of recovery as the exercises and stretches that Shana guides up to 20 patients through each day.

But her job does not end with these activities, Shana says.

“I’ll hug on them and pet on them, and let them know that I do love them,” she says. “Sometimes you’ll tell them that you love them, and they respond like they’ve never been told that before.”

Physical therapy often is not that personal. But for Shana, personal involvement is what makes her job “a calling”—one that she likely would not have been able to answer without the assistance she received from the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) program.

Once Shana decided to pursue a career as a physical therapy assistant, it took her eight years to get there. She graduated from Jenkins High School in Letcher County in 1995, and immediately moved back to her native Bell County with no intention of ever attending college. That decision led her into a series of low-paying jobs that did little to help keep her and her husband’s heads above water financially.

Shana says her desire for a career was sparked in 1997 when she went to work at an outpatient physical therapy clinic near her home. Her position was secretary and receptionist, but she says she soon found herself interacting with patients as they received their treatments.

“I just loved it, and I thought, ‘this is it, this is what I’m going to do,’” Shana says.

Motivated by her interest in the field, and her desire to improve her family’s finances, Shana decided to pursue a college education. In 1999 she enrolled at the Middlesboro campus of Southeast Community and Technical College. After slowly taking basic classes for a few years, Shana began work in the physical therapy assistant program that Southeast provides through a regional collaboration with Hazard Community and Technical College.

The upside was that Shana was finally training for the rewarding, well-paying career she wanted. The downside was that she had begun a grueling two-year program that had her bouncing between campuses in Middlesboro, Cumberland, Hazard, and Whitesburg, and doing clinical work at five different hospitals. She also was expanding her family, giving birth to three sons between 1999 and 2003.

“That kind of slowed the education process down a little bit, and added to the financial strain,” Shana says, noting that it stretched her college coursework out to six years.

Another strain came from traveling hundreds of miles daily to various locations for classes, tests or clinical work. On days she traveled to Cumberland or Whitesburg, Shana says she had to leave her home no later than 5:30 a.m. to get to her 8 a.m. classes.

“If I had class until 4:30 p.m., I would be until 7 p.m. getting home,” she says. “During one of my clinicals, we worked four days per week with longer hours, and I wouldn’t get home until 10:30 or 11 p.m. It was tough, but a little rough water never hurt anybody.”

Paying for the cost of her travels was a major concern. In fact, Shana says her family reached a crossroads between her first and second years in the physical therapy program that nearly forced her to postpone completing it due to financial constraints. The WIA stepped in and provided a crucial assist when she needed it most.

Shana says a few classmates first told her about the WIA program, and how they were receiving assistance that was helping them stay in college. She was encouraged at that news, but admits she was skeptical.

“It sounded so good I almost thought it was too good to be true,” she says.

Upon her first meeting with Pam Wilson—a WIA career adviser at the Bell County JobSight workforce center—Shana learned the program was as beneficial as her friends had said. Pam told Shana that WIA supportive services would cover her daily gas and food expenses associated with the remaining year of her college program.

The JobSight network is a collaborative partnership of workforce and training agencies administered by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP), which also funds WIA programs. The Bell County JobSight is located at the Bell-Whitley Community Action Agency (CAA) in Pineville.

With thousands of miles yet ahead of her to finish her education, Shana says the WIA provided a welcome relief from her financial crunch.

“If it hadn’t been for Pam’s help and the WIA program’s assistance, I just financially wouldn’t have been able to do it,” she says.

In addition to helping with gas and food, WIA funds also purchased Shana’s uniforms and work shoes, as well as the blood pressure cuff and other medical supplies necessary for her training. When Shana graduated with an associate’s degree in applied science, WIA even picked up the fee for her licensing exam with the Kentucky State Board of Physical Therapy.

Pam says she was glad to help Shana obtain as much WIA assistance as she needed.

“When she first came in and told me she had three children, I didn’t think there was any way she would be able to keep up the schedule that she did,” Pam says. “But she brought in her transcript, I saw her good grades, and I realized right then that she was determined and was going to succeed. I’m glad WIA was there for her when she needed it.”

Although it took some time for her to get through college, things have progressed quickly in Shana’s career over the past year. Employees of Healthcare Therapy Services, a physical therapy contractor headquartered in Indianapolis, spoke to Shana and her classmates on their last day of classes this spring.

Before Shana had a chance to call the company to inquire about a job opening at Harlan Nursing Home that had been mentioned in the presentation, company officials called her and offered her the job. She accepted and began working there in June.

“I just got a really good feeling about the environment and the people,” Shana says. “It’s a wonderful place to work.”

Although Shana initially intended to ply her trade with children, working with the nursing home’s residents provides intrinsic benefits that do not come from working with any other age group.

“The basic functions of life—combing their hair, going to the bathroom by themselves, dressing themselves—are a big deal to these patients, and I like helping them get those things back,” Shana says. “I would like to work with children at some point, but right now, I want to enjoy those successes.”

Having the freedom to work with children, the elderly, or any age group in between is a career luxury that Shana says she does not take for granted. Each time she gives thanks for that freedom, she remembers how much the WIA helped her earn it.

“You shouldn’t be embarrassed to get that help, or be too stubborn to say that you need a little assistance,” Shana says. “The WIA was there for me when I needed that extra help, and it’s there for anyone else who needs it.”