Going for a quick job fix wasn't an option for Leon Williams even though he said that he feels the pride and pressure of being a husband and a father of four, including two in college.
Williams, 38, is more than halfway through a four-year associate's degree in nuclear medicine at Forsyth Technical Community College. The college selects about 12 students a year for the program, which is one of its most highly sought degrees.
Williams hasn't had a full-time job since July 2003. PPG Industries Inc. eliminated his position as a safety facilitator as part of a decision to send production from its Lexington plant to China.
"It's been tough going through specialty training for a job that's going to start off paying less than I was making before," Williams said. He said he had worked his way up to $47,000 a year at PPG with only a high-school diploma.
"But I didn't want a Band-Aid job. I didn't want to be killing myself working in a cycle of low-paying jobs," Williams said.
That could have included an entry-level job at PPG, offered to Williams early in his return to the classroom.
"I called the people at the (Lexington) Employment Security Commission office and asked them if it would look bad on my part to turn down a job offer," Williams said. "They said that it was more important for me to finish the educational commitment I had started.
"That ended up being some good advice because some of the people who went back have been laid off again."
Williams said he has been receiving about $460 a week in tuition and unemployment benefits since January 2004 through the U.S. Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, which provides assistance to workers whose jobs were eliminated because of foreign trade.
The unemployment benefits, however, will run out in June. That means he will have to begin juggling at least a part-time job just as he starts the most challenging courses of the degree program.
"It's been tough, and it's going to get tougher before it gets easier," Williams said. "We've had to be creative with a lot of meals. We've been fortunate to have family and friends help out, whether paying for a flute or sending money to one of our college girls.
"But nothing's been as tough as the devastating feeling of being let go from a job you'd worked hard to get and lost for no reason of your own."
Williams said that pursuing a job in nuclear medicine represents the fulfillment of a dream of working in the health-care industry.
"This is cutting-edge technology," Williams said. "I know there will be some long days in this job. But at the end of some of them, I'll be able to say my work may have helped save someone's life."
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