My Story: Ashley Cole

Goodwill helped me fill out a job application for the daycare center that I’m at now. They were there when I went on the interview. The next day I got the job, the day after I filled out the job application. I’ve been working there for almost a year now.

I liked it. I was so happy! My dream came true.

Every day, I get up early, at 5 a.m., to be at work, in Mount Airy, at 7 a.m. It’s a long day, but I do it. I work at Children’s Center for Discovery in Mount Airy, MD. I’m a teacher—a three- and four-year-old teacher.

I start work at 7 a.m. and get off at 5 p.m. I get a break in between 11 a.m. and noon. I have my break, and then I go back to work. When I get back to work, the kids are sleeping, so I get ready for the next day. I make sure I have my lesson ready for that afternoon and the day after that. I wait until about 3 p.m. and then get the kids up and give them snack. Then I take them outside. I can have 10 kids by myself, but I have 15 total.

I like the kids. I like the smiles on their faces. They always greet me with hugs when I get there. They’re always smiling. There’s days they can be grumpy, but we get through it.

After I graduated high school in 2010, I was home for a year with nothing to do. My parents and I went to a local job fair for people with disabilities and talked with different agencies, and we decided to go with Goodwill.

I took some classes there. They helped me with my job résumé and filling out job applications. Goodwill taught me how to do a good résumé and put the right stuff in it, make sure I had good references.

I want to keep working at this job as long as I can—keeping smiles on the kids’ faces, keeping them learning.