With her manufacturing job gone, Karren Firisch turns to social work for a new future

Karren Firisch

April 28, 2009  - Four years ago Karren Firisch faced a future that was anything but certain.

Karren Firisch had worked for 13 years at Visteon, a company that makes parts for Ford Motor Co. But in March of 2005, she was laid off and the income from her $22 an hour job was gone.

The move didn’t come as a total surprise. Workers knew the plant was being closed and its jobs sent overseas. Two days after she walked out of the plant for good though, her father died and she flew home to New York to bury her father and help her mother.

When she returned to her home in Connersville, Karren had to face what she would do next.

 Karren had done some research prior to being laid off and knew she was eligible for Trade Adjustment Act benefits because her job had gone overseas. The benefits would pay for at least two years of college among other things.

Still, she had been out of school for some 30 years. “What do I do and where do I start,” she wondered. With the help of people at WorkOne unemployment office, she began looking at social work as a possibility.

“I like people,” Karren said of her decision to apply to the School of Social Work at IUE. “I just thought this is the area I want to be in. “I had quite a bit of things that went on in my life and I thought I want to help people, this is where I give back.”

Among the things Karren had to contend with was the unexpected death of her husband about a year and a half after she was laid-off. To help make ends meet, Karren works as a waitress making $3 an hour.

“I thought it was a good area to get into,” Karren added. Karren is now approaching 50, but realized that she still has time to “put in some good years and give back to the community and age didn’t make a difference.”

Figuring out her future was more than just finding another job. Karren had a young daughter at home and as much as anything she wanted to serve as a role model to her, to show that when things get tough, you don’t give up. “She was my inspiration,” Karren acknowledged.

Karren went to IUE, thinking she could take some prerequisite courses and see how she did. The encouragement she received from Dr. Edward Fitzgerald, the program director at the School of Social Work at IUE, Sheila Armstead, an assistant professor of social work, as well as family members and good friends, kept her going.

Her benefits paid for the first two years of college and then Karren turned to grants and other programs to help pay the rest. The key was being proactive and calling everywhere she could think of to find out what monies might be available to help cover her education costs, she noted. Karren even found money to help cover the cost of gasoline for the trip from her Connersville home to Richmond.

Karren’s efforts paid off.

She has maintained a 3.7 grade average in college and has made the National Honors Society.

After graduating in May, Karren believes she will be able to remain in Connersville – one of the things she hoped she would be able to do. She has job prospects at the Community on Aging Area Nine Office and at the WorkforceOne office, as well.

She would eventually like to work on policy issues, but is willing to start in any position that is available.

“I have something that I can be proud of and be able to give back and help someone,” she said of her degree. “If I can just help one person have a better meal, better health care, better prescription coverage, then I’ve accomplished everything I put my mind to.”

“I already feel like a success,” Karren said. Two of her children are in college now, one studying to become a nurse and the other is interested in social work. An older daughter is a nurse and her son has finished his emergency medical training.

Looking back, Karren said she had no way to know when she lost her job how good she would feel about her future today. “I was scared to death,” she said of her frame of mind back in 2005.

Now, she tries to encourage others not to be afraid of the future. “I know the first step can be scary,” Karren said. But now she has learned people can overcome challenges.

Her advice to others? “Don’t give up. You are going to meet challenges all your life,” Karren noted. “Tomorrow is a new day.”