Just two weeks after her 17th birthday, Celeste wanted to push outside her comfort zone by becoming a mechanic in the U.S. Army Reserves. It was something she had never done before, but that didn’t stop her from successfully serving for six years. As she approached the end of her service, Celeste was working a series of jobs that did not align with what she had envisioned for her life. While working as a security guard for a hospital, a friendly conversation changed her life. Celeste had shared that she wanted to pursue a role in tech, but the education required was too expensive. The stranger introduced her to NPower and encouraged her to apply.

Celeste put in the hard work and time necessary to successfully complete the NPower program, enduring two-hour commutes and working around her class schedule. She applied the same courage and grit she had mustered years before when joining the Reserves.

“Sacrifice—It’s just a little bit of time, in the long run it will be better. Just because it doesn’t come easy, doesn’t mean that it’s not possible.”

After successfully completing the program, Celeste achieved her dream of working in robotics. She launched her tech career as a Robot Operator for the Everyday Robots Project at Virtusa, a Google Cloud Partner, and then as a Robot Wrangler with FS Studio, a leading product innovation and R&D technology group. Since joining NPower, Celeste has increased her earning potential by over 80%.

“I definitely learned a lot about networking, I had to work at it but now see it can open doors you don’t even realize are there.”