For Chris Burroughs, 50, the path to a bachelor’s degree began behind bars.
“I went to five different high schools in San Diego County,” he said. “I was getting kicked out of school, going to juvenile hall, fighting, those kinds of things.”
He didn’t think he’d live to age 20, he said.
“I didn't really want to have anything to do with high school as far as education,” he said. “I went there so I could play sports, and then even that fizzled out once the streets got a hold of me.”
He spent 14 years in and out of prison.
“I was told before I went to prison one time by one of my elders that when you get locked up, nobody comes out the same,” he said. “You're either going to come out worse or better, and I didn't want to come out worse.”
While incarcerated, Burroughs read a gardening magazine that sparked his interest in organic farming and sustainability. He enrolled in community college a few months after his release in June 2018.
This month, he graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in sustainability.
“It's been very challenging, but Project Rebound has always been there for me,” he said.
Project Rebound supports formerly incarcerated students like Burroughs throughout their time at SDSU. They help with the admissions and enrollment process and offer academic and financial advising. SDSU is one of 14 California State University campuses that have Project Rebound programs. CSU San Marcos also has a program.
This year, 21 Project Rebound students graduated from SDSU, half will continue to graduate school. It’s their biggest class ever, said program director David Durand.
“We've been growing at Project Rebound here at San Diego State for the past couple years by about 20 to 30 students each year,” he said.
Staff meet potential students at jails, prisons and reentry facilities. They also partner with a similar program for formerly incarcerated students attending California Community Colleges.
Less than 1% of Project Rebound graduates return to jail or prison according to a California State University report. In California, nearly half of people released from custody return within three years. It costs more than $130,000 per year to incarcerate someone in the state.
It costs about $500,000 a year to run Project Rebound at SDSU, Durand said.
“When you think about the cost to incarcerate someone during the long term, it's like over $1 million during the course of the general incarceration term,” he said. “Here it's a fraction of that cost to help someone actually get back and contribute to society.”
Part of that help is building students’ confidence, he said. While most CSU students are under 24 years old, most Project Rebound students are older.
“The average age is about 40 years old, and so there's already an age gap,” Durand said. “That is a big piece … trying to overcome that and tell yourself, ‘You're worth it. You can do it.’”
Burroughs said setting and meeting academic goals changed his perspective.
“It's hard to think about doing crime when you're in a Calculus II class or biology class and you're learning something,” he said. “I didn't want anything to do with school when I was a kid. I wasn't excited about learning, any of that. But now that we made this commitment as adults, it's like we're excited to be doing these things.”
Burroughs walked in SDSU’s commencement ceremony this month. He now has his bachelor’s degree in sustainability. He’s using that knowledge as founder of Garden 31. It’s a nonprofit that provides education and job training in the agriculture industry.
He said his classmates in Project Rebound are students SDSU can be proud of.
“They know how to persevere and they know how to endure. When they come to a place like this, it's just, like, gratitude,” he said. “These walls are not gray. There's not bars on that door right there. We had a commitment to do the time for the State of California, the commitment that was given to us because of our actions. But now this is a choice, and this is our commitment that we made. It's a choice in a positive fashion.”
At Garden 31, Burroughs is helping other people make those positive choices. Next, he hopes to expand the organization’s apprenticeship program for formerly incarcerated people and at-risk youth.
