Offerings at National College in Liberty appeal to Valley students

LIBERTY — Displaced worker Ruth Wiesensee believes that a one-year medical specialist diploma program offered by National College is her ticket back as a productive member of the local work force.

Wiesensee, 39, of Youngstown, was the manager of a dollar store on Elm Road when it closed three years ago, leaving her unemployed.

She’s had a number of odd jobs since then. “But they don’t pay the bills,” she said.

When she learned that National College was opening a campus in the Mahoning Valley, she decided to see what it had to offer and enrolled with the first class in September.

Her plan is to get her program diploma, get a job in a medical office and then, down the road, go back to school to continue her education in a medical field.

Wiesensee said she chose National because it is close to home, brand new and about the only college she found to offer a one-year program “to get you going in that field.”

Wiesensee may be typical of the target market National saw when it chose to open a campus at 3487 Belmont Avenue.

There is job availability here that provides opportunities for graduates, said Gregory J. Shields, National’s regional director of operations for Ohio and Indiana. National, founded in 1886 and based in Virginia, has 24 campuses in five states, including five locations in Ohio.

National saw the need for a career college here to provide training for those jobs, Shields said.

The college makes it easy for students to enroll, offering eight separate term starts each year, where traditional colleges offer just two, said Patrice F. Cizmar, campus director.

It also offers day and evening classes.

The college helps students learn the substantive information and the behaviors they need in the work force, Cizmar said.

It’s filling the niche of a community college, which the Mahoning Valley doesn’t have at this time, she said.

The campus has exceeded its initial enrollment projections, she said, noting there are 162 students now and 94 more starting in December.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com