Aloha my name is Bransen J P Zablan (Puʻu). I am currently
the Peer Tutor and Academic Skills Coordinator for Windward Community College’s
TRiO Student Support Services program. I graduated from UH-WCC in the summer of
2011 with my Associates of Arts degree in Liberal Arts and Academic Subject
Certificate in Hawaiian Studies and Hawaiian Language. I transferred to the
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa where I obtained my Bachelor of Arts degree in
Hawaiian Studies from the Hawaiʻinuiākea School Hawaiian Knowledge in the fall
of 2012. I was recently accepted into the graduate program at the Myron B.
Thompson School of Social Work at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. I will
begin my graduate studies in August of this year 2013. After graduate school, I
am also looking forward to applying to the Rossier School of Education’s
doctoral program in Educational Leadership at the University of Southern
California. Without the help and support of Windward Community College’s TRiO
Student Support Services program, I would not have been able to reach these
goals and also set new ones. TRiO SSS has provided me the opportunity to work
on campus part-time as a Hawaiian language tutor and go to school full time.
The helpful and caring staff at TRiO SSS went beyond their normal duties to
really provide access and support to the many different resources available on
campus and in the community. The programs tutoring and mentoring services
helped me improve my math skills and network with other students who have
similar stories as myself. The programs lab became a safe haven, a place to
study, use computers, print for free, get support and advising from counselor
and director, and also talk story and congregate with other students. I learned
how to be a better student from the staff and other students too. Because of
this, I was able to graduate with an associate and bachelor degrees.
I began my college career in high school as a participant in
UH-WCC’s very first Upward Bound co-hort. Upward Bound allowed me to be
involved in something that was positive and healthy. This program gave me hope
and allowed me to see myself in college. I would have never gone to college had
it not been for TRiO programs.
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