Donna Abel grew up in Williamsfield, graduated from there, and built her early career as an operations manager at Alliance Library System — keeping things running across multiple locations, a behind-the-scenes person making sure the trains stayed on the tracks. When her kids enrolled in Galesburg schools, she made a practical decision: stop commuting to Peoria and find something closer to home. Twenty years later, she's still here.

"This is my 20th year," she said, with the ease of someone who has long since stopped being surprised by that number.

As vocational coordinator at the Galesburg Area Vocational Center, Donna's official role spans the day-to-day — attendance, grades, enrollment — but the heart of the work is something harder to put in a job description. It's about helping students figure out who they are.

"My role is just to help the kids connect with a career and technical education," she said. "When they get to us, they're trying to feel out, see what they might want to do."

There's a philosophy behind the whole enterprise that Donna captures simply: let them try things here, before they leave. "We want them to try all those different things while they're in high school," she said. "Then when they get out of high school, they're not going, 'Well, that's not really for me.' If you can try it here..." She doesn't always need to finish the sentence. The students who've come through tend to finish it themselves.

What GAVC offers isn't just classroom instruction. Students go out to internship sites — Yemm Automotive, Dave's Auto Body, Kunes, and others — three days a week, gaining real experience alongside working professionals, with a genuine shot at employment. The center also hosts manufacturing and healthcare expos, bringing in business partners so students can walk through the building, ask questions, and understand which courses lead to which careers. And each spring, a CTE Signing Day spotlights every senior's next step — trade school, four-year college, military, or directly into the workforce. "We spotlight them on what their career is going to be," Donna said. "That's just the best day for us because we've seen them grow through their high school years."

The growth of the program reflects a cultural shift that Donna has watched happen in real time. Since 2020, enrollment at GAVC has grown by 71 percent. Nine districts are served, seven of them currently attending, including some private schools. Galesburg pays the full tuition cost for its students — no barrier, no cost to families. "For so many years, it was all about going to college," she said. "And it's just not like that."

The proof shows up in the stories. Former students come back to sit on panels for eighth graders, talking through their experience and where it took them. GAVC alumni are now teachers at Bright Futures, working for the city of Galesburg, serving in the police department. Some come back just to say hello — and to show off a little. "Hey, look what I'm doing," Donna said, laughing. "Hey, look at my new pickup." They call it a student's "it" — that thing that fits, that turns uncertainty into direction. Twenty years in, she still lights up when one of them finds it.

The work is personal in ways that go beyond professional pride. Donna's oldest daughter took the CNA program at GAVC and went on to a successful healthcare career. Her youngest went through the CEO program and is now on air at FM95. Both paths ran directly through the programs Donna helps oversee — a full-circle reality she doesn't take lightly.

"It seems like no matter what we do, we're a secret," she said of the center. "We love to tell our story." That's changing. More students are coming back and spreading the word on GAVC's behalf — satisfied proof that the work is worth talking about. Donna has been telling that story on vacation, at community events, wherever the conversation opens a door.

She came here to be close to her kids. She stayed because the work matters. And somewhere in the last two decades, helping young people find their "it" became hers.