Jack McDuffie, Special to the Journal

Former JobLink client Lisa McLean is singing the praises of the program these days. She says the help she received was an important reason she was able to realize her dream, to graduate from a registered nursing program.

“I had wanted to become a (registered) nurse for a long time,” said McLean, in a recent interview. “But I had to work to earn a living. There was simply no way I could go to nursing school and work full-time at the same time.”

But what at the time seemed an unfortunate turn in her life proved to be the catalyst that enabled her to pursue her dream.

After graduating from Bladenboro High School in 1983, McLean says she had no choice but to seek full-time employment to support herself. She initially worked at the convenience store she’d worked at part-time during high school.

Three years later she found a full-time secretarial position at the Whiteville plant of Flowline Corporation, a pipefitting company. During the ensuing 19 years she attended a number of classes at Bladen Community College but was unable to attend full-time.

A slowdown in business at Flowline forced McLean to look at the possibility that the industry would close and that she would be out of work. So she decided to attend cosmetology training at BCC as a backup. She completed the program but the company did not close.

“In fact, they stayed in business nearly 15 more years before foreign competition forced them to close in 2005,” she explained.

In the years preceding the closure of the plant, she had been taking prerequisite courses that she would need if she were able to get into a nursing program.

When the Flowline plant closed McLean became eligible for Trade Readjustment Act (TRA) retraining benefits. She was instructed by the Employment Security Commission office to contact the JobLink office at

Bladen Community College to check into what benefits might be available to her.

“I learned from Gloria (Purdie) that I could qualify for several forms of assistance, all of which could help me with the many expenses that come with attending nursing school,” she explained. “So when I applied with JobLink, my intent was to follow through with my dream and go to nursing school.”

By the time she’d lost her job, it was too late to apply for nursing school that year. So she attended classes at BCC taking other prerequisite courses until the summer of 2006.

Earlier in 2006 she had applied for nursing school at BCC and at Southeastern Community College. She was accepted into the program at Southeastern and began classes in the fall of that year.

In May 2008, she graduated from the program and took the State Board Examination on June 3. She has already found employment at Columbus Regional Hospital.

She says the help JobLink provided while she was in nursing school to help pay for transportation, tuition, books, uniforms and supplies was a primary reason she was able to complete the program.

McLean and her 12-year-old daughter make their home in Bladenboro.