Northshore Magazine

Northshore March 2020

Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.

Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1214157

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 49 of 123

NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 48 MARCH 2020 L I V E + P L AY Growing up, Gloucester resident Larissa Collins always imagined herself with a career, and she pictured herself working in a medical environment. Traditional academics, however, were not her strength, so she left high school after three years. Then, when she had children, she chose the life of a stay-at-home mother. But while she loved parenting, she never let go of her professional aspirations. In 2013, she decided it was time to make her dreams a reality. She enrolled in a GED preparation course offered by Wellspring House, a Gloucester-based nonprofit that provides shelter for homeless families, as well as educational services, and job training for the whole community. She passed the GED test, but she knew she had more to achieve. A few years later, Collins returned to Wellspring to participate in the MediClerk training program, an intensive course that trains students for administrative jobs in the medical field. Her teachers and classmates immediately made her feel confident about her choice. "They had more faith in me than I did in myself, right from the start," Collins says. "They made it easy to succeed." Indeed, Collins, who graduated from the MediClerk program in 2018, is just one of hundreds of students who have launched gratifying new careers through the program. Wellspring House was started in 1981 to provide for homeless families. Housed in a 17th-century building, the organization provided shelter and helped families get back on their feet. As time went on, its mission expanded to include education and job training—services that could help clients become financially stable and self-sufficient. "We've been going strong on that ever PHOTOGRAPHS BY ELISE SINAGRA Wellspring offers a program to help youth succeed in the medical field. BY SARAH SHEMKUS WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE Susan Bagley Koyle, MediClerk instructor (left), and Camilla P. Blackman, director of Job Training Initiatives for MediClerk Training Program and Wellspring Community Education (above, center) teach a class at the North Shore Medical Center. since," says executive director Melissa Dimond. "Our mission is to help families build their ability to earn a living wage." The organization offers the GED class Collins took, and it has also partnered with North Shore Community College to offer classes in math, English, and computer skills, all of which can earn students college credit. A career advising program launched in 2015 pairs clients with mentors who help them plan their professional futures and achieve the various steps along the way. So far, the MediClerk program is Well- spring's only offering focused on a specific industry. It came about when the organiza- tion realized there were many openings for medical administrative positions but no training programs focused on that niche. Fur- thermore, healthcare is one of the major in- dustries on the North Shore, and a field likely to offer benefits, further education, flexible schedules if needed, and plenty of room for advancement. "We were trying to create an opening into an industry where someone

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

view archives of Northshore Magazine - Northshore March 2020