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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/10580/full/10580/once-on-welfare-emigre-now-helps-others-find-work/ <br /><br /> <b>Once on welfare, emigre now helps others find work</b> <br /> Friday, April 16, 1999 | by <p>LESLIE KATZ </p> <br /><br /><p>When she immigrated to this country from Lvov, Ukraine, Eleanor Polishchuk hoped to continue the successful medical career she enjoyed at home.<br /><br /> But like so many other doctors from the former Soviet Union, she got sobering news. Despite her medical education and experience as a pediatrician and researcher, it would take at least four years to get a license in California.<br /><br /> In her early 50s and struggling financially, Polishchuk could not picture spending her first years in this country studying medicine all over again. She needed a job.<br /><br /> A little more than three years later, Polishchuk finds herself in a thriving new career. After acing a rigorous civil service exam in her second language, the 56-year-old doctor is an employment specialist at the Department of Human Services in San Francisco.<br /><br /> There, she passes on many of the job-hunting skills she had to learn from the ground up on arriving in this country. In many cases, she helps her clients transition from welfare to work, a move she herself made after several months on government rolls.<br /><br /> "My job is to help people become self-sufficient and independent," she said. Her own background makes it easier to relate to clients. "Maybe I am more close to their problems."<br /><br /> In recognition of her progress, Polishchuk will receive one of three Employee of the Year Awards at a Jewish Vocational Service luncheon Wednesday. Employers who have hired JVS clients nominate candidates for the annual award.<br /><br /> The two others receiving the award are Andre Miller, a 21-year-old African-American who has worked as a backstage technician, playwright and actor at Brava! for Women in the Arts Theater Center; and Khang Nguyen, a 60-year-old Vietnamese refugee who immigrated with his wife and five sons and works in the mail room at Sharper Image.<br /><br /> "He has an amazing work ethic," JVS' Melissa Irish said of Nguyen. "He is very serious about what he is doing and very motivated."<br /><br /> This year, a JVS committee selected winners from about 70 nominees.<br /><br /> JVS caseworker Naomi Marcus, who helped Polishchuk negotiate the shoals of the American job market when she first arrived, wrote a raving letter of support for her client's nomination.<br /><br /> "Her situation was so extraordinary," Marcus said, pointing out that Polishchuk overcame obstacles including age discrimination and language barriers to forge an entirely new career.<br /><br /> "She went about her search for a new profession with great vivacity and curiosity," Marcus said. "That made her a star."<br /><br /> Indeed, Polishchuk is a study in dedication.<br /><br /> On enrolling in English and job-search skills classes at JVS, "I studied like a schoolgirl, day and night," said Polishchuk, a sharply dressed woman with a ready smile.<br /><br /> She took part-time jobs as a medical translator and a supervisor for Child Protective Services before landing the job she wanted at the Department of Human Services.<br /><br /> The test required to get the job covered complex American mores and welfare-reform laws, among other things.<br /><br /> Now Polishchuk is a rare breed—a recent immigrant who knows the American system so well she can guide dozens of clients through it. She has a caseload of 68 families. Though many come from the former Soviet Union, some are American born.<br /><br /> "I like to help them and see the results," she said. "When somebody gets a job, it's as if I got a job."<br /><br /> With her JVS training as her base, she keeps a vigilant watch on job openings, interviewing skills and networking strategies. "I have manuals, different books. I read literature. I have to know it."<br /><br /> Polishchuk, who lives in San Francisco with husband Vladimir and mother Sofia, said she never would have pictured herself in her current position.<br /><br /> "If somebody told me I would be working for the government in the U.S…I absolutely didn't imagine this situation."<br /><br /> The idea of getting an award for something she loves to do seems equally unreal to her. "I'm embarrassed," she said.</p> <p> </p>

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