Tia Lewis came to Goodwill’s North Texas Institute for Career Development (NTI) during the height of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. A stay-at-home mother of four and a hairstylist for more than 20 years, Tia found herself caring for and teaching her children while worrying about the alarming rate salons and other organizations were going out of business. Money was tight and Tia’s family was barely surviving on one income, so traditional school was deemed impossible for the foreseeable future.
With a goal of providing stability for her family, Tia decided to change careers. She knew that the medical industry was growing by leaps and bounds due to the current situation, and not just in a clinical aspect. The administrative side of the medical industry was growing at an equal pace and inspired Tia to act on her new career objectives. While at home one afternoon with the kids doing schoolwork, Tia came across an advertisement for Goodwill’s virtual programs in the medical industry. Tia enrolled in NTI’s Medical Front Office Assistant Program in the summer of 2020. During the enrollment process, she was paired with NTI staff who prepared her to renter the workforce in a brand-new industry with job readiness services through Goodwill’s partnership with Indeed. Tia successfully completed the program and earned an industry-recognized certification at the end of 2020. Recognizing the need to be as competitive as possible to enter the medical industry field, Tia enrolled in NTI’s Medical Billing and Coding virtual program and earned another industry-recognized certification in February 2021.
Today, Tia works for Medical City Alliance Hospital in Fort Worth as a Patient Access Services Registrar where she registers all incoming Emergency Room patients by gathering basic demographic information, verifying insurance and collecting co-pays/coinsurance payments for their visit. As a registrar, Tia strives to provide the best customer service to all she encounters during their visit at Medical City.
Regarding NTI’s virtual training programs, Tia said “the programs definitely taught me discipline as far as my studies were concerned, something my children were having a hard time with while doing their own schoolwork. We were not in a typical school environment, so we all had to learn the best ways for us to complete our work. For me there were a lot of late nights and early mornings while kids were still sleeping to do my studies, but I can say as rough as it seemed going through it all, I wouldn’t change any of it.”
For Tia, Goodwill’s NTI programs provided her the tools and skills necessary to open many doors for the future for herself and family. As a patient registrar using skills learned from both virtual training courses, Tia has been able to save for her goal of owning a new home in 2022. Tia is thankful for the programs that Goodwill North Central Texas offers because they provided her the stepping stones to a greater future.