Previous Spotlight on Success Stories
Nicole Brand
Nicole Brand participated in the Resource Room Internship program at the Duluth WorkForce Center from June 2007 to March 2008. The Resource Room Internship program is designed to give students work experience to prepare them for entering the workforce.
Beth Bolander and Jodi Lindsay
Beth Bolander is a customer service specialist intermediate in Rehabilitation Services at the Cambridge Minnesota WorkForce Center. She started out in the Center’s Student Worker Program. Bolander was hired as a permanent employee to work at the WorkForce Center just before Christmas 2007, six months after she began working in the Student Worker Program... more
Stephen Larson
Stephen Larson has been employed by the state of Minnesota for 22 years. He is a regional administrator for the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) with responsibility covering west central and northwest Minnesota... more
Luke Harabor
Luke Harabor is from Iasi, Romania and is deaf. He became deaf at the age of one when he was badly sunburned and received an injection as part of the treatment. He went home with his mother after the treatment. They were talking and all of a sudden he could not hear. Doctors suspected Harabor's hearing loss was caused by the injection... more
Robert Senzig
Robert Senzig is a dishwasher/food prep worker at Grandma Bellisio's Italian restaurant in Duluth, Minnesota where he has worked since May 2006. He has severe anxiety and depression... more
Kathleen Schlener and Sheryl Decker
Interdependence is one of the hallmarks of the disability community. Kathleen Schlener and Sheryl Decker are a great example of how two people with different disabilities can come together to form a unique and successful partnership... more
Yoonis Warsame
Yoonis Warsame is from Somalia. He became partially deaf when he was a child and his deafness worsened at age 15. From the age of seven, Warsame was raised by his grandmother as his birth parents - who had no jobs and no money - left Somalia in order to make a better life. Warsame didn't see his birth parents again for nine years... more
Dayna Wolfe
Dr. Dayna Wolfe is a physician who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation. She has been hard of hearing since birth, has scoliosis, spina bifida, and advanced degenerative joint disease. She wears hearing aids in both ears, and communicates in both English and sign language. She has had several joint reconstructive surgeries, a spinal fusion, and was a wheelchair user for community mobility and sports until 2003, when she became the recipient of a Medtronic spinal neurostimulator implant... more
Francisco Barrientos
"Failure isn't in my vocabulary," says Francisco Barrientos. Barrientos was paralyzed from the waist down in an automobile accident on December 15, 2001. He was driving up to northern Minnesota to see his daughter when he unbuckled his seatbelt to take off a sweater and hit a patch of black ice. His vehicle rolled and he was thrown about 50 yards. His "can do" attitude and seeing his children again got him through after the accident... more
Paul Agre
Paul Agre is 55 years old and in March 2007 faced something many people have faced—the loss of a full-time job. A janitor for 24 years at 3M, Paul, along with the other janitors at 3M, was laid off when the task of cleaning was outsourced... more
Elizabeth Walters
Elizabeth Walters works as a vocational rehabilitation technician at the Minneapolis WorkForce Center where she provides support services to Rehabilitation Services’ counselors who assist people with disabilities to find jobs...more