Ashley McCaig stands out.

One reason is her hair – her brightly colored hair. McCaig has experimented with a wide range of hues, from vibrant pinks, reds and purples, to greens, blues and blacks. It’s become her signature, making it easy for the 34-year-old to stand out in a crowd.

Or, in this case, in a classroom at Harris County Department of Education’s (HCDE) Adult Education Learning Center.

“What I remember about that first time meeting her was that I could remember her by her hair color,” said Ericka Johnson, who taught McCaig in the phlebotomy program, one of five current Adult Education workforce certification programs offered with support from the Texas Workforce Commission.

“Ashley stands out. It was blue back then. But she was more than that.”

McCaig is one of the many success stories to come out of HCDE’s Adult Education division and its services. With a foot already in the field as a medical assistant, she wanted more but couldn’t wait on someone else’s timeline. McCaig found the HCDE phlebotomy program and quickly became a top student and leader in the classroom, routinely helping Johnson and her classmates.

In December, McCaig landed an employment opportunity at Lifegift making $35 an hour as a tissue recovery technician. Lifegift is a leading organ procurement organization that partners with nearly 300 hospitals and transplant centers across 109 Texas counties. Its leaders founded Donate Life Texas, the only official tissue, eye and organ donor registry in the state and part of the national Donate Life American registry network.

“I love it,” said McCaig, who received the job offer on Dec. 24 while her mother, a medical assistant and phlebotomist, was visiting from Alabama. “It was the best Christmas present. She got to see me go through the interview process and get the offer letter when she was the one who initially told me about this type of position. I plan on making a career of it.”

McCaig’s journey into the medical field started as a receptionist at an urgent care clinic in 2014. She enjoyed the work but wanted to do more, hands-on skills, so she cross trained in patient care procedures at the beginner levels.

“I like helping people when they’re sick and don’t know what to do,” she said. “They come in and we help fix.”

Her husband found a solid job in Houston and the family moved from Alabama. McCaig needed to find her own lane.

She enrolled in the medical assistant program at Northwest Educational Center. A requirement to complete the program was a phlebotomy certification, but the center didn’t have an instructor at the time.

“I’m impatient and I didn’t want to wait on them to get someone,” said McCaig, who admittedly describes herself as both impatient and ambitious. “I needed to get certified, so I found my opportunity.”

It was through HCDE’s Adult Education program.

The division serves more than 6,000 students annually who enroll in programs such as English as a Second Language (ESL), High School Equivalency (HSE, formerly known as GED) and the workforce certification programs. The 51,000-square-foot Learning Center opened in August 2023 and features 17 classrooms, five laboratories and allied health professions, a student lounge and a multipurpose community room.

McCaig’s ambitious attitude was on display from the start in her phlebotomy studies.

“Oh, she was ready to stick from day one,” Johnson said with a laugh of her students learning to draw blood. “She came to me that first day and said she was ready to get down to work. She stood out by being very assertive. She was always ready to get to it and I like that. I look for that with my students.”

Students don’t draw blood on the first day of class. According to Johnson, they won’t even do so for at least two weeks – not on an actual human that is. Instead, they’ll use phlebotomy training arms, which resemble real arms and help students feel the texture, density and shape of skin and veins.

McCaig admits that she was nervous those first few days of class. She was scared of needles. She felt like an outsider in class.

“I made a lot of friends in that class and a lot of people I still talk to and keep up with,” she said. “And Ms. Johnson made us feel confident.”

It was that confidence that helped McCaig excel. With phlebotomy, every arm and every vein is different. Practicing on the training arms and then with her classmates allowed everyone to understand the differences in every patient.

It also helped that McCaig had previous knowledge learning from her mother and the urgent care clinic.

“I just didn’t have the muscle memory of doing it because I never actually physically did it before, but I knew how to find a vein and I knew how to tie a tourniquet,” she said. “I knew how to do all those things. I just hadn’t actually done it.”

McCaig graduated at the top of her class and has since returned at Johnson’s request to speak with current students and share her story. She finished her medical assistant program and went on to teach at the center, leading phlebotomy, CPR and anatomy and physiology classes.

“I found that I really like helping people succeed and do better,” she said. “If I can help them get somewhere – maybe they were struggling or it’s a learning block and they need more practice. I get a lot of enjoyment out of that.”

In October, McCaig applied with Lifegift after researching the organization and meeting the qualifications as a tissue recovery technician.

Two months later, she was called for an interview.

“Then on Christmas Eve, they sent me the offer letter and it was perfect timing,” she said.

McCaig is already making long-term plans at Lifegift, which include a national certification as a tissue banking specialist. It’s her ambition – the same drive that brought her to the Adult Education Learning Center when she needed it.

“These programs can work for anybody,” she said. “They just have to be willing to put into it also. I was going to figure it out one way or another. I asked a lot of questions and paid lots of attention.

“It’s not just the phlebotomy class. It opens up a lot more opportunities with networking and the community of our class. You give each other pointers and job postings. I tell students I taught all the time exactly where to go if they want to get certified in phlebotomy.”