Success Stories: Valencia Waller 
Valencia Waller began working with NLEN at the end of 2003. She was unemployed and came to NLEN "just to see what I could do." She began the Building Beyond program at age 19. She explained that NLEN staff members "want to see you make it...I was trying to get myself together, but at the same time, I was like, 'they can't help me.'" She secured her Microsoft Excel certificate and NLEN helped her secure a job at Union Station. She was a "dancer" and likes the "fast money." She is off and on at NLEN, but "they keep on helping me...they want to see me do better."
What is a lesson or tool you learned that helps keep you in the right mindset for advancing, especially since sometimes it takes a long time to get a job?
Valencia: "I have goals. They taught me you need goals in order to keep going." Her short-term goal is to get her GED -- she takes the exam in September. A long-term goal is "I want to be my own boss." She plans to keep coming back to NLEN because it is "enlightening my brain...making me smarter."
What could have helped you change your life sooner that NLEN can think about while trying to work with young adults engaged in the system?
Valencia: "Stay on them." She explains that when she got involved with NLEN she felt, "I want some help, but [was] not pushing [myself] to find it."
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