Meet Melody
In 2020, Melody started a new job. On her first day of work, the lockdown began. A few months into the job, her manager announced upcoming pandemic-related layoffs for new hires and encouraged them to search alternative options for work. At first, she thought about exploring medical billing and going back to school, but she didn’t want to commit to an expensive training. Then she learned about JVS and EXCEL, our no-cost 5-month Medical Administrative Assistant training program run in partnership with University of California San Francisco (UCSF). When she went to the orientation, she was intimidated by the 200 candidates in the Zoom call, but she applied and eventually got a spot in a cohort of 26. Melody earnestly shared, “During the pandemic, this was the biggest blessing for me.”
Melody always wanted to be in the medical field, but she didn’t quite know how to find her place in it. Through the program, she was able to learn in depth customer service skills that not only helped her with her current patient-focused job, but also supported her in landing a paid internship at UCSF’s Cancer Center – exactly where she wanted to be. Through this internship, she learned something valuable about herself and the work she feels passionately about. She explained, “I realized I have a lot of compassion for our elders. This is my way of giving back; I have my own little way of brightening up their day.”
With this newfound self-understanding, Melody was determined to stay in the Cancer Center after her internship. Melody showed gratitude for JVS, her classmates and her teachers for helping her get to where she wanted to be. In November 2021, she was hired full-time with benefits at UCSF’s Cancer Services Department. Through the EXCEL Program and with JVS’s support, Melody found a role that truly reflects her altruistic character and encourages her to apply that in all that she does.
