My Story: Kim Kershaw

I found myself unemployed not knowing what to do, and to make matters worse, my mom had several strokes that led to a hospital stay and a lengthy stay at rehab. I never left her side, in fact I slept on the floor and tended to her every need.

I got to thinking while I was there that maybe this was something I could do for a job. I put in hundreds of applications with maybe one or two interviews and very few callbacks.  So one day they had a job fair, and I saw a sign that said STNA which stands for State Testing Nursing Assistant. I was told that was one of the things I needed to go into the field of health care.

So I go up to them, and I’m excited, and they say, “Yeah we offer the class, and its $500.”  Well they could have told me it was a million dollars. I just stood there, and I looked and said, “What do I do?”  And so they pointed and they said “Goodwill Columbus’ here at the fair and sometimes they offer help.”

I rushed down there, and there were two girls and I said, “What do I do?” They gave me a guy’s name, and his name was Steven Albright.  That changed my entire life. I rushed and called him, and he called me back.  That was huge: he called me back!

They had one scholarship left — one! — so I knew that had my name on it. I went to the class, and it was a diverse group of people: everybody from people with master’s degrees to people just getting out of jail. We all fit in; the teacher made us all feel like we were where we were supposed to be.

We covered everything from résumé writing to how to dress, how to talk, how to budget, make cold calls, everything that I needed at that time.  That class was wonderful!

I passed my STNA test with flying colors and now I’m employed with Goodwill of Columbus and I love going to work every day and taking care of the 23 residents who live there on site through the Residential Services for Developmental Disabilities program.

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