Meet Ussiel
Carpenter at Hayes Handcrafted Woodwork
Ussiel Rubio is a Carpenter at Hayes Handcrafted Woodwork.
When Ussiel, a construction worker and father of three got COVID-19 for a month, it later left him with sharp pains shooting down his leg. He couldn’t work for a long time, and the emergency room visits and medical bills piled up. He found Career Forward, which provides scholarships and other support to people who lost their jobs because of COVID-19.
Alongside his full-time job at Hayes Handcrafted Woodwork, Ussiel is taking classes like construction management estimating and management and soon — kitchen and bathroom design. All will yield certificates that can go toward an associate’s degree.
“Something changed in my mind. I had a click, why not go back to school? I’m almost 40, but it’s never too late, and the time will pass anyways if you take action or not and I decided to take action,”
Arapahoe Community College Partnered with the COSI Back To Work Grant, and Career Forward is focused on supporting adult-learners with COVID related impacts around job or income loss. These participants must have a COVID impact and the motivation to complete their ACC Studies before the grant cycle ends. As the Navigator, I support community members through enrollment, registration, academic support through matriculation of success at ACC.