The trickle-down effect of plunging stock markets around the world probably means more people will be headed to Bronx Community College to meet Blanche Kellawon.
Kellawon, director of BCC’s Adult Education and Training program, also runs the college’s Displaced Homemakers Program.
The 26-year-old program, created by the New York State Labor Department, helps people - most of them women, many of them single mothers or women who lost their homes or former lifestyles due to divorce, a death in the family, or some other unforeseen circumstance - get education and training so they can find jobs.
“We provide computer training, job readiness activities like résumé writing and cover letter writing, and counseling support,” Kellawon said. “We offer this to anyone who was displaced from their job.”
People like Angela Da Leon, 42, who spoke no English when she immigrated to the Bronx from the Dominican Republic in 1995.
Da Leon - who has two daughters, Ivia Arsola, 19, and Aeyde Arsola, 10 - said that though she found a job at a Washington Heights travel agency, she quickly found her limited English skills meant limited employment.
“I could only help people in Spanish,” she said.
Da Leon was referred to Bronx Community’s BEGIN language program, which teaches English as Second Language, by a city Human Resources Administration counselor in 2006.
Once she completed BEGIN, Da Leon began training with Displaced Homemakers, where she got computer training.
Da Leon was one of several students in the Displaced Homemakers Program who passed an H&R Block tax preparation test, and now works for them as a tax preparer.
She also has continued her studies at Bronx Community, enrolling last summer to seek a degree in radiology.
The program’s affiliation with BCC gives students “the opportunity to be in several programs at the same time,” she said. “They can work toward a General Education Diploma [GED], get training and do job searches.”
Da Leon’s training helped her choose radiology as a career. Read more..
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