Training Futures Cycle 31 graduates celebrate their successes and lifetime of opportunities ahead at graduation ceremony.
It takes confidence to embark on a career in any field, no matter your background. To start a new life, with a new career, in a new country, however, can be even more challenging. Graduates of NVFS’ Training Futures program are more than up to the task as they embark on a new journey to reach their full potential, and provide greater opportunities for themselves and their families. Graduates from the more recent cycle celebrated their first steps on that new journey at their graduation ceremony Sept. 14, 2018.
“Go forward with the confidence that your lives are going to change forever,” emcee and Cycle 28 graduate Ana Christina Metcalf shared with new graduates. “Training Futures was the door that opened great opportunities for me.”
Graduates shared her sentiments, along with inspiring stories from their own experiences.
“The biggest gift I received from Training Futures is the gift of confidence,” stated graduate Tenbit Haileselassie, who was so excited to start her Training Futures journey that she came to the training facility a day early. “In a short time, I learned enough to feel I would be successful.”
Originally from Ethiopia, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and had worked as a social worker for a local nonprofit, Haileselassie is eager to continue her education at Northern Virginia Community College. She will focus on childhood education, with plans to work for another nonprofit and hopefully start her own organization in the future.
Training Futures staff presented its Community Impact Award to longtime partner the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, which has donated more than $350,000 to NVFS since our partnership began in 2005, and the Leadership Award to Cycle 31 graduate Merhawit Gebremedhin.
“I am who I am now because of my Training Futures family,” Gebremedhin tearfully shared with the group before dedicating the award to her mother, who was watching her two children that morning.
Virginia Del. Karrie K. Delaney (67th District) also honored Training Futures with a commending resolution from the Virginia House of Representatives on the program’s 20-plus years of community impact.
“We’re so proud of you,” Del. Delaney said to the graduates. “You are going to accomplish wonderful things.”
NVFS’ Training Futures program is currently accepting applications for its next cohort. Visit nvfs.org/trainingfutures to learn more about the program and how to apply.
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