The brightness of the cloudy sky glares through the classroom windows nearly each day he teaches. An ABE Life Skills and Work Readiness instructor for Grays Harbor College in Raymond, he stands in front of his classroom three days a week. Paul is also a Workfirst instructor and academic advisor. He pastors a small church on the Willapa and has a small business which manufactures goat milk soap, and raises beef, chickens for eggs, goats and a few other animals. On the side, he also does some contracting work. He has been working at the college for close to eight years, working with the life skills classes for the past six. Prior to that, he taught ESL (English as a Second Language) classes. In his class, he teaches what it takes to be a success in life. Not in life in general as the world may view success, but what that means according to each individual. His class is in the basement of the Riverview campus of Grays Harbor College. It is a refurbished elementary school from years gone by. It is as if you were starting from the foundational level to build a sturdy building, a sturdy foundation for life. He speaks with words of wisdom and from a compassionate heart. He truly believes in what he does. He is an amazing contributor to the community and a man of God who is proud to proclaim that as well. Being able to make a difference in the community and actually loving what he does has been one of Paul’s greatest rewards.
I am one of the most fortunate and blessed people that there is. I love what I do and get paid for doing it. I come from a strong Christian world view, and believe that the foundational key to success is that regardless of anyone’s past or what they may have done, they are not “junk” and have a purpose and value as each individual. Move on from the past and in towards the future helps my students get on and succeed in not only my classes, but in life ultimately. Nobody’s junk, everybody is equally valuable. It doesn’t matter what they did in the past.
The driving force behind this program in Pacific County is from the social workers that saw the need for clients who were recipients of state help and could gain from life skill classes to get them off the system’s help in order to see a way out. Many needed help to learn how to become self sufficient once again. This in turn would give them the opportunity to feel better about themselves and give them a place to go with something to do.
Many of the first clients were people who had been working until something in their life changed, which made them unable to work. They were on what was then called the GAU program. At the time, people who had been working and something happened to them, something to make it so that they couldn’t work and they weren’t eligible for unemployment or L&I or whatever, and so they were on state assistance while they were healing and some were on their way toward SSI. Many others were waiting until they healed up enough to go back to work.
We then opened it up to the TANF parents, which were a lot of moms either pregnant or with little kids, who had minimal skills, and needed some education to help move on. Many needed to complete a high school diploma or GED because something happened that kept them from being successful in school. And so the class started out as a combination of GED life skill and work readiness. We cover job apps, job interviewing, parenting, personalities, personality exploration and types to help them give themselves a picture of their tendencies and explore and understand why they are the way they are and that everyone is different and that is OK, to be able to look at the difference and how they compliment rather than how they compete.
Then with personality stuff there are people who are suited for office work and there are some that aren’t. There are those that if they don’t have their hands buried into something they aren’t going to be successful, and then there are those that don’t want to get their hands dirty. Understanding that and embracing that and looking for things that fit for you, we help them understand who they are. I do a couple of workshops called Dependable Strengths and the other is Unlocking Your Potential. Both look at who you are and what your strengths are. We talk about anger and conflict resolution, a little on drug and alcohol, but notmuch. I have a list that I go through and try to tailor what I do so it isn’t lockset. What we do this week is different from the next. I get folks from corrections, from juvenile, or get a call from a principal or superintendent who thinks that one of their kids may benefit from my classes.
Success stories – you know one of the things I talk to my folks about is that success looks different to everyone. What looks like success to one person is success to them and if getting on SSI is success for them and they do that, then they succeeded. Now it isn’t what the college views as success because this is an educational institution. They measure it by academic progress. One of the people who came into my class got a GED and transitioned into pre-college, below 100 level courses, and worked through an associate’s degree and is now working for the college under administrative services.
I go around town and everywhere I go people greet me because they’ve been in my class. Last year, let me look here, [looking through his records] GED last year we have 1, 2, 3……13, 14, 15 GED completions and that ranges from someone who worked through and completed the class or someone who came in and just needed a pat on the back. This fall we have had two completions, and both have transitioned into college. Last year, 1-2-3-4-5 at least five transitioned into college, and another got a full time job right after. One man had a successful logging business and with the economy it took a down turn. He later got a job in the janitorial services at a high school. A little into the job, they discovered he didn’t have his high school diploma and told him that in order for him to continue to work there he needed to complete a GED. They gave him a certain amount of time to do that and a split shift so that he could go to his GED classes. He came into my class, buckled down got his GED, and now everybody’s happy. You know, we have a lot of success.
Currently in this area my class is the only GED class, other than going to Aberdeen. There are many barriers to these people with transportation issue, because Aberdeen is 35 miles away. With TANF, there are many requirements and this class helps for those requirements to be met. If you are a TANF parent in the Raymond area, I am your go-to person if you want to get into education. These are under-resourced people who are first generation high school completers and college attendees. They are moving into foreign territory and I get the pleasure and privilege of holding their hands, helping them walk through and being their cheerleader. Going to GED graduation was such a thrill with all these folk that were there. I can say maybe I had a little bit to do with their success, but they did all the work though. There would be a big hole without this program.
The best and worst of my job – the best is the time in class interacting with people, helping them become engaged and seeing the lights go on in someone’s eyes, whether it’s a math concept or a realization about who they are, or a realization about why their boyfriend is the way he is or whatever the realization is of, seeing the lights go on in the classroom is the biggest thrill.
~Interviewed & transcribed
by Sharon Madrid
