Video: Pontotoc County Woman Working Hard to Better Herself and Her Community

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ECRU, Miss. (WCBI) — A Pontotoc County woman has a brighter future and plenty to be grateful for this Christmas season, thanks to her determination and instructors at a local community college.

Stella Morales has spent a lot of time lately at the Belden campus of Itawamba Community College.The 21-year-old Ecru woman dropped out of high school when she married at a young age, and began working at a low paying job.

“I decided that I could do so much better,” said Morales.

So Morales found out about the opportunity to get her GED through ICC’s Counseling to Career program, also known as C2C. She quit work to focus on her goal and within a month, she passed three of the four sections of the GED test. Morales attended class five days a week and completed the math portion last month, earning her GED.

“It’s a lot of stuff I’ve learned for , they will help a lot in the future with work.”

Now, Morales has her sights set on the medical field. She has been accepted into ICC’s Certified Nursing Assistant program. Morales is fluent in English and Spanish and hopes to help others in her community with medical needs.

“I think that furthering my education, being a CNA will help a lot of family members who don’t speak English fluently.”

Her instructors and counselors are proud of Morales and her accomplishments.

“As an instructor, you want to see your students reach their goals and so, through her hard work and coming to class daily and working very diligently she was able to do that.”

Morales begins CNA classes next month.

Counselors say they are seeing a wide age range of  students, as many businesses and factories are requiring longtime workers to obtain the GED.