particular population remains in the shadows,” Ladwig said. “What do pioneers have to do? They have to break ground. They have to take a path that isn’t already established.” Ladwig says it’s a huge challenge to redefine people’s perspectives of an entire group. Huge is an understatement. Ladwig suggested I start a club, but I brushed it off and continued reporting on the lack of resources on campus. I also began researching what other campuses had to offer and found two programs that were leading the way. The program rooted in the CSU system was Project Rebound. Project Rebound was started in 1967 by San Francisco State Sociology and Criminology Professor John Irwin, who did a five-year stint back in the 50s. The program helps formerly incarcerated students prepare, apply, enroll and graduate with a degree from a four-year university. It’s a community support system where the goal is for every student to succeed in their studies. I asked Renee Byrd, a sociology professor at HSU and mass incarceration researcher, about Project Rebound and she told me HSU should be leading the way in this endeavor. She said some of her best students were formerly incarcerated and that she dreams to one day have a classroom full of them. Byrd supports Project Rebound at HSU and offered to be an advisor for a formerly incarcerated students club. It would take us nearly a year to begin our efforts on establishing Project Rebound, so the remainder of the fall semester I worked on making the club official. It takes being vulnerable and putting yourself out there to start a club for this population. When one has spent time behind bars or been abused by the 46 |OSPREY
system, the default is to either keep the experience hidden from society or move as far past it as possible. Hiding in the fog then becomes a security blanket. There are no checklists on admission applications into CSUs asking if you have been incarcerated, but to get the services, you have to show a need. A regular catch-22. Three things happened that paved the way to where we are now with establishing Project Rebound on campus. First, I met an HSU alumni who was formerly incarcerated and working at the Humboldt County Jail. Then I was granted clearance into Pelican Bay State Prison for a story I was writing. Lastly, I met a political science major whose mission is to change policy and legislation regarding the criminal justice system. “It would have been nice to talk to some other people in my situation who I could relate to on some of the issues I was having,” said Mike Bishop, a children and family services counselor and former HSU student. Bishop graduated in 2015 with a degree in psychology and earned his master’s in counseling psychology in 2017. He’s got the style and experience of the streets, but moves and communicates like someone who holds multiple degrees. While still a student, he volunteered at the juvenile detention center working with gang culture. Bishop had a son after returning from prison in 2004 and wanted a different upbringing for him. He enrolled in College of the Redwoods when his son was 18 months old and took a human development class that changed how he viewed the world. “I wanted to make life different for me and my son,” Bishop said. “I didn’t want him to feel the way I felt. I didn’t