Meet Ana: EnGen Learner, Rising Paralegal
Last week, Ana Vegega, a student at Miami Dade College (MDC), completed an online EnGen course that helped her practice English for business meetings. This week, she’s applying those learnings to coordinate calls and conferences as part of her job as a legal assistant at the Florida State’s Attorney office.
“I work full-time and I go to school too – I do EnGen in the evenings, usually after 10pm. It helps me connect with my career field. I’m practicing and seeing my English improving professionally,” she said.
A first-generation college student who grew up in Puerto Rico, Ana is set to complete her paralegal training at Miami Dade in fall 2023, marking the end of a three-year journey that started during COVID-19’s social distancing protocols and lockdowns. She originally planned to pursue a career in retail and worked at a department store until pandemic-related closures sent her home – and put her on a different career pathway.
“I was going to go into [retail] management, was jumping around a bit, but then the pandemic happened,” Ana said. “I was able to re-evaluate my direction. Retail paid my bills, but I wanted to find something that had more meaning in my life.”
Ana found that meaning at the State’s Attorney’s Office, where she has been supporting cases involving victims of accidents and DUI cases. Via a workforce development program at MDC, called EDGE (Empowered Dreams Gain Economic-Mobility), Ana received a full scholarship and career mentorship that put her on a pathway to a paralegal certificate – and gave her access to EnGen to polish her English.
EnGen has partnered with MDC since the fall of 2022, providing its personalized, career-aligned, mobile-first English upskilling platform to supplement in-class instruction. As 36 percent of MDC’s students are and speakers of other languages, EnGen helps programs like EDGE fulfill its mission to provide learners with the career skills – including English – to access pathways in high-demand, high-paying fields in sectors like business, health, and technology. Ana is among the 26,000-plus adult learners who used EnGen nationwide last year; 92 percent reported an increase in English proficiency and 95 percent said they were more confident in using English.
“I like studying grammar – it helps when it comes to writing, especially emails at my job. EnGen has a fun ‘word scramble’ exercise that helps me correct my errors,” Ana said. “I used to speak ‘Spanglish’ at work; learning English has made me a better communicator in Spanish too. There are few Spanish speakers in the legal field, so being bilingual gives me job security.”
Beyond job security, Ana looks forward to making a difference at work. “I like being behind the scenes, building the argument, serving accident victims. Right now, I’m contributing little pieces to cases. But after I finish my certificate, I’ll have more contact with victims and witnesses, get more involved with cases instead of being on the side. I’ll bring bigger pieces to the cases.”
EnGen partners with Fortune 500 companies, regional employers, educational institutions and government agencies to serve tens of thousands of adult English learners like Ana. Learn how it can work for your organization: https://getengen.com/demo