Medford Wellington apprentice electrician Cheslie Sanon came to the U.S. from Haiti when she was 10 years old. “Since then, I’ve done everything I can to work hard and have a positive attitude.” You don’t need to talk to her for long to realize that those two traits are in her DNA.
“When I got out of high school, college wasn’t an option. I had to work.” And that’s exactly what Cheslie did. She’s been on her own since she was 17, first working as a home health aid.
After six years, she watched her cousin get into HVAC and decided to become an electrician. She found a job and enrolled in school to support herself and begin to accumulate the 8,000 hands-on hours and 600 classroom hours needed to sit for the journeyperson test, which she hopes to do this fall.
Cheslie says “you have to want it, and have patience and dedication.” She’s certainly lived up to that. For years, she went to work in the morning and had class at night. Her Mondays through Thursdays started at 6:15 am and went until 10:55 pm.
Now she’s enjoying her work at Medford Wellington. “It’s the best company I’ve ever worked for,” Cheslie says. “They acknowledge your work and give you the opportunity to grow.
She is certainly taking advantage of that opportunity, and it has built her confidence. “There’s nothing I put my mind to that I can’t learn,” Cheslie says. And she has a track record to prove it.