Student Spotlight: Butoyi Emmanuel

Butoyi Emmanuel (Emmanuel as he prefers to be called) immigrated to America as a child and became the first person in his family to go to college in the United States. He says his best experience at EvCC was making a plan with his TRiO advisor to complete his degree, transfer to a university and become a high school history teacher.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

That's a really good question. A little bit about myself: I'm not American. I come from a big family. I'm from Tanzania. The transition from Tanzania was fairly simple because I was young. English has been somewhat easy to learn, but I don’t think I’ve truly mastered it even to this day. I work at the YMCA as part of the membership staff and childcare staff. I've been at EvCC for a year and a half now.

Why did you choose to come to Everett Community College?

Because it was closer to home, and I didn’t want to leave the area to attend college. The energy of EvCC also made me feel good and made it more appealing to me. It was more inviting than any other colleges because of the helpfulness of everyone along with they make you feel like you are important.

As the first person to go to college in your family, what is one thing you wish you knew about college or EvCC before you started?

I wish I knew more about the programs and accommodations the college had to offer so that way I wouldn’t have found out during my school year. If I had known about them earlier, I’d have started on really good footing.

How did you hear about TRiO Student Support Services, a federally funded program that provides academic support services to students who plan to earn a four-year degree and the first in their family to go to college, are low-income or have a disability? 

I worked with someone in the Diversity and Equity Center, and they told me about TRiO.

How has TRiO helped you? 

They helped me to plan for my future better because when I started at EvCC I was just coming in with the intent of doing everything that was history related, because I thought that to get a history degree, you just needed to take history classes, but they helped me get the right classes. 

The advisor I have right now for TRiO has been very helpful with that too, more helpful than the advisor that was assigned by the school because I had to reach out constantly to them to ask them what I should do next. And, they weren't really too hands on compared to the TRiO advisor.

What is the best experience you’ve had in TRiO?

My best experience is probably just setting my path, because after I had done it, it made me feel more relaxed and more comfortable. It just made me feel less stressed because I was like, this is what I'm going to do. Like, I got a plan.

What inspired you to become a high school history teacher?

What inspires me is coming up with better ways of teaching history so that kids can be more interested in it. The sayings “One can learn from their Past” and “History repeats itself” are quotes I draw inspiration from.

What advice would you give a new student coming in?

I'd say take every opportunity given to you and offered to you because not many people will have the opportunity to be involved with or have a TRiO program. TRiO is a great resource I'd say make the best of it.