With record low unemployment in the state of Virginia, many employers are having a difficult time finding qualified employees to fill positions. Either many of Wytheville Community College graduates are entering into these open positions before completing their degree or immediately after completion; Wendy Nixon is no exception.
Nixon is a Health Information Management graduate that found the training and the experience needed through the Administrative Support Technology (AST) Program at WCC to get the job. She has been able to start working full-time locally for Heartland Rehab and has been working while she completed her degree at WCC. She credits much of her success to the AST program’s internship opportunity at Wythe County Community Hospital and support from WCC faculty and staff.
Originally from Sparta, NC, Nixon moved to the Fort Chiswell area 11 years ago so that her husband could be closer to his job and she could care for their son. With experience working eight years in manufacturing and previous college classes from another community college in North Carolina, she decided to become a stay-at-home mom, citing the expense of daycare would outweigh the pay from working a part-time job. Now that her son is 12-year old she decided it was time to return to the workforce which brought her to WCC with a desire to work in a medical related field.
Nixon’s time at WCC wasn’t without challenges. With a majority of her classes being online she still took advantage of resources available to WCC students on campus. She met with her instructors for help, used available tutoring services, and used resources from the eLearning department to help her get acquainted with the online learning systems at WCC.
Many of the WCC instructors were instrumental in Nixon’s success at WCC, but Kelli Musick, AST Program Head and Instructor, and Colene Kilgore, Business and Accounting Instructor, helped her tremendously. “Mrs. Musick was always there to help. I could go to her all of the time,” says Nixon. “The connection I had with the instructors at WCC made the experience enjoyable.”
WCC has a wide variety of degree programs that can provide pathways and the skills that employees and employers need. Learn more about online learning resources at elearning.wcc.vccs.edu or for more information about the career pathways at WCC visit wcc.vccs.edu/pathways.
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