Virginia Finster is a graduate of the Good Careers Academy Pharmacy Technician program at Goodwill of San Antonio (TX).
Looking at how I could move forward in life and what my next step was, I knew that education was something that had to be done. As far as what I could do, I wasn’t sure. I knew that I had little money and I had little time, but I needed something that would catapult me into a career where I could support my children and move forward in life.
I found that Good Careers works with a lot of their students, and they work for a setting where you can work and to school at the same time so your tuition is paid for. For me and where I was with my kids, that was something I could commit to. So I took a leap of faith and started going to class and working after that and paying off tuition. That’s where it started.
Goodwill® has put me in a spot where I’m a licensed, certified pharmacy technician. I have that. Nobody can take that away. I have a marketable skill; I have a career, always, and they gave that to me. So now, I can support my kids on my own.
To all of the other single mothers out there, there’s so much fear all the time, doing it on your own, not needing XYZ in your life, and to be able to stand up on your own to support your children, to get dressed every day and put on a uniform or to put on a suit or tie and to be able to go somewhere and be proud, it’s important. Not only is it important, it’s your future, it’s your life, it’s your daily bread.
It is wonderful being able to go in and know that I’m making a living for my family and I, knowing that the living that I’m making paves the way for something bigger and brighter. Now there is money aside to go back to college to a pharmacist or something else if I choose. I now have options…I can keep going. There is no limit.
