Hi, my name is Linda Hague. I am one of the several hundred people who were laid off from Mervyns Headquarters in October 2008. Since, I had worked there for 30 years, I have a lot of work experience, yet I have been unable to find employment in my profession.
After being laid-off I found myself saying, “Now what am I going to do?” I knew I needed to be retrained in a different profession, because I still had to provide for my family. Knowing I had some training in the medical field, and it is a field I love, I decided to pursue a career in the medical field.
However, the question was which school to go to? For I needed to be able to complete my training in the allotted amount of time that unemployment would pay me for.
After exploring all of my options, I decided on the Hayward Adult School, because I could complete the training in one year. Additionally, they had several career technical programs in the medical field that interested me. After I was approved, through the Workforce Investment Act, for all my tuition and textbooks in March 2009, I started attending Hayward Adult School. On March 11, 2010, I will graduate and receive six career technical certificates in the medical field.
The classes I have taken are all the required medical courses, as well as non-required elective classes; which are Excel, Business Math, Electronic Calculator 1 & 2 and Spanish in the Workplace. To complete all my 19 classes in one year, I took advantage of classes during the day, during the evening and on Saturday’s.
Since all the teachers have an extensive work background in the subjects they teach, they are excellent and very knowledgeable; this makes their instruction very valuable to me.
Because of all my training I do not feel as lost about going and finding employment as I felt a year ago. Indeed, I feel that I am receiving excellent training and knowledge for future employment. I feel that Adult Schools should be kept open for people like me so they can get the retraining needed to be able to go back into the workforce quickly and inexpensively. Thank you.
California Adult Education
Bridges to Success for Over 150 Years
About Me
- Madeline Kronenberg
- Madeline Kronenberg retired in 2010 from the staff at Hayward Adult School after teaching there since 1980 after a successful 15 year career in administrative support serving in the federal government and corporate law firms. Ms. Kronenberg served as the Legal Secretarial Studies Program instructor at Hayward Adult School for over thirty years. During that time she also taught word processing and computer classes. In 1998 she began the Customer Service Certificate program. In 2003 she was awarded the State “Teacher of Excellence Award” by the California Council for Adult Education. Over the years, she has been active in the West Contra Costa Unified School District – where she served in numerous capacities as a parent volunteer – holding several PTA officer and school-wide elected positions at both Portola Middle School and El Cerrito High School from 1991 through 2006. Ms.Kronenberg currently serves on the West Contra Costa Unified School District School Board – elected in 2006 for a four year term. Ms. Kronenberg has five grown children and is married to Berkeley estate planning attorney Hale Kronenberg.