A wealth of individuals of all ages, backgrounds and ethnicities come to Wellspring ready to invest in their own abilities and achieve long-term financial security through stable housing and Wellspring’s life-changing education and job-training programs. Born in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Mirian came to the United States in 2018 to find new opportunities for employment and success, and to secure a better future for herself and her family. 

Mirian moved to Gloucester, Massachusetts with her husband and most of their family in 2019. Seeking to improve her ability to understand conversational English, Mirian enrolled in Wellspring’s highly popular English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program.  

 For nearly four years, Mirian worked alongside her teachers and classmates to improve her written and spoken English. Mirian says the holistic support she received from HOST instructors and the encouragement from peers made all the difference in her success:

“I thank God for finding Wellspring and my English teacher, Tabitha. [In the beginning,] I didn’t speak much English. She helped me and always encouraged me a lot.” 

Like so many Wellspring program participants, Mirian has a robust education and impressive professional background. In Brazil, she trained and worked as a nurse technician in several hospitals. She just needed a little encouragement and support to access career opportunities here in the U.S. At the beginning of 2023, she pursued an opportunity to enroll in Wellspring’s Healthcare Office Support Training (HOST) job-training program, also known as MediClerk.  

 Mirian worked very hard to meet all of the requirements for the HOST program.  During her training, which is offered in both full-time and part-time sessions every year to accommodate a wide variety of students’ needs and schedules, Mirian completed 450-hours of specialized coursework and workplace-based experiences before her graduation in June 2023.

Like many HOST graduates, Mirian quickly found employment as a Patient Services Representative (PSR) with Beth Israel Lahey Health Primary Care at Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester. The Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH) network is a longtime Wellspring partner and one of several North Shore employers where more than 85% of HOST/MediClerk Program graduates secure new healthcare roles in six months or less. Thanks to a robust internship component, many HOST trainees have jobs in place before graduation. 

As a new PSR, Mirian plays a critical role in patient communications and is responsible for answering phones, scheduling appointments in both Portuguese and English, faxing and scanning information into patient charts, providing office support, and more. In her new role, she is finding fulfillment while contributing to a field she knows and loves.