Category: Center of Excellence
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Shottees Melton
Malcolm X College’s Project MPACT has given Shottees Melton a second chance. She’s now working as a certified nursing assistant (CNA), but she needed some support to get where she is today. Shottees graduated from Hansberry College Prep in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood. During her senior year, a lot of her classmates were choosing four-year…
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Timothy Avant
Timothy Avant used to live five houses down from the Truman College campus. Now, he’s a student at the college, preparing to become an early childhood educator tuition-free with the support of two scholarships: the Men of Color in Education Initiative and the Chicago Early Learning Workforce Scholarship (CELWS). The former Broadway actor knew he…
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Isabel Cervantes
If you can see it, you can be it. A program at Malcolm X College helped Isabel Cervantes “see” herself in places she had never thought about before and is inspiring her to dream bigger. Isabel is pursuing her Associate in Science degree. She’s also a member of Advancing Opportunities for Women in STEM (AOWS),…
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Dawshierra Melton
Malcolm X College’s Phlebotomy program has already set Dawshierra Melton up for a successful career: she’s a phlebotomist at Northwestern. Now, she’s back in school at Malcolm X preparing to become an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). As a phlebotomist, Dawshierra spends her days drawing blood, which is something she really enjoys. But helping patients has…
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Mike Dougherty
When Mike Dougherty graduated from high school in 2021, he was ready to put school behind him and jump into the workforce. A chance email from his high school advisor about an IT apprenticeship program changed his mind. Today, he’s earning his associate degree at Wright College while gaining valuable work experience in the software…
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William Ma
William Ma was the first student to be accepted to Wright College’s Engineering Pathway. He earned his A.E.S from Wilbur Wright College in 2017, and his B.S from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2019. William now works as a product engineer for the architectural division at Masonite International Corporation. Coming from Lane Tech College…
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Maureen Burns
Sometimes it can take longer than we think to find an ideal career path, but we can end up in a great place. It took me a few extra stops on my career journey to figure out what I wanted to do, but I’m proud of where I am today and happy to be making…
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Quintae Dorsey
For lifelong Chicagoan Quin Dorsey, joining the National Guard seemed like a natural fit. “I come from a military family, so I always knew I wanted to do something in the military,” she said. Quin originally wanted to become a combat medic but instead worked in logistics, helping to manage the petroleum supply. She spent…
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Hamza Gayurzoda
“The students I met at Wright College were on par with the students I’ve met at Columbia, and the classes I took – especially the math – were tough. Those classes prepared me to be successful when I transferred.” When Hamza Gayurzoda came to the U.S. from Tajikistan in 2013 after he graduated high school…
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James Featherstone
From art to engineering, my pathway from high school to college wasn’t linear, but City Colleges of Chicago helped me find my next steps. I moved to Chicago from suburban Bartlett just after high school to pursue a degree in fine art. But things changed as time went on, and after a decade in the…