{"id":782897,"date":"2026-06-03T21:01:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goodwill.org\/?p=782897"},"modified":"2026-06-03T21:01:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:01:28","slug":"my-goodwill-story-alexis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodwill.org\/blog\/impact-spotlight\/my-goodwill-story-alexis\/","title":{"rendered":"My Goodwill Story – Alexis"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Alexis, life has always been about adapting.\u00a0Problems arise;\u00a0things change, but she has always been able to find a new path forward.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her professional journey started as a paraprofessional\u00a0in Florida.\u00a0She loved\u00a0being around students, getting to see their lives change and sharing her knowledge.\u00a0Eventually, Alexis transitioned into food service management,\u00a0where she said she continued to teach, but\u00a0to\u00a0professionals instead of students.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2018, Hurricane Michael hit and Alexis\u00a0was\u00a0forced to rebuild her life. She moved to Minneapolis but later had to return to Florida briefly to care for her mother.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, Alexis decided\u00a0to return to Florida permanently.\u00a0However, she\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0sure\u00a0where to\u00a0start with\u00a0her new career.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0when she came to the Goodwill Big Bend (Tallahassee, FL) Career Resource Center.\u00a0Through the Goodwill Opportunity Accelerator\u00ae, the team at Goodwill\u00ae\u00a0walked Alexis through what was possible, which skills she wanted to\u00a0lean into\u00a0and what she still wanted to learn.\u00a0With support and encouragement from the\u00a0team at Goodwill, Alexis enrolled in the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program that Goodwill Big Bend offered.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI was surrounded by people who cared about my success, and the blessings just kept flowing,\u201d she said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After successfully completing the program, an unexpected opportunity\u00a0emerged. An instructor position\u00a0opened up\u00a0in the Hospitality Occupational Skills Training Program at Goodwill Big Bend. Given\u00a0her experience teaching, working in food service management and her time in the Goodwill educational program, Alexis was a great fit. Her Goodwill career coach encouraged her to apply and\u00a0advocated\u00a0strongly on her behalf.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It paid off and Alexis landed her new role with Goodwill.\u00a0From education, to management, to rebuilding after personal loss and natural disaster, her story is one of resilience,\u00a0reinvention\u00a0and the power of community support.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Through perseverance and the guidance of caring professionals at Goodwill Big Bend, Alexis has transformed a season of uncertainty into a meaningful new career \u2014 one that now allows her to inspire and equip others for success.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you know someone who would\u00a0benefit\u00a0from free career support services,\u00a0connect with\u00a0your local\u00a0<\/span>Goodwill career center<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Alexis, life has always been about adapting.\u00a0Problems arise;\u00a0things change, but she has always been able to find a new path forward.\u00a0\u00a0 Her professional journey started as a paraprofessional\u00a0in Florida.\u00a0She loved\u00a0being around students, getting to see their lives change and sharing her knowledge.\u00a0Eventually, Alexis transitioned into food service management,\u00a0where she said she continued to teach, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":782898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-782897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-impact-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodwill.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodwill.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodwill.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodwill.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodwill.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodwill.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":782899,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodwill.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782897\/revisions\/782899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodwill.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodwill.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodwill.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodwill.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}