St. John's, nurse receive awards from Gov. Holden

St. John's Health System and one of its nurses received awards at the 21st annual Governor's Conference on Workforce Development held in October in Osage Beach.

St. John's received the Governor's Award of Excellence for Private Sector Participation, and Emily Kakolewski, a registered nurse in the Heart Unit at St. John's Hospital, received the Ozark Region Alumni Award. Both were nominated in their respective categories by the Missouri Career Center, but that both St. John's and one of its nurses were nominated and won was "a fluke," said Jaydean Miller work-force development supervisor with the Springfield office of the Missouri Career Center.

Choosing nominees for the Alumni Award is always a tough choice, Miller said.

"Every year that's kind of a hard process, because we just think that we work with so many people who do some great things and they get into a better place in their lives," Miller said.

Missouri Career Center officials try to find nominees for the Alumni Award who are being served by multiple resources to better their lives.

"With Emily, for example, she'd worked the people from Family Services. She'd worked with people from Welfare to Work and Adult Services," Miller said.

Kakolewski worked with Missouri Career Center to access the support and training necessary to become a registered nurse. Following her graduation from Ozarks Technical Community College, she completed her registered nurse training through St. John's School of Nursing and Southwest Baptist University.

"It is the total program and the agencies working together that has made the difference and which has been vital to my success," said Kakolewski in a Missouri Career Center news release.

Missouri Career Center considered several other nominees, but Kakolewski "just seemed to have just such a high motivation. Part of her nomination she wrote herself, because the case manager had called her and it just was so moving, some of the things she wrote about how people have choices, when you make choices that are going to lead you to a better place," Miller said.

Kakolewski also got a big surprise at the award presentation when she was tapped for the statewide Outstanding Alumni Award from among the 14 regional Alumni Award winners.

Kakolewski's success story is the perfect example of what Missouri Career Center is striving for with the people it serves, Miller said.

"What it centers around is the fact that we're not just here to get people jobs. It's why we're called the Career Center," Miller said. "We are looking at what's going to put them in a place where they're going to become self-sufficient and have a career rather than just a paycheck."

The private sector category for the Governor's Award of Excellence is one of five in which Missouri Career Center nominates local companies, Miller said.

St. John's "has always been there" for Missouri Career Center, Miller said. St. John's has participated in every Career Morning event the center has done, as well as posting its jobs on www.MissouriWorks.com.

"They've really increased the number of jobs that they list with us, and we just have a number of people that go over there constantly to apply and they are really good about sharing back with us about what kind of people they're looking for," Miller said.

Miller hopes other companies will follow St. John's example, not only in listing its jobs with Missouri Career Center, but also just realizing what the center has to offer. That's because being active with Missouri Career Center and helping put people to work benefits the whole economy.