Lisa Smith
When Lisa Smith of Trenton began pursuing her General Educational Development diploma with Georgia Northwestern Technical College, she withdrew after she was diagnosed with cancer.
Today she is the site director for Primary Healthcare Centers, earning her master’s degree, cancer free, and has her GED diploma.
“I have been cancer free for seven years, which is wonderful!” said Ms. Smith.
As site director, Ms. Smith manages all the clinic and clerical staff at the facilities in Walker and Dade counties. The only people she does not manage are the providers and doctors. Primary Healthcare Centers has several facilities in Northwest Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.
Ms. Smith earned her GED diploma through GNTC’s Adult Education program in Dade County.
During the two year break that Ms. Smith took from pursuing her GED diploma, Melissa Blevins, lead teacher for Adult Education in Dade County at the time, would call and tell her that she needed to get back into the program and finish.
“She was a great encourager for me,” said Ms. Smith. “She was willing to go above and beyond with anything that I needed from her to get back on track and get finished.”
Ms. Blevins, now the lead teacher and site manager for the Adult Education Center in Gordon County, says if she knows something is wrong with one of her students she will call and check on them and make sure everything is okay.
“Lisa was a very hard worker,” said Ms. Blevins. “Sometimes she would get frustrated and say ‘I can’t do this’ and I would say ‘yes you can’ and she saw that she could!”
After receiving her GED diploma from Georgia Northwestern, Ms. Smith completed her core classes at GNTC and earned an associate’s degree in the Medical Assistant program at Northeast Alabama Community College in Rainsville, Ala. She is currently finishing up her master’s degree in Healthcare Administration at Bryan College in Dayton.
“My master’s degree in Healthcare Administration is crucial for the role I am in right now,” said Ms. Smith. “I am about a year and a half from completing my degree.”
According to Ms. Smith, anyone thinking about getting their GED diploma should consider one of GNTC’s Adult Learning Centers.
“I think the people employed at GNTC are passionate and I think that GNTC instills that in their employees,” said Ms. Smith. “I think that’s very good because otherwise I wouldn’t have finished and wouldn’t have completed my GED diploma.”
To learn more about Primary Healthcare Centers, visit the web site http://www.primaryhealthcarecenter.org/
The Adult Education program at Georgia Northwestern Technical College served 3,084 students and graduated 276 students with a GED diploma in Fiscal Year 2015. The Adult Education program at GNTC serves students in nine counties with campuses located in Floyd, Gordon, Polk, Walker, and Whitfield counties and off-campus learning centers in Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Gordon, Murray, Polk, and Walker counties. Classes are also held in five different Correctional facilities. GED Testing Centers are located on campus in Floyd, Gordon, Walker, and Whitfield counties.
GNTC is an official General Educational Development Testing Center and a site for computer-based GED Testing in partnership with Pearson Vue, GED Testing Services, and the Technical College System of Georgia. The mission of GNTC’s Adult Education program is to enable every adult learner in the service delivery area to acquire the necessary basic skills to be able to compete successfully in today’s workplace, strengthen family foundations, and exercise full citizenship.