Gas Light

Salutations! My name is Sean Alexander Kaiulani Chun. In this blog I am going to share a little bit about how the state’s decision to cut the funding for this program will affect me. First, I will share about my initial investment to participate in this program. Second, I will share about how my time in this program has helped me to understand the possibility of a new career. Lastly, I will share about how the funding ending one week earlier than expected has affected me.

I just shared with you what I will be sharing with you in this blog. Now, I will share about my initial investment to participate in this program.

First, when this opportunity came about I was skeptical that the state of Hawaii was actually going to come through. The most embarrassing part of growing up in Hawaii is how the state is the understanding that our state is more interested in funding foreigners, like military and tourists, than it is its own people. When I signed on I was told that this program could change my life, so I bought a computer that I couldn't afford and proceeded to join the GameDevHQ Internship.

I just shared with you about my initial investment to participate in this program. Now, I will share about how my time in this program has helped me to understand the possibility of a new career.

Second, throughout this program I have been shown many possibilities of new career paths. Ultimately I have been shown how my career as a Fine Dining Server is obsolete. Without this program I wouldn't have considered programming as a viable career because the State of Hawaii usually outsources for tech support instead of creating their own tech support with education programs like the GameDevHQ Internship. The cost of living here is extremely high, our taxes are extremely high, and now Ige is talking about raising taxes. People like me need relevant skills to keep up with the evolving technological world.

I just shared with you about how my time in this program has helped me to understand the possibility of a new career. Now, I will share about how the funding ending one week earlier than expected has affected me.

Lastly, I was excited to hear that the funding was extended to the 28th until yesterday, when I was told that its ending a week earlier. I do not understand why the state of Hawaii doesn't understand the importance of training people in software engineering right now in preparation of fixing our economy. I have to be honest I most likely will not be able to pursue this career path because I have to figure out how I am going to keep a roof over my head and food on the table. Hawaii is expensive. The cost of everything rises practically 3x faster than our wages do. The minimum wage has increased a little bit but the wages for most non minimum wage jobs remained the same. Which means that people with non minimum wage jobs are losing disposable income to inflation while the minimum wage increases remain insufficient. The GameDevHQ program ending week early for me will definitely set me back on the progress I have made from having zero experience to now having a conceptual grasp of software engineering.

I just shared with you about how the funding ending one week earlier than expected has affected me. Now, this concludes what I will be sharing with you in this blog. I look forward to sharing more about my progress in the GameDevHQ Internship soon.

Thank you.