Preparing to go to college can make anyone nervous, even the best of us. But for Kashna, going to college meant assimilating into a culture that was still fairly new to her, while also learning and studying in her non-native native language. Kashna immigrated to the…
Going back to school to earn a credential while being a mother to three young children is no easy feat. But for Heather Owens, she was determined to find a new career path after briefly working as a nurse during the onset of COVID-19. The grueling…
Caitlin Huynh decided to take a different path to reach her career goal of becoming a registered nurse, thanks to Northern Virginia Community Colleges’s (NOVA) workforce program. She decided to stack her credentials, starting with a Certified Clinical Medical Assistant (CCMA) certification, while enrolling in healthcare…
In a “traditional” student journey, you graduate high school, you head to a two-year or four-year college, you get a degree and you’re set for life. Right? Well, imagine you’ve had an entire career, 25 years at a job only to walk in one day and…
A few years after graduating high school, Hampton Roads resident Taylor Johnson was out in the world working and enjoying her early 20s. She had recently completed an associate degree in the medical administrative assistant program at Tidewater Community College. Yet, she couldn’t shake the feeling…
In August 2020, a well-organized and determined young woman contacted Your Eastern Shore Community College seeking information about RSVP Nurse Aide, a new grant-funded program at ESCC. The RSVP program covers funding for tuition, books, childcare, and a grant for completing the program. In addition to…
It’s been a challenging year for thousands across Virginia who became unemployed or under-employed due to the pandemic. But with a FastForward education, Zack Peterson was able to fast forward his way into a new career as a commercial service technician at James River Air. After…
Perseverance is a quality that can easily be attributed to FastForward graduate, Natalie. Four weeks before the birth of her first child, she and her husband were in a car accident that would change their lives forever. They both survived the accident, but her husband Joey…