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Vidalia
HOMETOWN LIVING AT I TS BEST 103
In 2017, Emma went to work at Altamaha Bank while
taking online classes in business. In November of 2019,
she took the newly-created position at Brewton-Parker
College (BPC) as Online Admissions Counselor. The
following year, she completed her bachelor of business
management degree.
Many undesirable appellations could be applied to
the year 2020, but the year also had its victories. For BPC,
that victory was receiving approval as an experimental
site to offer the Second Chance Pell Grant, which allows
the college to provide associates and bachelor programs
to students while incarcerated. Out of 180 colleges and
universities that applied for it in the United States, BPC
was one of only 67 to be awarded the grant. And with the
grant, a new position was created at the school, a position
Emma is transitioning into as the college’s Prison
Program Coordinator.
The program began Spring semester of 2020 at
Wheeler Correctional Facility in Wheeler County with
about twenty inmates. In the fall, inmates at Johnson
State Prison will have the opportunity to apply. “We
will probably have about fifty inmates total between the
two facilities,” said Emma, whose work is mainly on the
admissions and academic advising side of things. “There’s
a lot that goes into that. We have to get high school
transcripts, college transcripts, and make certain their
financial aid information is filled out correctly,” all of
which is just the beginning of the process. “From there,
I’ll work to make sure they have textbooks, are registered
for classes and are on track to graduate.” Post-covid, when
things settle back into more of normalcy, she said, “The
plan is for me to actually work inside the facility two days
a week.”
It’s not exactly the kind of work she imagined herself
doing when thinking about her future. But it is work for
which she has discovered a real passion. “The times I’ve
been able to go into the prison, I was treated with so
much respect by those inmates,” said Emma. “They were
so grateful for the opportunity they have been given. They
are among some of the hardest working students enrolled
at BPC. Four out of the twenty made the Dean’s list last
semester.”
It’s easy to become cynical about helping people
serving prison time for wrongdoing, but we can all be
thankful for God’s redemptive approach to justice. In
an online article for theconversation.com published
on December 23, 2020, and entitled, “Congress lifts
long-standing ban on Pell grants to people in prison,”
Andrea Cantora writes, “Research by the Rand Corp. has
shown that participation in prison education programs
reduces by 43% the rate at which people re-offend. The
benefits of this program, she goes on to write, include:
“…increased levels of educational attainment, more
employment opportunities, higher earnings, and safer
communities.” (Note: The author of this article is also an
Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the University
of Baltimore).
One of the characteristics of authentic leadership is
Visit us at /Seasons Design Center Eccl 3:1
knowing who to follow. Emma’s parents empowered her to
discern which example to follow, whose word to listen to,
and what decision to make in difficult situations. Following
their example, she learned to care for her community,
which is how she became the youngest person to serve as
the Marshall Coordinator for the Vidalia Christmas Day
Parade. “My dad had served as a Christmas Parade Marshall
for as long as I can remember,” said Emma. “When more
/theconversation.com