Finding work in Fargo

Warned it would take time to find a professional job, Hellerud determined to accept any job, as long as it was legal and ethical. Refugees who cannot find employment within the first eight months risk becoming homeless because of inability to pay rent. Hellerud applied for positions as a hotel housekeeping attendant and grocery store bagger. She was told she was unqualified, despite the fact she worked as an administrative manager in Africa and could speak four languages, in addition to English.

Then, she heard the meat processing plant turned no one down. Despite her strong dislike of blood, she applied. “I didn’t know if I should celebrate or cry when they turned me down,” Hellerud says. “Do I question if I left God in Africa or if She or He came with me here?”

Hellerud finally landed a job, working the graveyard shift at Cardinal IG, a glass manufacturer. That’s when her case manager at Lutheran Social Services (LSS) encouraged her to apply for a case manager position at LSS. Within three months of arriving in Fargo, she jump-started her career at LSS. Even so, she worked part-time at a gas station and at a Montessori school as a French teacher to make ends meet. She and her husband reunited in 1999, and were blessed with a daughter, Nicole, in 2001. As the marriage unraveled, she felt no choice but to file for divorce, despite the stigma it carried in her native culture.

Months later, she accepted a full-time position as the family involvement coordinator and cultural liaison of the SENDCAA Head Start program in Fargo. The job also provided an opportunity for her to strengthen her parenting skills.

Working three jobs, attending graduate school, parenting her two young children while supporting her four siblings, Hellerud felt overwhelmed by the struggle to survive, but never gave up.

Within one year, she had fulfilled all the goals she had set for herself. And she inspired others.

Mariam Bassoma, an asylum seeker from Djibouti, bonded with Hellerud at Head Start while Hellerud explained the registration form in French. Hellerud suggested Bassoma volunteer at HeadStart until she received her worker permit. “I felt she was like me. I was so desperate. I had no one, no family,” Bassoma says. Hellerud became her mentor. She encouraged Bassoma to go back to school. She also connected Bassoma to resources and helped her navigate raising children in another culture.

“What I learned is to never give up for anything. Even though you go through many, many things in your life, tomorrow will be better,” Bassoma says. She volunteered for one year at LSS and was hired as a French interpreter and later promoted to immigration assistant.

New Direction

In 2012, Hellerud was named LSS’s director of the New American Program and state refugee coordinator. Each piece of paperwork she completed or extra hour she worked represented a face to Hellerud. The remembrance of how narrowly she had escaped living in a refugee camp herself spurred her on to work long, hard hours to help others. “The cause was so personal, it became almost like family, sometimes unhealthy, but you don’t walk away from family,” Hellerud says.

But in 2015, Hellerud left LSS on terms that were not her own. The organization eliminated her position during a perceived budget deficit. She experienced a rejection that struck her to the core of her being. In typical Hellerud fashion, she spent some time processing the situation and then she focused on the positive.

She compares dealing with adversity to lifting weights. Just as your physical muscles grow bigger and stronger, so do your coping muscles. Life has prepared her to be resilient. In the times of grief, hurt and disappointment Hellerud looks for lessons to learn and for moments to celebrate. She knows good can come from the most unlikely sources, such as her brother’s car accident.

“I will fall down, but eventually, I rise up again,” she says. “I am committed to facing what is yet to come.”

Standing Again

Losing her job blessed Hellerud with something desperately lacking in her life: time. She was able to spend more time with her children and husband, Fargo attorney Mark Hellerud, whom she had married in December 2014, and to explore her other talents. The English major decided to pen a book. The sound of her father’s favorite songs, from “Fais-Moi un Signe,” to the Archies’ rendition of “Sugar, Sugar” filled her home as she stood at her kitchen island to write. (Yes, she prefers to stand when she works.) She often felt her father’s presence during this time.

Kayla Kelly, a customer service representative supervisor at Western State Bank in Fargo, recently heard Hellerud speak at an author event at the Fargo Public Library. Awestruck by Hellerud’s positivity and strength, she purchased a copy of “Being at Home in the World,” which gives a glimpse into Hellerud’s refugee journey. Each chapter concludes with cross-cultural leadership lessons to guide the reader.

“She never gave up and she always just had a goal,” says Kelly. “And she was going to do anything to make sure her family was taken care of.” Kelly left the library feeling grateful for everything she had and inspired to be the best person she could be.