DATE: Friday, April 4, 1997                 TAG: 9704030185

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 17   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LORI A. DENNEY, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   61 lines

GRADUATION CEREMONY HELD FOR STOP NURSES AIDES

It was like any other graduation. Babies crying, kids playing in the aisles and balloons floating in the air. The soon-to-be-graduates were center stage, dressed in white from head to toe.

Three months earlier, 13 of the 16 graduating women and one man, were receiving public assistance to pay their bills and feed their children.

Today, 75 percent of the class members are gainfully employed as nurses aides thanks to a program run by the Southeastern Tidewater Opportunity Project.

Madeline Karsay, 33, is ready to be taken off the list of those who receive public assistance and she couldn't be happier.

The mother of three, Karsay turned to Social Services to help supplement the family's income after her husband, Sandor Karsay, got out of the Navy and was searching for a job. Her social worker told her about the STOP nurses aide program.

At graduation, Karsay couldn't keep the smile off her face or the pride out of her voice. She had a job interview this week and felt confident she would get it.

``I'm glad I got this opportunity,'' said Karsay, who lives with her family in the Rosemont area. ``I look forward to every day now. I know my kids are proud of me. They don't know how to say it but they show it.''

Her mother-in-law, husband, children and social worker watched as she was called, tears streaming down her face, to receive her pin and nurses aide certificate given by STOP instructor and registered nurse Ava R. Wilson at the ceremony at the Open Door Chapel.

``I'm so happy. I don't have to deal with any of them (support agencies),'' said Karsay, who plans to go on to become a licensed practical nurse. ``I can stand on my own two feet now.''

``Our main objective is to give these people opportunity and to show that someone out here does care,'' said Jeffrey L. Sims, assistant director of the STOP Vocational School of Nurse Aide Training.

The Norfolk-based program travels to Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Courtland, Southampton County and Isle of Wight to administer the nurses aide training. Classes are held where space is available and the $2,000 tuition per student is funded through the Southeastern Virginia Job Training administration.

The program has graduated 185 students a year since the early 1980s, when it began, Sims said.

At a recent sign-up for a class in Portsmouth, 510 people submitted applications. Only 20 of those will be selected to attend the 14-week class. The program was designed to help those who receiving assistance become self-sufficient. Nearly 95 percent of the students are referred through social services departments, Sims said.

``We're teaching that this life-long skill can be more rewarding instead of waiting on a $200 check once a month,'' he said. MEMO: For more information, call 858-1371. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH

James Norman smooths Sabrina Perry's hair before the ceremony.

Instructors and grads applaud a speaker at the ceremony.

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