EDUCATION PHILANTHROPY DIVISION OF ASCENDIUM EDUCATION GROUP
Source: Diverse Issues in Higher EducationJule Hall was incarcerated at age 17 in 1994. He saw firsthand how the 1994 Crime Bill, which banned Pell Grants for incarcerated students, impacted prison education. Without federal funding, the number of prison higher education programs dwindled. He remembers seeing former students idling in the prison yard, watching television, feeling “a lack of direction in their day-to-day lives.”
“I saw the desolation and despair and the lack of inspiration, frankly, that was left in the wake of removing these academic programs for people in prison,” Hall said.
Now he’s the program officer of post-secondary education in prison at Ascendium. He ultimately completed his bachelor’s degree in German studies with the Bard Prison Initiative, captured in the documentary series “College Behind Bars.”
And with the restoration of the Pell Grant to incarcerated students, a measure included in Congress’s December stimulus package, he hopes students like himself will have more opportunities to learn.
Read the full article at Diverse Issues in Higher Education.
Ascendium’s education philanthropy grant program operates within Ascendium Education Solutions, Inc., a member company of Ascendium Education Group, Inc. & Affiliates. Ascendium Education Group has helped millions of learners pursue postsecondary education since 1967, when it was formed to help fulfill the promise of the landmark Higher Education Act of 1965. Over the years, Ascendium has grown to become not only the nation's largest federal student loan guarantor, but also one of the most active postsecondary education philanthropies.
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