Hope Shurba

Hope Shurba, a 38-year-old mother of three, graduated this year from Per Scholas North Carolina’s IT Support course.

When Hope had been in high school, her Father was diagnosed with cancer and she made the difficult decision to drop out of school to work full-time and take care of him. This resulted in Hope not graduating from high school, and she worked in food service and retail for the next 20 years.

In 2021, Hope made the powerful decision to return and earn her high school diploma! After receiving the diploma, she knew that she wanted a career change, although she wasn’t quite sure yet what she wanted to do.

During this time, Hope came across an advertisement for Per Scholas and it struck her interest. She had no real technical experience, but she knew that working in tech could grant her a stable, well-paying career. “Technology is one of those things that’s always evolving,” Hope reflected. “It’s always going to be around and there’s always going to be a need for people in tech…I wanted to find a new career that I knew would stay around, not something that could be snatched out from beneath me.”

The fact that Per Scholas’ courses were free also appealed to Hope, who felt that an alternative would not be possible for her at the time. “I was 38 years of age when I started this course,” she recalled. “I’ve got my kids and bills and expenses and things. Looking at having to pay to attend a course for 2-4 years wasn’t really feasible for me. Three months, for me, was doable, and the fact that there was no cost…I was able to obtain a certification and go into the [tech] industry, making double what my salary was.”

Hope really enjoyed her time in the course. She hit it off with her classmates, who all became good friends. Hope loved her instructors and found the professional development portion of the course to be extremely helpful. “All of the instructors were great,” she recalled. “I especially loved the professional development part of the course because, before then, I had never filled out a resume. That helped a lot to get us prepared for that…They taught us to recognize our own skills. For them to be able to pump that much information into everyone in 3 months, was incredible. The support was great.”

After being out of school for 20 years, the technical coursework was a bit of an adjustment for Hope, but she persevered and did very well in the course, graduating with her CompTIA A+ certification. “I think that anyone can do this course,” Hope said. “As long as you are dedicated and willing to put in the work, and you’re able to study – if you put as much time into Per Scholas as they put into you, then you will succeed.” 

Since graduating, Hope has landed a job as an Associate Technology Support Technician at Lowe’s Companies, Inc. She is planning to start working on her Network+ certification and would like to get into cybersecurity. 

“I think that companies need to broaden their horizons a bit and realize that there is hidden talent out there,” Hope said of alternatively skilled technologists. “A person who obtained a certification from a bootcamp is just as capable of doing a job as someone who has a degree.”