Published: July 19, 2024
Giselle Gonzalez-Rivera said she wondered if she was crazy going back to school in her late 30s with three young children.
But she found a group that encouraged her — Moving Forward Chattanooga, a Christian Women’s Job Corps site — and in April she finished her licensed practical nurse certificate at Chattanooga State Community College.
“Christian Women’s Job Corps encouraged and supported me so much,” she said of the group, which helps women with skills for life and work. “They saw the potential in me that I had not seen.”
Beth Ray, site coordinator for Moving Forward Chattanooga, said Gonzalez-Rivera “gives God glory for the whole process.”
“Giselle is a blessing to anyone she meets. She always has a smile and a kind word,” Ray said. “She’s a super sweet person with a sweet family, and she’s grown in her faith.”
When Gonzalez-Rivera came to Moving Forward Chattanooga, she began working on six weeks of personal development, which included communication and financial management. She also took an inventory to help her identify careers that interested her, and site leaders helped her find educational resources and funding for school.
Ray said in Gonzalez-Rivera’s early days there, she was shy and reserved, but she “has really blossomed since.”
Several weeks after finishing her licensed practical nurse certificate in April, Gonzalez-Rivera was named the recipient of the Sybil Bentley Dove Award, which the WMU Foundation gives annually to a recipient who desires to improve herself through the acquisition of skills or academic pursuits that will lead to self-reliant living or to give assistance and nurture to the development of her children.
This summer, Gonzalez-Rivera started the bridge program to start classes this fall at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to become a registered nurse. She said the award came at the perfect time.
“It has helped me so much,” she said. “When they gave me the award, I said, ‘Thank you Lord, this is all you — you saw how much I was in need.’”
Gonzalez-Rivera said she’s always had a heart to help others and knew that was her purpose in life.
“It is never too late to accomplish your purpose in life — some of us just move a little slower than others, and that is totally normal,” she said. “We are afraid of the outcome instead of trusting our Savior.”
Gonzalez-Rivera said she has learned to teach her three girls that with God, there are no limits to what they can do.
“We can reach the sky if we trust the Lord and He will guide us,” she said.
by Grace Thornton, The Baptist Paper