48 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JULY 2021
CONTINUING EDUCATION
WORKERS RETRAIN
POSTPANDEMIC CAREER CHANGES
BY NICOLE FORMISANO
The coronavirus forced many workers
to change careers or learn new skills,
often with the help of local continuing
education programs.
Many colleges are seeing this shift in
attitude reflected in their enrollment
numbers. Some have noticed a particular
uptick in service-oriented educational
programs such as healthcare.
Because these areas were hit so hard by
the pandemic, one might expect their
popularity to fall in response. Instead,
people are flocking to enroll in these
programs more than ever.
“Any time there’s a life-changing
situation, people tend to re-evaluate
their goals,” says Marguerite Lane,
assistant vice president of enrollment
management for Molloy College. “We
saw that in the 2008 recession, and to
a greater extent now with the pandemic.
People are now taking the time to
pursue their passions. People want
to make a difference, instead of just
having a job.”
Such is the case with Brahashitha Gupta,
director of the A. Holly Patterson
Extended Care Facility Indian / Asian
Unit in Uniondale. She used quarantine
as an opportunity for reflection, and in
that reflection, found purpose.
“Covid gave me a lot of time to think
and reassess,” she says. “At the end of
the day, you need to make sure you
are fulfilling something that gives you
happiness.”
For Gupta, happiness involves a life of
service.
“Senior citizens are such a vulnerable
population,” she says. “They are left
out. I wanted to do something more for
them. That’s why I pursued this Community
Health Worker program at Nassau
Community College.”
Community health workers serve
as a liaison/link/intermediary between
health/social services and the
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Many people went into healthcare after
Covid-19 hit. (Getty Images)
community.
Even though some consider a remote
learning format to be an obstacle, Gupta
explains that it can actually be much
more compatible with their already
busy adult lives.
“You have more time, save money on
gas, there’s less hustle-bustle energy
where you’re always on the go,”
she says of online schooling. “If the
remote learning option wasn’t available,
I wouldn’t have even chosen to
go back and study. It gave me more
time with my family, and of course
the cooking and cleaning. At the end
of the day, I had more time on my
hands.”
Covid-19 brought terrible losses.
However, it also brought us this novel
opportunity to reevaluate ourselves
and our situations. In the months
of quietude in 2020, people were
forced to reckon with their goals and
desires. For many, this started a road
of self-improvement, the destination
of which was often education.
As Lane said, “Education is never just
about doing better in your career or
making more money. Education is
always about learning and growing
as a person. And I think that when
people self-reflect and want to do
something for themselves, they take
the opportunity in education.”
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