Domonique Lewis studied nursing at Long Beach City College during the late 1990s but after facing some complications in her academia, she dropped out.
“I moved down to Long Beach from Pomona, interested in new avenues. I wanted to go into healthcare and the nursing program was filled. I could not get into anatomy physiology to save my life and I gave up. I found myself giving up,” Lewis said.
Lewis explained that during her time at LBCC, she would have liked it if the school provided a better mentorship/counseling program.
“A lot of times when you went to see that counselor, it was just, ‘you want to be a nurse? Okay, you need four of this, three of that,’ and that was it. You didn’t even know. You didn’t even know how everything worked,” Lewis explained.
The Long Beach City College 2019 job fair took place on September 10 and Domonique Lewis is now a Project Analyst recruiter for southern California Plum Healthcare.
Plum Healthcare is a company that provides post-care services with 57 facilities around California and Nevada. The company manages skilled nursing in long-term care facilities.
Domonique Lewis stood ready to assist eager potential employees with information regarding her booth for Plum Healthcare.
“We have opportunities in clinical and we have opportunities in non-clinical, accounting, finances, and so on. We believe that we can teach anyone how to do a job. Right? But we’re looking for someone who has what we consider the ‘Plum’ parts. That really cares about people,” Lewis explained.
Customs Border Patrol Officer and recruiter Samuel Soto shared some of the requirements needed to join his line of work.
“We have various types of requirements from age or ages, anyone 18 years old to 40 years old unless they’re a military veteran then there’s no age requirement. As well as they’re a U.S citizen, no felonies you know, no crazy misdemeanors, things like that, but just general good person,” Soto said.
Jordan high school graduate and job fair attendee Dontay Brown talked about his potential plans for the future after highschool.
“I wasn’t sure. I wanted to wait. I was gonna go straight to the army but I was too nervous,” Brown said.
After Lewis’s time at Long Beach City College, she decided to join the military for a more organized lifestyle.
“It was difficult at first but it was one of the best and most rewarding decisions that I’ve ever made in my life. It gave me structure, created a foundation, it gave me meaning and purpose, it made me feel good and proud of myself that I was able to accomplish something because so often I was starting a class and not finishing it, I was starting and stopping, starting and stopping, constantly and trying to re-evaluate my life,” Lewis said.
The former LBCC student then dove into the world of IT after leaving the military, she spent her time interviewing IT applicants and was later presented with a full time opportunity to jump back into healthcare.
“My supervisor said, ‘you know, you would be perfect for that, you have a good personality, you’re talkative, you can do this’ and I was like, ‘no, no, just keep me.’ I was scared. I was scared to step out of my comfort zone,” Lewis explained.
Lewis expressed how her former supervisor Candice Matsura was a huge inspiration to her.
“I cannot speak enough good words about her. She really was my biggest champion. You know, when I was self doubting myself. She believed in me,” Lewis said.
Aside from recruiting or working on projects for Plum Healthcare, Lewis uses her free time with either fitness or traveling with her husband and three children.
“Just really, taking it day by day and living in the moment,” Lewis said.
“I get a lot of people that, you know, who were like me and that’s what I mean by I can see myself on the other side of the table. I see myself within them. Who is intrigued by healthcare, but don’t know where they want to go,” Lewis explained.
Lewis is currently involved with the San Diego Chamber of Commerce to not only learn and understand what is going on with healthcare today, but also to take what she learns to help guide students who want to get into healthcare.
“I want to paint the whole picture, I don’t want to just fill a slot. I want to give you an entire career,” Lewis said.