Ready to Work: News & Views
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Jodi CyrusJodi Cyrus is an accounting major at Ashland Community College, Ashland, Kentucky, and participates in the Ready-to-Work Program. She is a single mother of two who not only juggles school, homework, and children, but has recently become an entrepreneur by purchasing and opening her own Dan Tax business. She is a great example of what can happen to our KTAP/TANF (Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program/Transitional Assistance for Needy Families) recipients when education combines with hard work and initiative.Jodi quit school at the age of sixteen after getting married. She says, "People don't realize when they are young how much it affects your self-esteem to know that you are a quitter". After a divorce, she decided that she just did not want to settle for what her life at that time had to offer her and her two children. In January, 2000 she earned her GED and enrolled in Ashland Community College. According to Jodi, "School is not easy by any stretch, but I know that I will be a better person for all of the hard work that I am doing. Anyone can accomplish anything that they want as long as they set their mind to it. All it takes is getting your priorities in check and a lot of hard work." She presently has 36 hours toward her Associates Degree in accounting and maintains a 3.11 GPA. At the beginning of her first semester in college, she learned about the Ready-to-Work Program through her local Department for Community Based Services case manager and made contact with the RTW Coordinator on campus. She was anxious to work, in addition to going to school, so she was placed through the RTW Program in a work-study job in the Admissions Office at Ashland Community College. She states, "The Ready-to-Work Program not only helped me with getting my education, but it allowed me to get some valuable work experience and earn extra money that did not affect my KTAP/TANF benefits. It also gave me an opportunity to meet other people who shared similar circumstances and to attend special training sessions that helped me to see the different things that can affect employment, children, and self-confidence." Read other Ready-to-Work Student Stories |