McKenna’s Success Story with the FHEO Program

McKenna is an Out-of-School Youth participant from the Greater Flint Health Coalition’s Flint Healthcare Employment Opportunities (FHEO) program, a GST Michigan Works! service provider. During her senior year of high school McKenna attended an information session about the FHEO Program’s Summer Youth Work Experience Program at the Genesee Career Institute. McKenna who was studying exercise science at the time, was interested in a healthcare education post high school so she chose to participate in the summer program to further her skill set. Before beginning her summer work experience, McKenna completed ten days of Life Skills and Healthcare Career Exploration training hosted by the FHEO program. This training included workplace readiness and professional development activities, entrepreneurial and career exploration, financial fitness, mental health strategies, digital literacy, and public service activities. McKenna received a $50 financial stipend for every day she attended pre-employment training, as well as milage reimbursement, scrubs for employment, a laptop computer and an additional $500 financial stipend for completing digital navigator training. McKenna shared, “The FHEO Summer Youth Program was not only fun; it was informative. The program taught me how to be more professional with appearance tips to team building exercises. Presentations were also brought in to teach about different careers and even financial advice. I got way more than I expected through the program and I’m glad I took part in it.” McKenna was placed at McFarlan Villages as a Universal Worker where she assisted in many tasks and provided patient care. McKenna said, “Working at McFarlan Villages’ assisted living home was an eye-opening experience in what working in healthcare would be like. I learned how things are done, what the people are like and my own capabilities. Everyone I worked with was nice and I even got to eat dinner with the residents if I wasn’t working”. In addition to working this summer, McKenna attended Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) training at Charter Healthcare Training Center, which she completed in September. McKenna shared her positive experience in training, “I learned a lot at Charter, the class had informative lectures and hands-on lab experience.” Now McKenna intends to work as a CNA while she attends Oakland University and she shared that her long-term goal is to become a Physical Therapist.