The program is open to all types of formerly incarcerated individuals as long as they meet the educational requirements. And if they don’t, Project Rebound helps get them qualified. Many take the classes they need at Bakersfield College first.
Prospective student Andrew Dominguez, 33, learned about the program five years ago while doing time at Kern Valley State Prison in Delano for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Out for nine months now, he wants to enroll in Project Rebound at his next opportunity, in January 2020.
Dominguez, a Bakersfield native whose mother had him at age 12 going on 13, says he’s been incarcerated for more than half his life. You name the local detention center, he’s been locked up in it: Kern Crossroads, Camp Erwin Owen, the California Youth Authority and the maximum-security section of Kern Valley.
Dominguez says he’s determined to leave that life behind and secure the education he needs to realize his dream of counseling troubled young people and adults with histories like his.
He said he’s halfway to an associate degree in communications after taking Bakersfield College classes inside and outside of prison and wants to continue with those studies. Dominguez is already trying to help others by working with men at a faith-based men’s home in town.
“I want to give back everything I took,” Dominguez said of his life ambitions.
He’s even begun thinking about how to get his extended family more invested in education.
“I have over a hundred members of my family and I don’t think any of us have college funds for our kids.” he said. “It really bothers me.”
At the beginning of 2019, nine CSU campuses had a Project Rebound program. Seven more are adding one, Dotson said.
Since 2016, Project Rebound students system-wide have earned an overall grade point average of 3.0 and have a zero percent recidivism rate, according to Cal State Fullerton, which has the program. It says 87 percent of graduates have found full-time employment or been admitted to post-graduate programs.
Project Rebound helped keep Nolen Burchett, 39, on the straight and narrow after his release from Salinas Valley State Prison for robbing three banks with a note over a one-month period in Visalia to fund his opiate addiction. He served five years, one month and one week at three different institutions.