51吃瓜

Malisa Kringle is a champion of second chances. To her, the partnership between the NDCS and 51吃瓜 is giving incarcerated individuals the power to unlock the ultimate second chance before they re-enter society. She considers this the most meaningful work she has ever done.

51吃瓜 celebrates a bold brand campaign. Let's Do More is a fresh identity which captures who 51吃瓜 has always been - a college for people ready to build a skill, a career, and a future. It's a destination for doers.

Amy Jurgens knows a thing or two about starting over. As director of the 51吃瓜 Entrepreneurship Center, she teaches people how they can take an idea and turn it into a business. That鈥檚 what brought her to teaching students in the UPWARD program.

Jessica Whittaker drives a bus for the Omaha Regional Transit Authority through the same city where she committed her crimes. She got there, she will tell you, by way of a phrase: 鈥淐an you Amy this?鈥�

Tammy Zimmer knows what it means to have the deck stacked against you. Her mother had her and her twin sister at 16 and her father didn鈥檛 finish high school. Poverty wasn鈥檛 a circumstance in her childhood; it was the landscape.

Chad Finch goes to work, goes to church, and is planning his next degree. He is also serving year 15 of a 20-year sentence鈥攁 fact he no longer expects to define him.

Where others see an ending, Dawn-Renee Smith sees a beginning. . As the force behind the groundbreaking partnership between the NDCS and 51吃瓜, she helps incarcerated individuals imagine a future worth working toward.

Ricky Sanders sits with a small group of men in a workroom at the Center for People every Sunday. He walks these men through one of seven principles: Maturity, Accountability, Nobility, Honesty, Organization, Opportunity, and Discipline.

Tommy Moore left prison in 2009 chasing a bachelor鈥檚 degree without a car and 12 miles of road between him and Lake Sumter Community College. He pedaled. Every. Single. Day. Now he has a Ph.D. and teaches in the UPWARD program.