Enjoli Watkins
Life Changing Program Sets Young Woman Back on the Right Track
Mobile CareerLink for Youth Program sponsored by Mobile Works
(Youth Internship On-the-Job Training)
Enjoli Watkins, 17, is a young woman who had lost her way—she was not succeeding in high school and dropped out. She enrolled in the Mobile CareerLink for Youth program implemented by the South Alabama Skills Training Consortia and found her direction again, with a vengeance. Not only did Watkins meet or exceed all CareerLink objectives and in obtaining her GED, all while dealing with issues at home, but she found drive and ambition in herself that she didn’t know she had.
Watkins says, “The program opened my eyes and I decided that I had to get serious if I was going to have a future, so I did. I had played around somewhat previously and got on the wrong track, but I have to thank Mr. Mike Davis, Ms. Gloria Hill and Ms. Sheila Jones of the CareerLink program because they showed me the real world I would be facing without my high school degree and it wasn’t pretty. And, I’m so grateful to Mobile Works for investing in this program because it gave me the confidence to go above and beyond getting my GED and inspired me to go to college.”
Watkins has been working in the Mobile Works On-the-Job Training Internship program at the Subway Sandwiches on Wilson Avenue as a food preparer and server for nearly six months now. She has impressed management and other staff there with her professional attitude, teamwork and insightful decision-making. When Watkins first started with Subway, she was soon only one of two employees remaining on staff after the dismissal of all employees, except for Watkins and another student in the internship program.
Watkins bonded with the new hires, trained them and helped them succeed by learning the ropes quickly. Her supervisor, Avain Steele, says, “Enjoli is my right-hand girl. She is very mature and goal-directed and is just eager to do whatever it takes to get the job done right—she’s a model employee. I’m teaching her how to be a manager and she is so easy to teach because she wants to excel.”
Watkins is excited about working for Subway because it’s an opportunity to help support her goal to stay in school and because she really likes the company culture and the atmosphere. She also believes in eating healthy and says that is what Subway is all about. Says Watkins, “Subway has benefited by hiring me too, but I am getting as much or even more than I’m giving and that is why I work so hard.” She wants to work for Subway all through school and work her way up to become a store manager and believes she is on track for that now. She will be getting her key soon to open and close the store. And she just moved to night shift to accommodate her school schedule.
Watkins is also pursuing an Associate’s degree in nursing at Bishop State Community College. Her goal is to be a pediatric nurse specializing in obstetrics so that she can help bring new babies into the world. Watkins says she finds the entire birthing process “an amazing miracle” and she wants to be part of it. Meanwhile, she intends to work her way up to being a top manager at Subway to help fund her dreams.
Enjoli Watkins attributes her increased confidence and the opportunity to discover her drive and ambition to succeed to the Mobile Works investment in the CareerLink program and the mentoring she received there. Says Watkins, “It changed my entire life.” She has advice to other young people like herself too, saying “Believe in you at all times. Believe you can and you will.”
At Mobile Works, we believe Enjoli Watkins will. That’s why we invested in her and other young people like her through the Mobile CareerLink for Youth program, giving them a chance to get back on track.