Grant Associates - Melanie's Story transcript

Melanie: Before coming to CareerCompass, I was unemployed and stuck in my life. I knew that I needed help. So I went to the human resource administration, applied for public assistance and they referred me to CareerCompass. My experience at CareerCompass was thoroughly enjoyable. From the time I walked through the door, I was greeted with a positive attitude. Orientation was encouraging, motivating, and I felt really great at the end of it.

Amparo: CareerCompass is a program where HRA refers clients to, for employment and training services. We have outside and inside paid and unpaid internships where we could match client skills to opportunities that are available to them, such as customer service, data entry.

When Melanie first attended our program, she attended an orientation at that orientation. She learned that Grant Associates was offering a paid internship. After learning from the orientation facilitator that Melanie was interested in the Grant Associates internship, we met to go over benefits of participating, and requirements to be met in order to be an intern.

Melanie: When I sat down with Amparo for our one-on-one, we discussed many things. I expressed my interest in the internship and I also shared with her my skills in administrative work, computer work and data entry.

I felt confident at the end of our conversation because Amparo seemed committed to helping me achieve my goals. The experience during the internship definitely impacted my life in a positive way. I was a able to enhance the skills that I already had, I was able to obtain even more skills and I was able to increase my integrity and innovative skills. And all those skills that I used during the internship are what I use now in my present position.

My work now, as a staff member of CareerCompass definitely helped the clients come in, because I can say to them, "I've been where you've been, I've stood where you've stood. And this is just the start of your journey, and it will get better day by day."