Henry Park's TRiO SSS Success Story

After thirty years of abusing drugs, the last ten of which I was also manufacturing crystal methamphetamine I ended up in prison for a little over eight years. Prison provided zero training for any legitimate future endeavors upon my release and the only help available to me upon my release date 2008 was a parole officer with instructions to tell me to get a job ASAP. Which is a reasonable request for most parolees.

            I was sixty years old, uneducated and unskilled, but that was the lessor of my restrictions. I’m also a congestive heart failure patient with bad lungs and a thyroid condition that often leaves my medications in conflict with one another. After a little over a year of mandatory job training classes and numerous job interviews, which were conducted only as a courtesy, I was still unemployed and without any reasonable prospects of any future change in my status.

            I accidently, while giving someone else moral support, happened into the admissions office at Windward Community College and somehow registered for classes. I was made aware of the financial aid office and the services at TRIO. The financial aid, of course, paid for my tuition and helped with my housing expenses, but without the support, services and especially the personal tutors at TRIO I would have most certainly resorted back to manufacturing crystal methamphetamine.

            The intangible constant encouragement from the people of TRIO made this ex-con start to trust in myself that I could do it. My dream is to become an author, poet and a playwright. I currently have a story and a poem being published in this year’s 34^th edition of Rain Bird and I also have a story being used in a film adaptation. I will be graduating Summa Cum Laude this May and have also been selected to be the speaker for my class at commencement. Next Fall I’ll be attending UHWO and plan on getting my BA before transferring to UH Manoa for my masters and PhD.

            If I hadn’t been groomed by the tutors at TRIO I would have undoubtedly been back in prison by now.

Sincerely,

Henry Park

P.S. Please help those who are trying to follow in my footsteps. I’m doing what I can to encourage them, but without your much needed kokua the future looks pretty bleak.