支持坚持走新路

After high school, Angie Norton '19 enrolled in a four-year university nursing program. 她很快发现这条路不适合她. 在启动程序后不久, Angie found herself dealing with mental health and addiction issues that forced her out of the program. “I wasn’t the best person and instead of walking away to take care of myself, 我把自己孤立起来，失败了.” 

安吉搬回家，上了社区大学，但仍然很挣扎. “我厌倦了过去的自己，我想改变.“安吉努力康复，恢复健康. She worked, completely changed her lifestyle and lived at home with her parents.

While standing in the kitchen one day her dad asked the question – what are you going to do with your life? “I remember saying I don’t know what my dreams are, and his response was, ‘you just need to pick one.’”安吉说. 她接受了这个建议，开始考虑她的选择. 

Angie’s experience at the start of her college career made her shy away from health care, 但她知道她想用自己的双手工作, 而不是坐在桌子后面. “I had family in the construction field and an uncle encouraged me to look into being an electrician,”她说。. “I’m a non-conventional person anyway and the construction field was new and exciting to me.”

在意想不到的道路上重新开始

安吉开始在安诺卡技术学院 建筑电工课程 作为为数不多的女性之一. 从第一天起, the faculty went above and beyond to support Angie as a female in the trades. Instructors proactively addressed some of the challenges in workplace culture she may face and set a standard for support among themselves and other students in the program with her. 安吉觉得这有点棘手, 在上课的第一周, 感觉自己和同学们一起融入了课堂. 但, with a simple invitation to join a group of classmates during lunch on campus, 她很快为至今仍持续的友谊奠定了基础.

“I am extremely grateful to all of my classmates for helping give me the college experience that I wanted,”安吉说。. “My instructors and students were there to help support me every step of the way.”

持续支持

安吉开始大步前进. She found a program that challenged her and the support from faculty and friends to consistently show up for herself and the dream she chose to follow. With only a semester left of the program, Angie was faced with a sudden tragedy.

“I was in my second year and the second semester of the program and was in Las Vegas with my friends when I got a call from my mom telling me there’s been a tragedy in the family,”安吉说。. During the call her mom shared that her Dad had been in a snowmobile accident, was missing for a few days and had passed away – that’s all she remembers before going numb to the news and making it home to be with her family. 

This sudden, tragic loss had Angie conflicted on how to move forward with her education. 她怎么能给自己空间和时间去悲伤呢, 照顾好自己的心理健康，实现父亲给她的梦想?  

安吉向她的导师寻求支持和指导. “The faculty encouraged me to take time but also make sure I finished what I started,”安吉说。. 

她就是这么做的. 

“去上课并完成课程让我恢复了正常, 我需要的友爱和欢乐，我自己都不知道. I don’t think everyone at Anoka Tech even realized they were providing me what I needed to push through. 我把我的能力很大程度上归功于老师和学生们.”

毕业生、学徒和梦想家 

安吉完成了这个电竞博彩公司排名，并找到了一份工作 安诺卡技术学院的基础 合伙人，米洛电气，毕业前. 

“I had received a scholarship from Milow my second year and when I knew they were hiring , 安诺卡理工学院的老师鼓励我申请,”安吉说。.

安吉在米洛当了三年学徒, they recognized her strength in customer service and trusted her with a lot more than typically lands on an apprentice. 从第一天起, her team at Milow  treated her as an equal in the field – but being a woman in construction was draining for her. “一直在新的工作场所工作，会有相当一部分人被贬低, 从没有从我的同事那里, 但也有一些不好的经历,”安吉说。. “但 I would never want that to discourage me or other women to go into the field; women need to be represented in the trades.” 

最近, Angie decided to take a break from the construction electrician field and her position with Milow to focus on preparing for her test to become a Journeyman Electrician. 退后一步, 安琪已经能够照顾好自己的心理健康了, 做兼职，和未婚夫一起计划下一个梦想. 

“我未婚夫在空军服役，很快就要退役了. 他多年来一直支持我的梦想，所以我们计划慢慢来, travel and maybe even live somewhere else before we settle down and have a family.”

不管安琪的下一个梦想带她去哪里, 由于在安诺卡科技的经历，她变得更加自信和坚强. “Anoka Tech was a huge part of my life – me going through a huge transition and me getting back to the person that I wanted to be. 我非常感谢这所大学和每一个参与其中的人.”

安诺卡技术学院 exists to serve students and the surrounding community with the finest career and technical education in Minnesota. This mission would not be possible without mutually beneficial partnerships throughout multiple sectors in the community. This story is an excerpt from the 安诺卡技术学院 Community 全球十大博彩公司letter, Issue 4.