Manny Garcia
Manny Garcia

Within the confines of his cold, concrete prison cell, Emmanuel “Manny” Garcia found himself seven years ago contemplating the depths of his reality.

Following the death of his father in 2000, he got involved with the wrong crowd and started abusing drugs. In 2009, he was found guilty of theft of firearms and burglary and began serving a sentence at Airway Heights Corrections Center in Spokane, Wash.

There, he started a plan to ensure he would never see the inside of a prison cell again: “I enrolled in some college classes,” he said.

Thanks to this first step, and help from the federal TRIO program, he has overcome his criminal past and is thriving as a student speaker and future leader. TRIO provides low-income, first-generation and disabled students with tutoring, counseling and other resources to help them succeed both inside and outside the classroom.

“TRIO changed my life,” Garcia said. “I don’t know where I would be today without the TRIO program and the help I’ve received through Washington State University Tri-Cities.”

A junior psychology student, Garcia ultimately hopes to earn a doctorate and start a nonprofit organization to help out others with troubled pasts.

He said the TRIO staff at WSU Tri-Cities has been able to locate scholarships for him that he would not have known about otherwise. He is on a psychology research team and participates in community service projects. He holds a 3.8 grade point average.

He has served as a resident advisor for TRIO Upward Bound, the organization’s summer academy program, where he shares his story with younger students.

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