Note: Our next Embraced:Fully Interview Series call is on *Thursday*, March 4, at 6:00 pm Pacific. We’ll be recording the session in case you can’t make it. A big welcome to all of our new subscribers!
About our next guest:
Dirk van Velzen, Founder & CEO of The Prison Scholar Fund
Dirk is passionate about prisoner education. While incarcerated, he graduated at the top of his class at Pennsylvania State University. Seeing that others would walk a similar path, Dirk founded the Prison Scholar Fund from behind bars supporting 110 incarcerated students before his release. Only 4% of the 83 released students have been reincarcerated, compared to a national 68% recidivism rate.
Released himself in 2015, Dirk graduated from a Nonprofit Management program at the University of Washington, won first place in the Social Venture Partners Fast Pitch business plan competition, and rocked a Social Entrepreneurship program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Dirk was accepted into the inaugural cohort of musician John Legend & New Profit’s “Unlocked Futures” accelerator, is a JustLeadershipUSA fellow “Leading with Conviction,” and was invited into the American Enterprise Institute’s Leadership Network. Next up: opening access to quality postsecondary education for all underserved prisoners in America to break the cycle of re-incarceration and homelessness.
Recap of our last Angel Team Working Group call on 2/18/21 (16 members present):
– Coordinated Angel Team activity (Dallas / Fort Worth, Houston) (pre-release planning, looking at itinerary, next steps)
– Discussed other upcoming releases
Looking forward to seeing you on our next call!
