is leading by example.

What do you do when you have nothing?

A year ago, I found myself homeless with my daughters.

The whole shelter experience

for the kids

I kept telling them that we were just on vacation

and waiting for the house to be ready.

That's the worst thing I ever had to do.

I grew up in the housing projects in East Nashville.

So, nobody ever talked about career paths.

I didn't know what to do or where to go

but I kept saying

they are watching how you handle this.

You have a serious example to set for these girls.

Most people think that Goodwill is just a retail store

but it's so much more than that.

While I was living at the shelter

I found out that Goodwill and Google

actually have a program to provide IT training.

The program is called the IT Support Professional Certificate.

When I learned that I could get a scholarship through Goodwill

it was life changing.

Chelsea is the kind of person

Goodwill was designed to support.

That's why, thanks to the assistance of Google.org,

we started the Goodwill Digital Career Accelerator.

Using tools and resources from Grow with Google

the Goodwill Digital Career Accelerator

is focused on connecting more than a million people

with the skills they need to advance in digital careers.

The Google IT Support Professional Certificate

was a great building block for this.

I joined the four a.m. club.

I would get up while the girls were asleep

do my school work.

While I was studying

I learned that a Google representative

was going to come and give a Tech Talk at Goodwill.

I had to go.

Chelsea really stood out when I met her at the Goodwill event.

so I asked her to send me a resume.

During the interview process, Chelsea demonstrated

not only the foundational technical knowledge that she developed

but her initiative.

And that's exactly what we need for people who are working in our data centers.

So we brought her on board.

I absolutely love my job.

When I first got the job

my daughter, she was like, "Mom,

you got this job!

That means we'll have a house—forever!"

The future of work is now and it requires digital skills.

In the year that we've been working with Google.org

we've seen more than a quarter of a million people build their digital skills.

A year ago I wasn't sure where my life was going.

I thought everything was falling apart.

I feel hopeful about the future now.

I want my daughters to know

that they can achieve any goal that they can set for themselves.

My goal is to be a developer. That's what I want to do.

I've come this far, I plan to go to the stars.

My name is Chelsea Rucker, and I'm a Data Center Technician for Google.