A few months before she started splicing wires and dissecting computer modems in a lab at Chattanooga State, Tenisa Townsend thought she had seen the last of her second chances.
Having been laid off last January from her job packing goods and tweaking machinery for a local manufacturer, the 45-year-old Ms. Townsend felt humiliated as she pushed her resume on strangers and made cold calls on jobs for the first time in 20 years.
“I couldn’t even get an interview. Nobody wants to talk to you face to face,” Ms. Townsend said. “My only income was unemployment, and I was struggling.”
But things are looking up. Having received a full-tuition scholarship – the Wilder-Naifeh Technical Skills Grant, one the state’s lesser-known lottery programs – she now attends the Tennessee Technology Center at Chattanooga State Community College. Spending six hours a day hunched over computers and workbooks, she makes progress toward her certification as a computer technician.
Like most students in her shoes – laid off of poor with an opportunity for a free education – she is dedicated to finishing her technical certificate and starting over.