North Idaho College

New career paths open with NIC’s adult education program. By Kaye Thornbrugh. Photo by Tom Greene.

Megan Pahl didn’t finish high school. Her family moved a lot while she was growing up, and she was unable to attend school regularly. As soon as she was old enough to work, she got a job to help her family. Ultimately, she left school with a ninth-grade education.

“Teachers just kind of passed me along,” she said.

Pahl is the mother of five children. Because her husband is disabled and cannot work, her family relies solely on her income from her job as a certified nursing assistant. She’s been a CNA for 17 years, but now she hopes to become a nurse practitioner.

“Nursing is my calling,” Pahl said. “I’d like to take it further, but I need my GED to get into college classes.”

She’s making it happen, with the help of the Adult Basic Education program at North Idaho College.

Adult Basic Education (ABE) is a program that provides basic skills instruction to adults who fall below a 12th-grade level in reading, writing or math. The ABE program is available in Bonners Ferry, Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint, Silver Valley and St. Maries. GED testing is currently available in Coeur d’Alene and is expected to begin in the NIC Bonner’s Ferry Center for Boundary County and Bonner County residents in October.

The classes are completely free to students and most instructional materials, such as textbooks, are provided. Instruction is offered Monday through Thursday, mornings, afternoons and evenings.

“They can come into our program and not have to put out any money,” said Marty Bruner, ABE advisor. “Everything is no-cost, except for the GED test.”

ABE is more than just instruction; it’s also mentoring, advising and support. All students meet with Bruner or Outreach instructional staff members, who place them in classes based on an assessment and the students’ goals. Every eight weeks, staff members meet with students to discuss their progress. Volunteer tutors are also available to help, and students are welcome to retake any class if they feel they need more preparation.

“We get students of all ranges,” said instructor Ramona Osborn, who primarily teaches math and science. “I’ve had basically third-grade level to high school-level students, and my goal is to get them all the way to college and career readiness.”

It’s not only GED seekers who come through ABE, Bruner said. More and more current college students who are struggling in math and English classes are seeking help from the ABE program. Other students take ABE classes in preparation for retaking the COMPASS exam, shooting for a higher score.

“It’s been proven that our students do better not only on the GED test, but also future college courses once they come through our program,” Bruner said.

With the support of her husband and the ABE instructors, Pahl has completed three of the four sections of the GED test so far, all while balancing classes with her job and caring for her family, which includes homeschooling her five children. The choice to stay committed to earning her GED and taking her career to the next level has been a simple one. Pahl’s not just doing this for herself. She’s doing it for her family -- for her children.

“I’m going to get my future going for my babies,” Pahl said. “You can’t put your future on hold.”

Kaye Thornbrugh is the former managing editor of the NIC student newspaper The Sentinel and an intern in the NIC Communications and Marketing Department

More information on testing for GED/ABE programs can be found at www.nic.edu/adulteducation or by calling (208) 665-5099.

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