By Linda Lutton
“When I just hear ‘network cabling’ and ‘fiber optics’ I think ‘good career,’ something I’m proud to say I do,” says Antoinette Merridith, an Ickes resident who had interviews lined up just days after she received her certificate for completing the course and is currently waiting to hear about a job at Ameritech. “Every time I speak to somebody and tell them about it, they’re like, ‘Fiber optics? Girl, you’re gonna be making money.’” Merridith, who just turned 24, dropped out of Dunbar High School eight years ago when she got pregnant with her first child. This is the first school experience she’s had since then, with the exception of a GED class she dropped after a month. She now has three children and is expecting a fourth.
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“I think that this is a testimony to all of those people out there who don’t believe that people in public housing can do whatever they want to do–they just need the opportunity,” said Pat Tucker, a vice president at Lakefront SRO. “Our phones are ringing off the hook.” She says groups from around the country are calling to find out how to set up their own classes. Tucker traveled to a conference in Baltimore last week to talk about this initiative.
For Merridith, who should soon hear from Ameritech about whether she’s been hired, the idea that she now has a skill that can earn her two to three times minimum wage hasn’t completely sunk in. “I actually still can’t believe I finished that class,” she says. “I would get down sometimes and doubt myself, but the people at the trailers wouldn’t let me. Once I got in the class and I started to get it and I seen that I was doing good and my instructor was like, ‘I’m very proud of you…’ When the instructor was telling me that, it’s like, ‘Oh, girl, you’re doing good! Ain’t nothing you can’t do!’
