Success Stories
Marilyn Baldwin, Western Maryland Consortium Success Story
“I loved my job, and I felt awful,” recalled Marilyn Baldwin about getting laid off. “I’m 55 years old, and I didn’t think anybody would hire me because of my age.”
Thirteen other workers – one of whom had worked there for 50 years – lost their jobs in that October 2006 downsizing at Statton Furniture in Hagerstown, and further layoffs followed. Ms. Baldwin had been at Statton six years, rising from customer service to stockroom manager.
The Western Maryland Consortium wrote to offer retraining under the Trade Assistance Act. That mailing brought Ms. Baldwin to the Consortium’s Hagerstown office. The Consortium staff “helped me figure out what I wanted to do and who would offer the training. They told me my business administration degree was a dinosaur and advised me to go back to school. I went to a few classes, thought about what I wanted to do. They had all these great self-taught classes. I had used computers, but I didn’t know what I knew. Sharon Swope at the Consortium helped me do a resume, and she also helped my husband. She really knows what people want and what they don’t want. It gives you a lot of confidence.”
After completing computer training at the Consortium, Ms. Baldwin earned her Paralegal Certificate at Hagerstown Community College (HCC) in May 2008, winning the Award of Excellence for maintaining straight A’s.
Until she began her studies at HCC, Ms. Baldwin “spent every day at the Consortium as if it were a job. I went there early in the morning and stayed until they closed. They served coffee and made it seem like it was a job. What I was doing was self-training on the computer and they had newspapers there and I looked for a job. That way I didn’t have to sit at home and rot – it gave me the feeling I had a job.”
Now she’s working full-time, for an attorney in nearby Waynesboro PA. “I found it through my teacher at HCC – she emailed our class that this job was available. A lot of our class applied for it. I put on a cover letter, sent off my trusty resume, sent a follow-up letter. I really love it. I like the speed of it; it’s busy, you really have to keep things moving.”
Ms. Baldwin praises the Consortium staff. “Cathy Bergeman, my case manager, would always say ‘Oh, you’re so awesome,’ which you really need to hear when you’ve lost your job. They brought in speakers, consultants, people who gave training tips. They talked about what to wear, how to wear my hair … I’d been in a factory and had been wearing jeans for a long time. The Consortium referred me to the community college. I got handed off from one nice person to the next – they all knew their jobs really well.”
Before she lost her job, Ms. Baldwin had never heard of the workforce development system. Now, she says, “If I ever need to get another job, I’d definitely go back to the Consortium.”
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