About Project Rebound

About

Project Rebound at SDSU is a special admissions program dedicated to supporting individuals impacted by the justice system and those transitioning from incarceration. Since 1967, within the California State University system, Project Rebound has enabled hundreds of individuals to achieve bachelor’s and graduate degrees and is committed to promoting restorative justice, reducing recidivism and fostering empowerment through higher education.

In partnership with regional jails, prisons, reentry facilities, transitional housing centers, community colleges and California’s Department of Rehabilitation (DOR), Project Rebound assists formerly incarcerated individuals in navigating their educational journey to SDSU. Personalized academic advising, guidance through enrollment and registration and support with DOR’s financial aid services are provided to all program members.

Our mission is to advocate for and facilitate access to higher education for formerly incarcerated and justice-impacted students. Through a safe and inclusive environment, combined with guidance and mentorship, we uphold a high standard of academic excellence and community engagement. By participating in Project Rebound, students not only achieve personal success but also become a source of inspiration and agents of systemic change for future generations.

History

In 1952, John Irwin (1929-2010) robbed a gas station and served a five-year prison term for armed robbery in Soledad Prison. During his time in prison he earned 24 college credits through a university extension program. After his release from prison, Irwin earned a B.A. from UCLA, a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, and then served as a Professor of Sociology and Criminology at San Francisco State University for 27 years, during which he became known internationally as an expert on the U.S. prison system.

In 1967, Irwin created Project Rebound as a way to matriculate people into San Francisco State University directly from the criminal justice system. Since the program’s inception, hundreds of formerly incarcerated people have obtained bachelor’s degrees and beyond.

In 2016, with the support of the Opportunity Institute and the CSU Chancellor Timothy White, Project Rebound expanded beyond San Francisco State into a consortium of nine CSU campus programs. The CSU Project Rebound Consortium is now a state- and grant-funded network of programs operating at CSU campuses in Bakersfield, Fresno, Fullerton, Los Angeles, Pomona, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, and San Francisco. Since 2016, Project Rebound students system-wide have earned an overall grade point average of 3.0, have a zero percent recidivism rate, and 87% of graduates have secured full-time employment or admission to postgraduate programs.

Mission

A successful university education leads to enhanced self-efficacy, civic engagement, and social and global awareness; it also enlarges the moral imagination and instills skills and habits that assist people in securing gainful employment and living meaningful, responsible lives. By making higher education more accessible and supporting formerly incarcerated students to excel in a course of study, Project Rebound constructs an alternative to the revolving door policy of mass incarceration. We are committed to meeting the needs of students who often face a wide array of challenges that have caused them to be left behind.

We strive to provide each student with the individualized support that they need to succeed. We also act as a liaison with services and programs on and off-campus and advocate for people on campus and in the community. Our work is dedicated to lifting up individuals and communities. After all, college grads contribute to increase community strength and safety!

Goals and Values

By assisting formerly incarcerated students and connecting them with other supportive entities, Project Rebound at SDSU attempts to help students with their basic needs so that, through higher education, they can:

cultivate skills in critical thinking and writing, oral communication, quantitative and ethical reasoning.
enhance their capacity for civic engagement and community leadership.
secure meaningful and gratifying employment.
empower themselves, their families, and their communities.
reduce their participation in behavior that is harmful to self, family, and community, including drug abuse and violence.
humanize public attitudes towards currently and formerly incarcerated people in order to facilitate reintegration and eliminate collateral consequences of criminal conviction related to social stigmatization and marginalization.

Through our work, Project Rebound also aims to increase public awareness and inspire meaningful dialogue about higher education and criminal justice in California and the United States.

Guiding Values

The Intrinsic Value of Persons. We believe that every person has inherent value and holds the power of possibility and transformation within them.
Equitable Access to Education. We believe that access to meaningful, high-quality, face-to-face higher education is fundamental to breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty, abuse, addiction, unemployment, and confinement.
Formerly Incarcerated Leadership. We believe that the integration, education, and leadership of formerly incarcerated people are essential to the work of creating solutions to the social crisis of mass incarceration.
Education as Public Safety. We believe that meaningful, high-quality higher education ultimately makes stronger, safer communities; we believe that public resources are better invested in education and other opportunities for transformation than prisons and punishment.
Civic Engagement. We believe that community engagement is at once a right, a responsibility, and a means of empowerment; we aim to inspire all Rebound Scholars to be informed and engaged civic agents.