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Growing up with parents who suffered from addiction, Omari Amili had few role models in his life to show him what it means to be successful. He had little stability in his life and attended 15 different schools before he eventually dropped out of high school.
“I had to grow up really fast, and there were things I had to do to support myself that other kids didn’t have to deal with, ” he said. “I was being led toward a criminal lifestyle, and I thought that being successful meant having money and material things.”
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He did whatever he could to chase the life he thought he needed. And eventually, the path he chose led him to prison.
His experiences there proved to be the reality check he needed to make a change. “My major motivating factor was my children, ” he said. The father of six knew he had to become the role model that he lacked as a child.
“I knew I needed to turn my life around because it wasn’t just about me. I had kids to take care of, and I wanted to show them they didn’t need to settle for a certain life.”
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But it wasn’t easy. He was released in June 2008 armed with a G.E.D. and little direction in life. He knew the jobs available to him were limited, and without an education, he had a long road ahead.
“I couldn’t keep working dead-end jobs, but those were the only jobs I could get, ” he said. “I decided to enroll at College, which was a leap of faith because I had no idea what to expect as a first-generation college student.”
Thanks to the guidance of College faculty and advisors, Amili learned about direct transfer agreements (DTA), where students can transfer their credits to bachelor’s degree programs throughout the state. He earned an AA-DTA from College in 2011, and transferred to University of Washington Tacoma to pursue a bachelor’s degree. “ College welcomed me, and gave me a chance to earn my admission to the University of Washington, ” he said. “Coming out of prison, you always hear about the limitations you’ll have. But College showed me the sky is the limit.”
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He earned two bachelor degrees from UWT, in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. In 2016, Amili also graduated with a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies.
“Without College letting me in, none of this would have been possible, ” he said. “ College pretty much saved my life, and it means the world to me that my children have been able to see me graduate from college and grad school.”
During his time in grad school, Amili created a 10-session college preparatory workshop for formerly incarcerated people. He is devoting his life to giving back and helping others turn their lives around through higher education. “It is a major lifestyle change going from being locked up, to becoming a college student, ” he said. “The education I received comes with a duty, and I feel like I can’t be successful if I’m not helping other people and sharing my knowledge.”Most students struggle at one point or another in their college years. Some may not have experienced mental health issues until they got to college, but many already have.
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Students at Pierce College’s Addiction Studies program are learning to understand and treat individuals with co-occurring disorders, which are substance abuse or addiction combined with mental health disorders.
Most students who enter the program come with trauma, according to addiction studies professor Judy Farash, who addresses their experiences in specific classes.
“Growing up, a lot of them have come from foster care, ” Farash said. “A lot of them have done prison time. So, they’re really just rebuilding.”
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“We’re talking about child abuse, ” Farash said. We’re talking about molestation, sexual addiction. We get into some transgender issues. We get into a lot of very detailed things.”
Addiction Studies is a clinical psychology program where students can graduate with a certification as an addiction studies counselor or an associate degree.
Originally, the Addiction Studies program was located at Los Angeles Mission College, but the program has been around for about 20 years. Farash was in the program in 1998.
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Before becoming a counselor, McGahey worked in development for television and film for eight years and was chief of staff at a tech company for two years. But he said his work now is more rewarding.
When working with his clients, McGahey talked about the weight it has on him. As much as he tries to help his clients while they deal with their addiction, he tries not to blame himself if they continue to struggle with it.
McGahey said the program taught him that the most effective way to take care of his clients is to take care of himself first and separate his home life and work life.
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“The more we ruminate on it, the more we kind of make it about ourselves too, ” McGahey said. “And that’s something we want to not be in the habit of. That’s what I try to do every day. And sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s not.”
McGahey said the difference between a therapist or counselor and a doctor is that a counselor must validate the feelings of their client. It’s their job to come up with ways to help clients cope with their addictions.
The difference between doctors and therapists, according to Farash, is that medical doctors look for a physical issue while therapists look for the emotional issue.
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“We’re looking at more of the root cause and how it’s affecting you today, ” Farash said. “Not just in the moment, but your environment that you’re in socially, emotionally.”
Farash said she is able to have rich conversations during her Zoom classes, especially during these times of racial tension. Most of her students are affected by the current divide and have different views compared to their family members.
Carlos Velasquez is a 2016 alumnus of the Addiction Studies program. After finishing, he went to California State University, Northridge and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology while working at Tarzana Treatment Centers.
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Velasquez would occasionally come back to Pierce to attend classes he’s taken in the past to make sure he was an expert in the subject. He said the classes are not the same as Pierce classes outside the program.
“The whole program itself is geared towards being an experiential program, which is about experiencing what counseling is not just from a counselor perspective, but from a patient perspective, ” Velasquez said. “You do a lot of role plays in classrooms where you are the counselor and the patient. And the biggest learning you get from the program is things you see about yourself by going through that process.”
Velasquez said the subjects taught in the Addiction Studies program also help with understanding human development and allow him to learn more about his future career as a counselor.
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“I think there’s a core psychology element to all things because everything that has to do with people’s behavior and psychology is the science of behavior, ” Velasquez said. “I think these studies don’t only teach you about addiction. It also teaches you about human behavior.”
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