Over 31 years ago, instead of deciding what classes to take in his senior year of high school, or which girl to ask out to prom, Eddie Fordham found himself mingled in with the wrong crowd. Now, at age 50 and having served his incarcerated sentence, Eddie is on the path to earning a degree from Hillsborough Community College.
“There’s a one-letter difference between bitter and better and how I changed that ‘I’ to an ‘E’ is through my faith, family, friends who still loved me and prayed for me, and my education,” he says. “By having education, I had purpose.”
For 20 years, his education had been taken away from him, but he didn’t allow that to stop him. He self-taught himself by reading books and took what he learned and taught other inmates through adult education courses.
“In prison, how can you find purpose? It can be self or service. For me, it became service,” he says. “And by serving others is what opened me up to my greatest potential,” he added.
All of this made Eddie realize that he had to appreciate what he had. He stated a well-known phrase, “You never truly appreciate something that you have until you don’t have it anymore.”
Eddie continued to study and accumulated over 56 credit hours while incarcerated. After his release from prison in April 2022, he enrolled at the HCC Dale Mabry Campus in January 2023 to pursue his associate in arts degree.
Since enrolling at HCC, he has felt an overwhelming sense of welcome despite his past. He has earned a 4.0 GPA, made the Dean’s list and has received an academic excellence award.
In June of last year, Eddie started working with Feeding Tampa Bay, where he has since been promoted to an inventory associate. Just recently, HCC held a mega-distribution event where they received and distributed over 7,000 meals.
Eddie says that he has advice for students who are thinking of quitting their journey, or unsure if HCC, is the right choice for them. He says, “HCC is your door to your future. You’re almost there! You can taste the victory! Don’t give up yet.”
After completing his Spanish II course, Eddie will have enough credits to graduate in Spring 2023. About his Spanish professor, Teresa Rowe, he says, “She didn’t clock out when it was time to go.” He explains how she would stay after class for up to an hour or more and give Eddie additional help.
Being a first-generation college student, he hopes to set an example for his younger cousins. He doesn’t have a career in mind yet, but he plans to finish what he started, cross that finish line, then revaluate where he is and where he’s heading.
Eddie says, “Education to me, means more than books and long hours of study. To me, it means redemption…”