Underground Scholars Initiative

Did you know that Underground Scholars Ambassador program provides leadership development to formerly incarcerated and system impacted students in the California Community Colleges?

As a part of our recruitment pillar we work to build up the prison-to-university pipeline by getting our system-impacted and formerly incarcerated community into some of the best 4 year universities in the country.

Join us on this journey as we shine a light on some of our passionate ambassadors from community colleges, actively spreading USI resources far and wide across California!

Congratulations to Johnny Smith who earned acceptance to Sociology PhD programs at and Harvard!! One thing we know is that our students have unlimited potential and can make it anywhere! Gratitude to our associate director, Michael Cerda-Jara for his expert grad school advising and support. We're so proud of you Johnny!! Which school should he pick???

The last four days at the National Conference for Higher Education in Prison have been full of insight and innovation for our USI representatives. We heard from organizations, incarcerated individuals and more about the work being done across the US to build the road to higher education for our community. It was so incredible to present our own initiative to this incredible group. We are looking forward to following along with these organizations and continuing the innovation. Forever in solidarity!

Our USI student leaders are headed to Atlanta for the 13th annual National Conference on Higher Education in Prison. Our very own are going to present on Closing the Distance from Prison to Campus and Beyond. Follow along for the next few days as we share the highlights from the conference and our presentations.






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