Alumni Feature: Tre

Nicole here, your luminous Grassroot Engagement Officer, sharing a very special alumni story of one our superstar alums, Treveon Parish, or as we know him at the Bus, Tre! 

Tre’s Headshot from our 2024 Fellowship

“As an African American living in a relatively nice neighborhood in Pierce County, I've spent a lot of time trying to be as retrospective as possible about how social identities and economics play a role in my interactions and how I view community. Growing up with my family taught me about aspects of the systems work and does not work. My family taught me about empathy because I feel a lot of the conversations we are having now are filled with hate and now more than ever it's important to love and understand each other.” 

Tre has been with The Washington Bus, well for as long as we can remember.

He started off as one of our 2022-2023 Fall GOTV interns where he went across the state campaigning and canvassing, but his journey with the Bus didn’t stop there. Tre then joined us for our 2023-2024 Winternship, our policy oriented program where our Winterns would go to the state capitol to testify and meet with legislators to advocate for bills that would forward progress for youth across Washington.

As a Wintern, Tre worked on bills related to housing affordability through rent stabilization (HB 2250), representative curriculum through modifying requirements for instructional and supplemental educational material (HB 2331 which was signed into law) and equity in our local elections by advocating for rank choice voting (HB 2114).

Tre testifying in Olympia in early 2025. 

“Working for The Washington Bus was very transformative. As a young person working in politics the moments that stick to me the most is when I had mentors that made me a better organizer and person. If I had to pick a specific moment that was my favorite at the WA Bus it was meeting all the fellows and previous people I've worked with in past programs. I have learned a lot of interpersonal skills and knowledge about the world, especially through the summer fellowship and getting to work alongside a diverse and inspiring group of fellows.”

During the 2024 Summer Fellowship Tre worked on campaigns such as NO on Initiatives: 2117, 2196, and 2066, as well as Raise the Wage Burien.

The 2024 Summer Fellows pose for a photo at their annual retreat! 

One thing that Tre wants to share to young aspiring organizers is that, “We need to bring more empathy into our political work. Whether it's through the discussions we have with people at the doors, understanding the intersectionalities within political work, I learned a lot from the WA Bus. In politics if we did it by ourselves we would end up losing ourselves. The best thing is to be shoulder to shoulder in community, to be in the moment perpetuating the good you're doing, and being able to have empathy you can connect with the people we share this world with. Through the education from the WA Bus you learn a lot about the world, they taught me to love twice as much as the hate.” 

Tre did just that, now as a college freshman at Tacoma Community College he works as a next-gen intern for the King County Executive Climate Office, a researcher for the Fair Housing Center WA State Civil Rights, and is part of the Community Leadership Institute cohort with Puget Sound Sage. That’s to name a few of the many things he does in our community. You’ll most likely find Tre volunteering for organizations local to his hometown Tacoma, sitting in on the Pierce County Transit Committee meeting, or on his daily bus ride commute from Tacoma to Seattle.

“I feel honored to be in these spaces, especially when they're a lot of spaces that don't have people who look like me. It's nice being able to come in to be educated by people who have similar or differing lived experiences and then telling me about it. In the neighborhood I grew up in there weren't a lot of African Americans, and finding that community was difficult but because of the lack of access to those communities.”

Tre, Nicole, and Amit at a Seattle Democracy Voucher Renewal canvass for the 2025 Election! 

He says what got him involved had to do with, “a lot of it was luck, curiosity and fortunately not being trapped in the cycle of jadeness that a lot of young people are trapped in.”

Advice he would give for young leaders and youth in our communities to get involved is to, “Just look. Specifically a great way to get involved figuring out locally the context of your city, on a state and county level. Pick a social issue you're most interested in.  Finding non-profits and political organizations you agree with all done by a Google search and shooting them an email. It's the same with cities, if there's an office that touches on the subject you care about, reach out to them. It's about the connection and community building despite not being an expert on the topic.”

Tre is a testament of hard work and determination and we feel so lucky to call him as one of our Bus Alum.