ALLEN COUNTY, OH (WLIO) - Our OhioMeansJobs Student Employee of the Month is recent Delphos Jefferson graduate Payton Plescher, who wants to make a difference in the lives of seniors.
Delphos Jefferson graduate Payton Plescher is passionate about two things: music and caring for others. She took every music opportunity her school offered and is now a member of the St. Marys Area Community Band. She has been working at All American Home Care for the past four months and plans to study respiratory therapy and then continue working in hospice.
"I'm going to school for respiratory therapy, and I want to work in hospice and I've always loved the idea of helping people in their own homes because my grandparents themselves never wanted to go into a nursing home, and I just like the idea of it being an option that they can stay in the comfort of their own home until their last days," explained Payton Plescher, a non-medical in-home caregiver.
Healthcare, and especially end-of-life care, can be challenging careers, but her employer says she's certain Payton's kindness and strong communication skills will take her far.
"She takes the initiative with the clients; she's a go-getter. I know just because of her age, I wanted to kind of start her out slow, and she was ready to tackle one of our hardest clients. She has a client who has severe dementia, and she's doing well. She's doing great with it, and the family raves about her," said Kim Miller, owner of All American Home Care.
Payton will be continuing her education at Rhodes State College. With help from her job coach with OhioMeansJobs, she will start school this fall with some extra help paying for it.
"Her going into a healthcare field, like respiratory therapy, it's an in-demand position, so that opens up some avenues for funding streams that we have available to some of the high school seniors. What we looked at with her was since she was going into an in-demand field, we were able to help with her tuition going to Rhodes State College here in Lima, and she had aspirations to stay here in Allen County after graduation as well," said Kyler Washam, job coach at OhioMeansJobs Allen County.
Our OhioMeansJobs Allen County Student Employee of the Month, Payton Plescher.
