Correspondent photos / Ed Runyan Lola Simmons, executive director of Home For Good Re-Entry Center in Youngstown, helps Jeff Magada, founder and director of the Flying High Professional Development Center, congratulate Mia Cole on Thursday for completing the PDC certified nursing assistant program.

YOUNGSTOWN — The power of perseverance was on display Thursday as 33 graduates of Flying High’s Professional Development Center in the Chase Tower downtown received their diplomas for completing vocational programs in chemical dependency counseling, certified nursing assistant and welding.

Anasia Johnson, a certified nursing assistant graduate, got emotional right away when she gave remarks, saying “I did this for my kids. I did it for myself too.” She graduated from high school in 2013 but did not like school, she said.

“But I turned 30 in June, and I wanted to make a difference, and I did that, and I passed. I never failed a class, no class assignments, no tests, no quizzes, something I’ve never done before. Literally in school I never did that,” she said.

“It’s definitely made a difference. I’m ready to go. I had amazing teachers, you all, and I really appreciate Flying High for having me because it meant a lot to my teachers, my classmates, to my kids,” she said through tears. “I just want to say thank you all so much, and I am so proud of you all. We did this together.”

Keynote speaker Lola Simmons talked about her journey through the various stages of her working life and the power of a “pause, reset and let God take the wheel. Breathe Lola, just breathe.”

Jeff Magada, founder and director of Flying High and its Professional Development Center, introduced Simmons by saying her favorite quote, which is from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, is “The only time you look down on someone is to help them up.”

Simmons is executive director of Home For Good Re-Entry Center in Youngstown, which helps people re-enter society after incarceration and helps them avoid returning to prison.

Magada said Simmons “knows that perseverance and relentless efforts” are “vital to the growth of Home For Good.”

Simmons explained that 2001 after 27 years of working as a quality assurance metallurgical engineer with a major steel company, it “ended abruptly when the company filed for bankruptcy.”

She had two children soon to be in college, a mortgage, three car payments, “And I said ‘God. Really?’ I knew I would return to the workforce, but where? The steel industries were cutting back and closing. I had to pause and reset, as I’m sure many of you have had to do in life, to get where you are now,” she said.

She went to Kent State University at Trumbull to prepare to enter law school at the University of Akron with her “dream” to become a defense attorney. But her husband became ill, and she had to become a caregiver.

“I remember opening the door to my house and looking up at the sky and saying ‘God, what?'” Again, she had to “pause, stop, reset, start again,” she said. It was difficult to find a new career. She started that journey working through a temporary job service and became administrative assistant for a daytime homeless shelter and drop-in center in Youngstown.

“It tapped into my need to help others” and started on her career of helping the less fortunate, like people sleeping “under the bridge” or in abandoned buildings or even committing a crime to get into a warm place. “It was here that I found my passion — finding solutions while working with the defenseless,” she said.

She met Magada, and they worked together under a re-entry grant from the Ohio governor’s office of faith-based and community initiatives titled “Reunite Ohio.” It was for people within six months of release from prison and those six months after release.

In 2012, Simmons was diagnosed with a serious form of cancer, but in August had been cancer- free for 12 years. She has been executive director of Home For Good Re-Entry since it began in 2013. She also has many other leadership positions, such as her role with the Route 11 Re-entry Coalition.

As each of the 33 graduates received their certificate, each one spoke briefly. Among the remarks was those from Liam McKenna, who had earned a welding certificate.

“One of the best things I’ve heard this week is ‘One day or Day 1. The choice is yours,'” he said.