Working as a team on group projects was a low point of the program because it was not easy bringing together several people with different backgrounds and approaches, Ross said. But even that was beneficial. That s a dynamic we have to learn to work with, she said. Ross is moving in June to Seattle because her husband received a promotion with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. She plans to stay with INS and is negotiating a job.
Some employees work in areas that change so rapidly, they have to go to school to keep up.
Barbara Robinson and Beda Tupay are among the federal workers toiling toward a certificate in procurement and contracts management at the University of Virginia s Northern Virginia campus. There has been enormous change in the process and in the education requirements to advance, Tupay said. For Robinson, obtaining her certificate also will be a personal achievement, another milestone in her life since dropping out of high school at age 16 and later earning her general equivalency diploma in 1975. She has since worked her way back up, with the next step being GS-11. There is hope, Robinson said, despite those who have said you re not going to make it or become anything in life.