Anthony Pham

When Seattle native Anthony Pham was a junior in high school, he wasn’t confident that he would be ready for college when the time came. With graduation beginning to loom on the horizon, he knew he’d have to make a choice soon. It was then that he heard about the Seattle Promise from family. “When my relatives let me know [about Seattle Promise] I was in school in the Highline district,” he recalled in our interview, “So I had no idea what the situation was in Seattle. But it sounded really interesting.”

Pham went on to transfer to Chief Sealth High School in order to become eligible for the Promise program, completing his high school education in 2021.  “It was out of my way - I still live in Des Moines, and commute into Seattle every day - but I was coming back for a reason,” he explained, “I knew from the second I came back to the Seattle District that I was going to take advantage of the Seattle Promise and use it to go to college.”

He made good on that vow; today, Pham is a freshman at South Seattle College, still making the daily commute from Des Moines for classes. While the transition to college hasn’t always been without bumps in the road, Promise has been with him every step of the way. “High school itself was really easy, for me at least,” He tells us, “And then getting into college…it was a drastic change. Even now, college is a bit difficult, so thinking of me from junior year of high school doing it back then…I couldn’t imagine it. People tell you that college will be hard, but you don’t really understand it until you experience it first-hand.”

“But Seattle Promise made going through that process a lot less scary, with all the check-ins and everything,” He continued, “Seattle Promise makes the college process so easy. Whatever I need, they’ve really helped guide me.”

As the end of his first year of college approaches, Pham is focused on completing his general academic requirements. The young man who previously wasn’t sure if he was ready for higher education now looks ahead to a transfer degree, with hopes of going on to Seattle University to study computer science. He’s been teaching himself the fundamentals of coding in his spare time, and while he hasn’t decided yet what he specifically wants to do after college, he’s exploring various career paths, confident that he’ll find something that resonates with him.

He credits his family for his decision to pursue computer science; with many family members working for high-profile companies like Microsoft and Boeing, he has a keen appreciation for the Seattle area’s booming tech sector. “I’d love to get a job with one of the big companies where I can make good money and work on something interesting. Washington has a lot of tech companies, and they all need people!”

Family is clearly important to this young man – as well as building his own future, he’s happy to be able to  be a good example for his younger brother, who is still in high school:  “I like being a role model, I’m not going to lie,” he says, laughing, “But at the same time, I think he’s smarter than me, so I think he’s going to be fine.”

The message he hopes to send to his brother, he also wishes to impart to any other high school students wondering if they’re ready for college: “I just want to show that hard work pays off. Believe in yourself, you’re smart, you can do it.”