Though society often harshly judges those with criminal backgrounds who have been incarcerated, few actually take the time to help ex-convicts turn their lives around. Because of this, the rate of repeat offenders has continued to stay high for many years.
A lot of this has to do with how hard it is for a person with a criminal record to get a job, which causes them to fall back into the old patterns of criminal activity to make money. It isn’t a route that all former convicts want to take. They just don’t always know what other path to take to make their lives better.
This is the same thing that happened to Daniel Geiter, who was in and out of jail for many years until one nun named Sister Susan Sanders, and a couple named Glen and Adelaide Ward, convinced him to get an education, and this was the key to turning his life around. Now Geiter has a doctoral degree in education that he can use to teach others and he is using it to help former convicts like himself earn an education, so they can turn their lives around too.
Currently, he is in the process of starting a college that is especially for ex-convicts.
This August, in cooperation with another accredited college, Ward College will officially open its doors to its first class of previously incarcerated individuals. Named after the people who cared so much about him, Geiter says that Ward College is just his way of giving back to those who could have given up on him but didn’t.
For more information about Geiter, check out this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5OK_1MJ1sY.
