As Yuhsien Wu-Riggs walked up to receive her Licensed Nursing Assistant certification, she raised the roof with a grin on her face.

Born and raised in Taiwan, Wu-Riggs graduated from Second Start’s first cohort of the LNA for New Americans program. Beginning in January, seven female students born in an array of different countries, learned medical terminology in English for six-weeks, completed 60 hours of online theory and hands-on laboratory experience and 60 hours of clinical experience.

Second Start began offering adult educational programs in 1971. More than 50 years later, the non-profit has expanded to offer more than a dozen programs directed towards adults, teens and children. The LNA program is a partnership between Second Start, New Hampshire Technical Institute and Southern New Hampshire Services.

“Joining the LNA program at Second Start has been one of most meaningful experiences of my life,” said Wu-Riggs. “At first, I was nervous, but I reminded myself to stay strong and never give up.”

Wu-Riggs first came to New Hampshire in 2018 to visit a friend. While she was here, she fell in love, got married and stayed. In 2019, she began her journey at Second Start, joining the New American Driving School, to get her license. From there, she branched out at the organization by taking ESOL classes and began the LNA program this year.

As a speaker of “two and a half ” languages: Taiwanese, Mandarin and “some” English, learning the medical terminology was difficult, since it’s Latin-based. Despite this challenge, Wu-Riggs powered through. She said she was inspired to pursue a career in healthcare after her father passed away last year in hospice care.

“They need a lot of care in hospice and you need help with the machines, the oxygen, the IV, everything. My dream is to one day start my own business in healthcare, such as home care, where I can bring comfort and support to people who need it most,” said Wu-Riggs. “This is just a beginning and I’m excited for what comes next.”

Lilian Gomez, another graduate of the program, was eager to get started as a nurse assistant.

“Where I come from, we have a lot of lack in the healthcare area,” said Gomez, who hails from Colombia. “So, I had that inclination for wanting to know more about healthcare and also learn how to provide and teach other people and teach the community, how to be part of healthcare too.”

She recently moved to Concord from South Carolina, where she worked in the healthcare field and realized she had a passion for it.

“I loved it and I felt like I needed more of it and I had already had that inclination for serving people,” said Gomez. “So LNA was a good opportunity for me.”

Gomez began at Second Start by taking their advanced English classes. When the schedule no longer worked for her, her teacher told her about the LNA program and she enrolled.

“I was expecting that I would gain a lot of knowledge,” said Gomez. “But I didn’t expect that I would have so much support from this program.”

LNA students were paired with community tutors – many of whom were retired physicians, nurses and professionals – to aid in their absorption of the content and the associated medical terminology.

“There’s such a need for LNA’s right now,” said Zanna Blaney, the director of Adult Education and Literacy at Second Start. “Now they have access for growth in their career and their lives, and we as citizens are only going to benefit from them having this degree.”

Yaa Bame can be reached at ybame@cmonitor.com