Celebrating Our Training Fund Graduates

More than 2,000 members completed programs through the nation’s largest worker training fund.

Every year, the 1199SEIU Training and Employment Funds (TEF) holds a Recognition Ceremony to honor 1199ers who completed a degree, certificate, or skill-building program. The event is a yearly highlight and moment of unabashed pride and joy. Though COVID-19 denied this year’s 2,000 graduates their moment of communal joy, there was still plenty of pride to go around.

“This year’s graduates had to stay focused and finish their programs while enduring the enormous stress of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said TEF Executive Director Sandi Vito. “Many members started new jobs immediately after graduation with temporary credentials to alleviate workforce shortages in critical areas and help save lives. The courage and dedication of 1199SEIU healthcare workers is inspiring,”

In the absence of a live event, the TEF is planning to share videos featuring graduates’ personal stories and present certificates to officially commemorate grads’ participation in the Union’s programs.

1199SEIU President George Gresham lamented the lost opportunity to speak to graduates but noted that particularly in 2020, members’ academic achievements are a testament to the strength of 1199. “We are proud of every one of these graduates.

Their commitment to education and professional development shows their commitment to their patients and to health care,” said Gresham. “Being a working adult student is an incredible challenge. I know because I have done it. The fact that these members stayed the course in their dedication to education and advancement reminds us what 1199 members are made of. We congratulate every one of them on their achievement and we are grateful to them for their work on behalf of all of us as we band together to fight COVID-19 and heal our country.”

1. Surgical tech Shakeel Shah started in the kitchen at Buffalo’s Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital. Soon, he’ll be a surgeon’s righthand man in the operating room. Shah this year earned an associate’s degree in surgical technology from Niagara County Community College. Driven by his love of hard work and team care, Shah has climbed his health career ladder, even while working full time while completing his studies. A member of the Dean’s List and Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, Shah says that Training Fund staff played an integral part in his success. “I can’t really say enough about the Training Fund,” says Shah. “I was so busy because I was in school and working and they helped me so much with everything from connecting me with a tutor to meeting me in the cafeteria at work to make sure I filled out my paperwork on time.”

4. With three kids under the age of 12, you’d think Vernell Lucas has enough to do, but the Baltimore mom wanted more for herself and her kids. After a few years of working two jobs and taking courses for programs that didn’t quite fit, Lucas decided to apply to a newly-launched Central Sterile Tech Apprenticeship Program. The program is a collaboration between 1199’s Training Program and University of Maryland Medical Center. Lucas says the demands of the program meant that her partner and her mother had to be on board to help out with child care and other tasks. They were. And for the last six months she’s been working as a Central Sterile Tech at U of M’s Midtown Campus. “It was a lot, and it was a family effort,” she says. “If you are determined you can do anything. If there is a will, there is a way.”

2. In 2003, Jaqueline Nju- Ghong, a health educator at Lynn Community Health Center in Lynn, MA, had to flee her home country of Cameroon after being targeted for her work as a teacher, HIV/AIDs resource worker, and political activist. After arriving in the U.S., she worked two CNA jobs to support her family. She’s also dealt with the death of her husband. Her activism propelled Nju-Ghong her to become a health educator at Lynn Community Health and a Union activist. This year, she added another milestone, earning a bachelor’s degree in social work from Salem State University.

5. Deja Murrain, a Certified Substance Abuse Counselor at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, earned a master’s degree in social work from Fordham University. Murrain faced numerous challenges during her schooling, including the death of her grandmother (for whom she was the primary caregiver) and contracting COVID-19 herself. Still, she persevered, maintaining a high GPA and even getting married. “I was so excited to have the TEF there for me every step of the way. And when it got hard, I reminded myself that I am worth this opportunity and I have the support of all my Union sisters and brothers and my family to get me through.”

3. Carlos Arteta-Higgins, an RN at University of Miami Hospital earned his BSN from Miami Regional University this year after working in wound care at U of M for the last five years. He says his BSN is the next step in his journey to becoming a nurse practitioner. Describing the hospital as a war zone during COVID-19, Arteta- Higgins says his main concern was protecting the lives of his co-workers and his patients. Arteta-Higgins says that even during the pandemic, workers should hang onto their vision for their own lives. ‘Never give up on yourself, no matter what,” he says. “Dream big and go for it. Even if it’s a little bit at a time. You will get there.”

1199 Magazine | July / August 2020