Their Stories Helped Lift a 26-Year Ban on Pell Grants for Prisoners | Ascendium Education Group, Inc. Skip to main content

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Ascendium in the News December 30, 2020

Their Stories Helped Lift a 26-Year Ban on Pell Grants for Prisoners

Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education 
Author: Katherine Mangan 

Every time Vivian D. Nixon has publicly testified about the power of a college education to transform the lives of those behind bars, she’s drawn attention to one of the darkest and most shameful periods of her life. It was during the three years she was confined to a medium-security prison in upstate New York, tutoring peers who could barely read, that she started a decades-long fight to expand educational opportunities for people serving time. Nixon, who went on to earn a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, the latter in fine arts from Columbia University, became an ordained associate minister and leads a nonprofit that helps eliminate barriers to college. She would prefer to be known for those accomplishments. 

Read the full article on The Chronicle of Higher Education.

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