Kyle Harris is going to graduate from Vance-Granville Community College’s automotive systems technology program next month. But it will be the second time in as many months that he will be recognized for his efforts.
Harris accepted the Dallas Herring Student Achievement Award last week, given to one student or former student from across the state that best fits the philosophy of the community college visionary of “taking people where they are and carrying them as far as they can go,” according to a press release from VGCC Public Information Officer Courtney Cissel.
Each of the state’s 58 community college systems submits a nominee for the achievement award named for a person whose work set in motion what would become the N.C. Community College System.
The awards dinner was held on Thursday, Apr. 3 at the Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary, Harris said on Monday’s TownTalk.
There were a lot of powerful people – politicians, donors to the Community College foundation, and others at that dinner. “They were all very interested in my story, and they gave me a round of applause that just really blew me away,” he said.
Things hadn’t been easy for Harris, a military veteran who found himself at the Veterans Life Center in Butner, unsure of what his next steps might be. He got sober and then he got to work on changing his life.
“I had lost a lot of hope in the fact that I would recover,” he said, recalling that period of his life that may seem in stark contrast to the life he leads today. “I’m so grateful I was given the opportunity to reinvent myself,” Harris said. “it’s changed my life. It’s changed the life of my family.”
CLICK PLAY!
Once he was at the Veterans Life Center, he said representatives from the community college came to help him figure out some next steps.
He’d been in the Signal Corps and Communication Corps when he was in the military, and “a lot of the skills I had didn’t transfer over into the civilian world.”
But he did know about mobile communication network maintenance and operations, along with troubleshooting wiring problems using wiring diagrams. With that information, Harris decided to try the automotive systems technology program, trading out communication wiring application for automotive wiring
“In the end, they’re all wires,” he said.
He’s already working at Southeastern Specialty Vehicles in Henderson, which builds ambulances and other emergency vehicles. It’s a challenging job, but it’s one he really enjoys.
With employment comes a level of financial stability Harris truly appreciates, and he said it has given him the self-confidence to assure that he “will never have to go back to a homeless situation.”
“We work on ambulances that service the community all across North Carolina, and places where I have friends and family,” he said, adding that he now feels like he’s paying back a community who supported him. “Now I’m able to help my community through my work, by producing the best ambulances to service our state.”
“Enrolling in the Automotive [Systems] Technology associates’ program is where my redemption story really began,” he noted. “I hope that my story reaches as many people as possible struggling in addiction, to not only choose sobriety but to enroll in a community college.”
It was a fellow veteran who made that first phone call on Harris’s behalf that got him to the Veterans Life Center and that person’s concern for another’s welfare is what got Harris to where he is today. Remembering the idea behind the Dallas Herring award – to take people where they are and carry them as far as they can go – is what he plans to do for others.
“I want to be that person for another veteran in this community one day,” Harris said. “There is a path forward…that if you choose a life of sobriety, the community is here to help you and that you can turn it all around.”
