{"id":14837,"date":"2020-09-29T12:25:10","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T16:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/damon-west-former-maximum-security-prison-inmate-shares-his-story-on-thursday-oct-1\/"},"modified":"2020-09-29T12:25:10","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T16:25:10","slug":"damon-west-former-maximum-security-prison-inmate-shares-his-story-on-thursday-oct-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/damon-west-former-maximum-security-prison-inmate-shares-his-story-on-thursday-oct-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Damon West, former maximum security prison inmate, shares his story on Thursday, Oct. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>All are welcome to join a live, virtual event on Thursday, Oct. 1 with Damon West, author of \u201cThe Change Agent: How a Former College QB Sentenced to Life in Prison Transformed His World.\u201d The presentation from noon to 1 p.m. will be shared via Zoom. <a href=\"https:\/\/events.hvcc.edu\/event\/damon-west-motivational-speaker\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Register here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/DamonWest.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-112414\" src=\"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/DamonWest-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As a teenager, Damon West was the \u201call-American kid\u201d \u2013 a natural born leader, athletic and charming with a stable, loving home. He had other options when his Division I football career was cut short by injury. But he also used illicit drugs trying to bury a memory of childhood sexual abuse. While a young stockbroker for United Bank of Switzerland, West got hooked on methamphetamines. He ultimately found himself serving a 65-year prison sentence, where a chance discussion with another inmate sparked a revelation that motivated West to turn his life around. He published his autobiography just three years after his release from a Texas maximum security prison.<\/p>\n<p>Today, West is a motivational speaker. In addition to his autobiography, he is co-author of the best-seller \u201cThe Coffee Bean: A Simple Lesson to Create Positive Change\u201d with Jon Gordon. He holds a M.S. degree in Criminal Justice and teaches at the University of Houston (Texas) Downtown.<\/p>\n<p>West\u2019s appearance at Hudson Valley Community College is co-sponsored by the Cultural Affairs Program and Athletics Department. Time will be allotted for Q&amp;A.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published:<\/strong>\u00a0Tue, 29 Sep 2020 12:25:10 +0000 by\u00a0d.gardner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; All are welcome to join a live, virtual event on Thursday, Oct. 1 with Damon West, author of \u201cThe&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-announcement-college-related"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}