I became a mom at the age of 15. I hadn’t any real guidance because my mom was often sick. I got involved with the wrong crowd very early in life. I just wanted to belong, be loved and appreciated.
Category: My Story
My Story: David George
The beauty I have found in others and their help far exceeds any expectation I would ever have. With that being said, the help I received from Goodwill® and their training programs gave me the skills I needed to excel in life. The soft skills training course taught me to learn people skills and the ability assert myself to give the proper direction to others in ways to help themselves to help me gain what is needed to motivate in a team comradery.
My Story: Crystal Jacobs
My name is Crystal Jacobs and I was born deaf. Much of my life and the decisions I’ve made have been regulated by fear. Fear of being different, fear of failure, fear of feeling alone. Most people don’t think the divide between hearing and deaf to be that big of a deal, but it’s something I had a lot of trouble with. I’m not confident in the way I talk or sound, and this caused a lot of issues for me and how I interacted with people who can hear.
My Story: Angelo Pegeuese
My name is Angelo Pegeuese. I was born and raised in Winston-Salem, NC. I was a troubled teenage boy who was raised by a single mother. I started getting into trouble with the law at the age of 14 and in 2005, when I was 18, I was convicted of multiple offenses and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Those had to be the toughest years of my life.
My Story: Yolande Zabre
My story begins in July 2010 when I arrived in London, Ontario from Burkina Faso in West Africa, where education for girls is not a priority. It is a very poor country with a lot of political corruption. I experienced quite a culture shock moving to Canada. I faced three main challenges on my journey to a better life: a language barrier, an educational barrier and a work experience barrier. I had two options: either fight or go back home to unknown ground. I decided to tackle my challenges.
My Story: Randy Bakker
I was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that caused pressure on my optic nerve, and I have been visually impaired most of my life. As a young man in the late 1970s, I enrolled in a work training program at Goodwill Industries of Central Iowa (Des Moines). I was hired as a dishwasher at the Iowa State Capitol, where I worked for 14 years. I later worked for the Iowa Department for the Blind for two years. But then I did not work for a period of about 10 years.
My Story: Travis McCausland
Travis McCausland is a Recognition Programs Associate at the Randolph Air Force Base in Texas. He is also a graduate of the Good Careers Academy at Goodwill of San Antonio (TX).
My Story: Virginia Finster
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.
My Story: Martha Lugo
Martha Lugo is a graduate of Goodwill of San Antonio’s (TX) Good Career Academy. Prior to joining the program she was a Class B truck driver, but lacked the confidence to obtain a Class A license. Below she shares the experience, which led her to Goodwill and on a path toward home ownership.
My Story: Erin Starnes
Erin Starnes is the director of workforce development for Goodwill Industries of Tenneva (Kingsport, TN). She also worked closely with Matthew McCurry was recently featured on the My Story blog.
My Story: Matthew McCurry
Goodwill Industries of Tenneva (Kingsport, TN) program participant and employee Matthew McCurry shares how his life has changed since being introduced to the organization.
My Story: Lee Ann Hannaford
Lee Ann Hannaford is the winner of Goodwill of Western and Northern Connecticut's (Bridgeport) 2015 Spirit of Inspiration Award, She discusses how she has recently been able to overcome living with a debilitating brain injury and hopes for the future.
