Two Feet Forward

By Jeff Walker
Features Editor

May 10, 2008 08:09 pm

— When it came time to choose a ceremony speaker, the classmates chose Priscilla Maldonado.
She wouldn’t have always agreed to do so.
When Priscilla spoke to her fellow classmates at last semester’s Christian Women’s Job Corps Completition Ceremony, she said “I am somebody and I can do anything with God’s help.”
She didn’t always have this much self confidence.
Maldonado, quite simply, refers to her semester at the Christian Women’s Job Corps as “the best 10 weeks of my life.”
Now she just wants other women to know about it, too.
The Christian Women’s Job Corps ministers to women in need and offers them life skills to be better mothers and better residents. As the organization plans for its fall 08 semester, it is recruiting potential students throughout the community.
Classes are taught by local volunteers, most of whom are retired teachers from the area. Subjects range from language arts and math to job training to parenting classes.
“We want them to learn to be self sufficient, rather than being dependent on an agency or other family members,” La Dean Williamson, the organization’s publicity chair, said. “Many times these women are very shy, many of them have been dropouts....(when they complete the program), they’re well prepared to begin looking for a job.”
Maldonado dropped out of school in the eighth grade and has four children. She heard about Christian Women’s Job Corps from her pastor at Redwood Baptist Church and was, admittedly, a little skeptical at first.
“I didn’t expect much at first, and after the first week, I was trying to back out,” Maldonado said.
But she stuck with it because, she says, she was very serious about turning her life around. Within the fifth week, she knew she was onto something. She is currently studying for her GED test, and looks to become a Certified Nurse’s Assistant.
“Language arts, math, computers, we’re studying all kinds of different things and picking up different kinds of skills,” Maldonado said. “When I dropped out years ago, I felt like I had no future. This has changed all that for me.”
Nova Festervan, of San Marcos, began planning for a Christian Women’s Job Corps site in San Marcos in late 2003. She had heard about the national program after a woman in her church had returned from a seminar in Georgia, and she liked the possibilities in San Marcos.
The program, a branch of the Women’s Missionary Union, currently has around 40 other sites in Texas. Festervan compiled a survey of needs in the area, brought in several certified teachers and then began interviewing candidates for the program.
“When people hear the term ‘job corps,’ they tend to think we’re getting these women job ready,” Festervan said. “And we certainly want to do that — we want them to get their GED or their high school diploma. But our program is really more of a self discovery for these women.”
Festervan said that many of the women just need a little nudge to see what they are capable of. Many of the students go on to full-time jobs, many obtain their GED, but more importantly, develop a better sense of self.
And the program is faith based. There is a Bible session every class day, and the major sponsor for the local organization is First Baptist Church. Pat Hardesty, the current CWJC head site coordinator, came on board in late 2005 when they needed someone to teach Bible.
“I was very pleased to do so. That’s something that’s very important to me,” Hardesty said. “I had become a widow, sort of looking for something to do. It just became a blessing for me to participate with our participants.”
The blessings, of course, work both ways. Discussing success stories she’s seen through the program, Williamson points back to last December’s semester completion ceremony in which Priscilla spoke at.
“She was just beaming and so happy. From the time she and the other girls came to class, when they hardly looked anyone in the eye, there was just a world of difference in the women,” WIlliamson said.
And Priscilla knows exactly what that difference is.
“I used to worry about things, I was scared of the future,” Maldonado said. “I look forward now.”

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