Support staff celebrated: McQueen helps put you back to work

Sheila McQueen, a Worksource specialist for Mt. Hood, unknowingly evaded MHCC President Debbie Derr and her team at the Club Fair — she departed for a meeting and ruined their plans for presenting her with a 2014 Outstanding Support Staff award.

However, Derr was able to make the trip to the Worksource East office to present McQueen with her award.

McQueen said her first reactions were to be “pretty overwhelmed, very surprised.

“For me, I’m honored, totally honored, but at the same time, I’m honored that what we do at Worksource is being recognized by the college and all of the hard work my whole team puts into this effort to consistently help students and job seekers to become employed,” she said.

McQueen is part of a team that “focuses on helping job seekers figure out what they need to do next to get back to employment,”  she said. “It could be anything from motivational workshops that we develop and give to sitting down and coaching them on their career goals.

“It’s extremely rewarding work, every day, to help someone find themselves after they lost so much in their lives — they lost a job,” she said.

Although McQueen sees a lot of unemployed people, she has resources to help people who do have jobs, or are students, or who want to become students.

Although typically she does not get to hear about the success stories except through the numbers (statistics),  when she does, “It’s pretty wonderful,” she said. “Sometimes they’ll come in and give you a big hug and say, ‘Thanks, I got the job!’ ”

After 12 years, “I’m very passionate about what I do. I love my job,” she said.

“I have a dedication to helping people become successful. I think that’s why the award means so much to me; it’s not just me being honored, it’s the whole team I work with being honored.”

Worksource East, a state agency office that partners with Mt. Hood, is open to the public and located at 19421 S.E. Stark St. in Gresham.