Georgia activist receives national grant to improve higher education in prison
Patrick Rodriguez is Co-Executive Director of the Georgia Coalition for Higher Education in Prison (GACHEP), which builds and advances educational pathways to higher education for incarcerated people throughout the state of Georgia.
Rodriguez was recently selected as a national fellow by the Fund for New Leadership, which supports early-stage leaders who have not had access to traditional philanthropic support but are working on novel ideas to tackle pressing challenges.
Rodriguez was also the mind behind Beyond the Box Georgia — a campaign push to get the University System of Georgia to remove an application question of any past or pending convictions.
Rodriguez joined WABE’s “All Things Considered” to talk about what he hopes to accomplish over the next three years with the $225,000 in grant money.
He said there’s been progress in having institutions remove a question about first offenses from their application process, and now he hopes to have formerly incarcerated students added to their school’s nondiscrimination policies.
Christopher Alston contributed to this report.
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