Lakeisha Fields Keeps Saying Yes to New Opportunities at CFCC
Lakeisha Fields started taking classes at Cape Fear Community College in 2018 and never stopped. Eight years and more than 20 classes later, Fields has explored everything from hospitality and public safety to healthcare, construction, and advanced manufacturing through CFCC’s Economic and Workforce Development division.
“Learning has become fundamental to me,” Fields said. “I will never stop!”
A Wilmington native, community leader, and mother of six, Fields has built her own education around curiosity. The short-term classes have allowed her to try something new, gain hands-on experience, and move on to the next opportunity. And along the way, she began to see herself differently.
“I didn’t even think I was as smart as I am,” Fields said. “CFCC just made me believe in myself.”
Finding Confidence in Trying Something New
Before she started taking classes at CFCC, Fields said she didn’t have much confidence in what she could accomplish. That changed as she began completing one class after another.
“Once I started coming to CFCC, it just opened up a whole new avenue that really changed my life,” she said.
Fields has embraced that mindset with every class, even when she wasn’t sure what she was getting herself into.
“I took CFCC’s CNC Machining Bootcamp course and didn’t even know why I was there,” she admitted. “I just know that CFCC gave me the opportunity, and I actually ended up really enjoying it.”
Then there was construction. Fields grew up watching her father build things, and she has always been interested in houses and how they are built. Taking CFCC’s Construction Bootcamp reignited that interest and gave her a new goal.
“I want to build my own home one day,” she said.
Fields plans to take CFCC’s General Contractor Prep class, followed by its Heavy Equipment Operator course. She also wants to take HVAC courses.
“I really want to learn every piece and everything about it when it comes to construction,” she said.
Learning So She Can Teach Others
Fields doesn’t keep what she learns at CFCC to herself. She founded Youngpreneurs, an organization focused on introducing young people to entrepreneurship and career opportunities at an earlier age.
“Everything I learn late, I’m teaching it to the youth early,” she said.
She visits schools, churches, and community organizations to talk about career opportunities and CFCC’s classes. She also visits shelters, drawing on her own experience of having been homeless.
“There are so many things that you could do at CFCC. Why not just try it?” she said.
A Family Affair
Fields’ enthusiasm for learning has also spread to her children. They have participated in CFCC’s summer Career Academies, and she has taken classes alongside them.
She sees her own experience as a reason to help her children explore those opportunities earlier than she did.
“I will always tell people to learn different trades early, the same thing I tell my children, because I learned a lot of things later on in life,” she said.
More Than a Class
Fields has had family members ask why she keeps going back to school. She answers that learning is never wasted.
“Knowledge is power, and it creates generational wealth,” she said. “What can’t help me will always help someone else.”
After more than 20 classes, Fields has gained skills in a wide range of industries, but she says the biggest thing CFCC has given her is confidence. And she doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.
“CFCC has literally changed my life,” she said. “I’ve done some things I never thought I could do. It put me in certain positions that I never thought I could even be in. I feel like I can be whatever I want to be since I started here.”
For anyone thinking about going back to school, Fields has a few words of encouragement.
“It’s never too late to go back to school. Keep going no matter what. Never stop learning, never limit yourself, and always believe in yourself. If nobody believes in you, Cape Fear Community College does!”
