"My name is Christina Fritz. I am 23 years old. Until I had my son, I never had any motivation to do anything with my life. He is now 3 years old. When I was 16 I dropped out of school and got my GED, so I really didn’t have any education to get a real job. I was working in retail for a while and I hated it. I was still living at home with my mother. I heard about the WIA program from a friend and decided to try it. Through the program I attended WINGS Healthcare Training and achieved my CNA/CHHA license. To be honest it wasn’t what I really wanted to do with my life, but then I started working at Meadowbrook Nursing Center. I realized how much these people really need you and how rewarding it can be. Now, I love it. I am making more money than I ever had and it feels so good to be able to provide for me and my son without having to rely on anyone else. I am planning on doing bigger and better things with my life. I am moving out on my own and I plan on going back to school to get my LPN and eventually my RN. I have never felt so confident and so happy. Hands down this was the best thing I have ever done for myself and my son."

"Three years ago I was a manufacturing engineering technician [at a company] where I had worked for the better part of twenty years. Then, in October, 2007, I found myself unemployed due to the company's outsourcing of our product to low cost countries. [As a dislocated worker,] I qualified for two years of retraining through the Trade Readjustment Act. I chose to take the Industrial Electricity Course at the Northeast Technology Center in Afton, OK.

I finished the program in the spring of 2009 and then started the carpentry class at the same school in August, 2009. During this time I found out that the Northeast Technology Center had opened a new campus in Claremore. One of the classes they were going to offer was a new class called Computer Aided Manufacturing or CAM for short. This program was created to help train people for industry by offering two programs in the same class room: one was CNC programming which is what I had been doing [before being laid off]; the other was industrial maintenance, which went along with what I had learned at Afton.

I applied for the job and was chosen to be the instructor for this new program. I have now been employed by the Northeast Tech Center in Claremore since September and I am very happy with my new job. I hate to brag, but how many people can get laid off from a supposedly good job in a recession and come out the other side with a better job making better money working less hours and getting to do something they enjoy? It does not get any better than this but don’t tell my boss.

I would like to say the TRA program worked for me and now that I am a technical teacher, I am watching similar training incentives work for others. There are good and bad people going through these programs but show me a person willing to learn and I will show you a person willing to work.

I also want to thank all the people at Workforce Oklahoma for what they are doing to get people like me back on their feet. For some people to lose a job that you have worked a major part of your life at is a pretty traumatic event and the last thing you want is to be talked down to or treated as a number. This has not happened to me. Everyone seemed to have my best interest in mind and was very helpful. Thank you all!"