Woman answered the call with a vocational training class
Posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/rhtn/News/4072/
For years Elizabeth Schaeuffler measured her success by the amount of money she had in the bank. She loved her job, but there was something missing in her life. It became more apparent as she neared the age where early retirement became a possibility.
Because her job was her life, the thought of no longer going to work every day was upsetting. She found herself facing anxiety attacks and sleep problems. Something was wrong in her life and she knew it needed to be repaired.
Schaeuffler, who was then living in New Orleans, had always been a volunteer. She worked at a state-funded jobtraining center: For a while that seemed like enough. But then she started visualizing what she described as the most important meeting of her life — when she had to answer to God about what she had done with the life He gave her.
“ I knew how to prepare for a professional meeting, but not for that most important meeting, ” she said.
Meanwhile she decided to move to northwest Arkansas after years of traveling here for her job. One of the first things she did in her new hometown was look for a center that needed her volunteer skills. She called several adult-education centers to volunteer her skills as a trainer. She was surprised when they didn’t seem interested. Now she knows that there was a reason why she couldn’t connect with a new volunteer position. God had other plans for her, she explained.
Because the established centers didn’t need her help, she decided to start her own center. She bought three laptop computers, believing that helping three people would be enough. It wasn’t.
It was when she was in bed with a migraine headache that she realized she had to do more.
“ It was like someone was telling me, ‘ I expect more from you. You can do better than this, ’” she said. “ Then a shower of ideas started coming down. ”
In spite of the migraine, she got up and went to her computer. By 3 a. m. she had hammered out a business plan with specific objectives.
“ I was amazed to see the scope of the project, ” she report ed, “ and I knew I couldn’t do it alone. But I wasn’t alone. ” She knew that she had God on her side.
She took her proposal to church and asked to see Monsignor David LeSieur, the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church. With his approval she went to work contacting businesses to see exactly what skills they valued in an employee. As she went about writing lesson plans and purchasing the materials she needed, including another eight laptops, she found the instructors she needed to help teach her classes: A church volunteer who helped her carry in the computers one day will teach Quickbooks; her supervisor at Nestle’s volunteered to teach Excel. The course will also cover Word, PowerPoint and Publisher, all the programs local business people said a good employee might need.
She advertised the classes in the church bulletin and put up posters in the lobby. Then she sat back and waited for students.
They didn’t appear.
Although she was disappointed, she prayed for patience and waited as students slowly signed up. Although she had hoped to fill her class with high school graduates who are fluent in English, she accepted a few students who didn’t meet those qualifications. Next time, she said, she’ll start with a basic keyboarding and computer vocabulary class before the regular session begins.
The class costs $ 100, and part of that money is donated to the church and to a mission the church supports in Haiti. She keeps 60 percent to help with ongoing expenses of the program, including a graduation dinner she’s planning when the first session is over.
Although she accepts some students who are paying in installments, she doesn’t offer scholarships to take the class. She wants her students to be accountable.
“ They need to know nothing is free, ” she said.
The class meets on Saturday mornings and Tuesday evenings at the church and will cover all five programs in about six months, Schaeuffler said.
Each session begins with a prayer; Schaeuffler is working on a plan to bring a motivational speaker to each meeting. After all, people who are trying to change their lives need all the motivation they can get, she explained.
Although many of her current students are Hispanic, the class is open to anyone.
“ She’s our pride and joy, ” Betsy McNeil, St. Vincent’s director of stewardship, said about Schaeuffler, the leader on the church stewardship team.
But Schaeuffler isn’t finished. She has many ideas for expanding her program. It might help juvenile offenders. She could get kids addicted to computers rather than drugs. It might be helpful in a women’s prison where people need to learn some job skills. Or she might open “ branches” in Springdale and Fayetteville.
There’s a world of possibilities out there. As soon as she hears from God what her next step will be, she’s ready to jump in and take it.