Each year, Goodwill employees are encouraged to share stories of individuals who have overcome significant barriers to achieve success. Through a formal nomination and selection process, candidates are narrowed down to the top three finalists in each category.Once the award winners are selected, a video production process begins to bring these remarkable stories of resilience to life.

In the heart of rural Indiana, where the roads stretch long and the opportunities can sometimes feel sparse, you would find David. When Susan Sheets, Goodwill TalentSource™ Rural Career Pathways Grant Coordinator, first met David in January 2025, he had just graduated from The Excel Center® in Richmond. He was a young man with a sharp mind for logic and math but faced barriers that would have caused many to stay exactly where they were.

In the heart of Franklin, Indiana, the local Goodwill of Southern & Central Indiana retail store is more than just a place to find a hidden treasure or a vintage sweater. For Carly Stevason, it’s the place where the blurry edges of her world finally came into sharp focus.

Life has a funny way of taking us on detours. For Wendi, that detour started early, when she was just 16 years old and she dropped out of high school.

Montez Day knows firsthand that a single moment does not define a lifetime. Today, he serves as the Manager of Goodwill New Beginnings at Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana, a role he stepped into in 2025 after starting as a facilitator and receiving several promotions since joining the organization in September 2021. But his path to leadership was shaped by years of transformation, education, and an unwavering belief in the power of second chances.

When Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana and Per Scholas officially partnered in late 2022, they shared a simple but powerful goal: to open doors to opportunity through education. Per Scholas, a national nonprofit that provides no-cost technology career training and job connections, especially for individuals traditionally underrepresented in tech, moved into Goodwill’s corporate offices on West Michigan Street in January 2023. By March, the first cohort of learners had begun, bringing new energy, hope, and possibility into the space.

When Sarah walked into the Goodwill Outlet on Washington Street in 2019 to apply for a job, she was carrying the weight of her past, the uncertainty of recovery and the urgency of starting over. Newly sober, navigating the impact of criminal history, and living in transitional housing after completing a rehabilitation program, she knew finding employment wouldn’t be easy. She also knew it was necessary. What Sarah couldn’t have known that day was just how deeply that decision would change her life.

When Roddrick’s wife secretly signed him up for orientation at The Excel Center® , Goodwill’s tuition-free high school for adults, he thought she was joking. Decades after leaving school in the ninth grade, he walked into class  ready for a fresh start.

When Saja Abbas was in middle school in Iraq, her education came to a sudden halt. The war that began in 2003 disrupted daily life, closing schools and shifting her family’s focus to survival. “I was a kid at home who didn’t understand what was going on,” Saja recalled. “But it was a big impact on my education.”

Adonis’s journey began in November 2014 when he enrolled in the Janitorial Training Program (JTP), which provides on-the-job janitorial training for individuals facing employment barriers. His dedication and hard work led him to graduate from the program and secure full-time employment as a janitor working for Goodwill at the VA Hospital through the AbilityOne program. This federal initiative partners with not-for-profit organizations like Goodwill to provide jobs to persons with disabilities.