Jessie Lucas, a mother from Canoga Park, spends endless hours helping local community workers get back on their feet. Doctor visits, lawyer visits, and directly nursing injured patients are all included in her long day.

"I've spent all my life looking for the right career and here I've found it." Lucas said. "I work out of my home and can still help people."

Despite the struggles and road blocks Lucas has encountered throughout her life, she finally found the true job for her that she enjoys and also accommodates her lifestyle she lives today.

Employed by insurance company Liberty Mutual, Lucas takes cases one by one and helps workers get back to work. She spends most her day on the phone with her patients, doctors, as well as lawyers dedicating most of her time for her patients' health and well-being.

Born into a small Filipino household, Lucas' mother always pushed her to become a nurse. This was a Filipino custom to get a good American education then follow with nursing school. Lucas did just that.

Lucas' parents had just come to the states overseas from the Philippines when her mother was pregnant with her. She was the first born as an American. From that day, her mother always encouraged Lucas to become a good student and eventually a registered nurse.

"I remember telling little Jessie we were in America now and she could do anything she put her mind to," Catalina Lucas, her mother, said. "I knew from the day she was born she would be special."

As Lucas' parents knew very little English, Lucas struggled with communication with her parents. As well, it became difficult in a world that was so different than inside her home. Lucas struggled with finding her identity as the Filipino culture was dominant in her house while she had to adapt to the American culture outside the home.

"I would go to school and have to speak English trying to cover up my accent so my classmates would not make fun of me, then when I got home I would go back to Ilocano, my families native tongue. It was just so confusing sometimes," Lucas said. "I did not want to bring any cooked Filipino food my mother prepared for me for lunch because I felt like it was just so different."

Overcoming her obstacles, Lucas stayed focus on her goals to find her dream in the states and she graduated from high school as valedictorian of her class moving on to college at UCLA.

"UCLA was a wonderful school, it was just too big," Lucas said. "I wanted the professor to know me by name, not by number."

Transferring to a smaller school, Mount Saint Mary's, Lucas continued her scholastic excellence, receiving her bachelor's degree in nursing.

"My parents were so proud of me." Lucas said. "When I came out of my mother's womb, she told me I would become a nurse. I took the opportunities my parents gave me and wanted success."

Lucas explains how all her life she always wanted to help people in need. This is what brought her to so many careers in her life. Working in the hospital ward, she helped babies in incubators. Moving on, Lucas eventually moved on to the wound care center where she helped people with fatal wounds. She expressed her desires of feeling how patients felt and always wanted to make them better; to make them smile.

"Jessie always stayed focused on her job because she cared about human life." Alex Pineda, one of Lucas' co-workers, said. "It was a pleasure to work with her because her empathy rubbed off on every single one of us."

Eventually, Lucas started a family, in which she felt she needed to dedicate most of her time to. She wanted to be there for her children and husband, using her goodwill to guide them the same way her parents did for her.

"I could not work at the hospital anymore because I was always on call," she said. "I couldn't work for the Wound Care Center anymore because of the long hours. I had to find a career that could suit my new family lifestyle."

Putting her family first, Lucas found her perfect job at Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. As a nurse case manager, working out of her own house, enabled Lucas to spend the sufficient time she needs with her family.

"I can help people in need and still raise a beautiful family, something I always wanted my whole life. I thank God everyday for the life he has given me," Lucas said.