Marsalia Ridenour is the kind of person who has always worked multiple jobs and held leadership positions but when her adult son suddenly died, it caused her to take a step back and start a new dream. “It was like I wasn’t capable of getting out of bed every day,” she said. “Slowly but surely, I made myself get up more and more… I needed to keep myself busy.” Marsalia walked away from her position at a large corporation and instead found a part-time job at a medical office. When she learned about becoming a Medical Assistant through UEI College in Sacramento, it seemed like a good option. The ..read more

As a Medical Assistant Fernando Cuadros has worked for a pain management clinic and also assisted professional boxers but his favorite employment opportunity he’s had has been right back at his alma matter, helping students find externships and careers they can love through UEI College. “When you study something that you like and get to work doing it, in this case helping people, it’s amazing,” said Fernando. “I did it with pain management, I did it with the boxers and I’m doing it now with students. I’m still helping people and that makes me happy.” At UEI’s Garden Grove campus Fernando is a ..read more

Delvinair Washington had always dreamed of being in the medical field but when life became too much in 2019, she almost gave up. Delvinair had been working full time and caring for her two young children, her aging grandmother, and her mother who was fighting Stage 4 breast cancer when she first enrolled in the Medical Assisting program at United Education Institute (UEI) in Morrow. She hadn’t gotten too far into the program when her mother’s illness took a turn for the worse. Soon she was balancing spending time at work and then school and finishing homework in the hospital ICU as she sat wit ..read more

Francisco Garcia and Michael Sanchez both started the Medical Assistant program at UEI College in Phoenix hoping to find a career they could enjoy, but by graduation day they had found love – not only in their career but also in each other. On Saturday, May 21, hundreds of students walked across the stage to collect their diplomas during the UEI College graduation in Phoenix. Francisco and Michael stood at the end of the line, waiting to be the last two to receive their diplomas. Just as Francisco stepped up the stage, the school’s Director of Career Services, LaTara Marshall, stopped the cere ..read more

Michael Chavez said he regrets all the times he’s made his mother cry through the years. A self-described “bad person” throughout a large portion of his life, Michael said he started getting in trouble at the age of 9 and remained on an undesirable path through most of his adulthood. “I think there were only about seven months out of my 20s that I actually got to see the world,” he said. “The rest of the time, I was behind bars. My path in life landed me in places I had no business being in.” Being behind bars, however, gave Michael a lot of time to reflect on his life and that of his mom, who ..read more

Retirement just didn’t suit Dianna Brown-Walker. After retiring from restaurant work twice and still feeling the itch to do more, she decided to go in the opposite direction and start a new career from scratch instead. “You get bored,” she said. “I have my plants and flowers that I do in my garden but it’s not like dealing with people. I liked being around people and being helpful.” At the age of 77, Dianna decided to revisit a career she had left behind many years ago. When her children were small, she had enjoyed working at a hospital, transferring patients from one department to another and ..read more

Samuel Spillman has had careers in the military, law enforcement and even went to school for HVAC but through all those experiences he discovered his real passion is for helping people. “I’ve seen so many people in life already who couldn’t help themselves because they were too afraid to ask or their pride got in the way for them to ask for help,” he said. “I wanted to be able to give back to individuals who need help and be able to show compassion and sympathy for them.” In his personal life, Samuel spent 10 years taking care of his grandparents before they passed away. The situation introduc ..read more

When Araceli Pelayo Garcia’s dad got sick from contracting COVID-19 virus, his challenges didn’t end with the illness alone. A proud Hispanic man who speaks little English, her dad struggled to understand even the most basic information and advice his doctors were giving him, an experience that eventually motivated Araceli to make an important life choice. “My dad was really sick and he wasn’t really understanding what the doctors were telling him,” said Araceli, who is bilingual. “To see someone in my family struggling like that and not knowing what’s going on, it really pushed me to join the ..read more

After several years together, Bridget Varela Ruelas’ husband unexpectedly asked for a divorce. But, that was just the tip of the iceberg. It soon became apparent his future plans didn’t include Bridget or their 5-year-old son, leaving it on Bridget’s shoulders to find a way to support them both moving forward. “He left me alone with my son, and I needed to figure out something fast,” Bridget said. “I relied on him financially, being a stay-at-home housewife. I was with my husband for seven years, and I got to depending on him.” So, amid the sudden hardship of her broken marriage, Bridget tempo ..read more

Nancy Gonzalez’s oldest daughter is in second grade, and she’s already taking after her mom when it comes to putting her all into personal achievements. “After she’s taken a spelling test, she’ll come home and say, ‘Mommy, mommy … I got 100 percent!’” Nancy said. “She gets all excited because she wants to do so well, and I get that.” Having such high standards for herself is part of why Nancy, 24, had recently been feeling unhappy in the workforce. A new mom at age 16, Nancy forged ahead with her education and graduated from high school before taking child development courses at a Sacramento-a ..read more