Fall 2025 Winner of the Moving Forward Scholarship

Roderick Jackson

Roderick’s experience of being incarcerated has driven him to help others in similar situations to rebuild their lives. He plans to dedicate his legal career to dismantling systemic barriers, advancing reentry justice, and expanding economic opportunity. We commend his unwavering pursuit of justice and commitment to studying constitutional law.

Read his essay here:

Moving forward is not simply about progress it is about reclaiming your narrative when everything around you says you cannot. It is about refusing to be defined by your worst day, and instead allowing your future to be shaped by the courage it takes to keep going. For me, moving forward has meant transforming pain into purpose, and shame into service. It has been the most difficult lesson I have ever learned, and the most valuable one I will ever teach.

In 2017, my life changed irrevocably when I was incarcerated following a tragic personal decision that cost my older brother his life. That moment shattered not only my family, but my understanding of who I was and who I was supposed to be. For a while, I saw no path forward. But in the stillness of that environment, I began to look inward. I enrolled in Lee College and committed myself to education, not just to pass the time, but to build a new foundation for my life. Studying in a prison setting was anything but easy. The environment was unpredictable, emotionally draining, and often violent. Still, I earned nearly perfect A’s. Each class reminded me that I could be more than my circumstances, that I could still offer something to the world. Since my release, I have continued to move forward, purposefully and relentlessly. I have earned two bachelor’s degrees, both summa cum laude. I have worked multiple jobs while teaching as an adjunct instructor and serving as a Justice Fellow with The Education Trust, where I helped shape national policy for justice-impacted students. I have also earned ABA certifications in Credit Analysis and Business and Commercial Lending to deepen my understanding of economic empowerment. Every step I have taken has been guided by a singular goal: to serve others by building a more just and equitable system than the one I once found myself trapped in. My experiences have led me to pursue a legal career as a civil rights and public interest attorney, with a focus on systemic reform, reentry justice, and economic access. I want to fight for those who have been silenced by incarceration, poverty, and discrimination. My goal is to establish a Public Wealth Fund, an initiative that uses estate law, microlending, and community reinvestment to eliminate poverty through sustainable wealth creation in marginalized communities. I believe that financial access is a civil right, and I intend to use the law to make that right real. The people I hope to serve, those who have been incarcerated, who have dropped out of school, who have been written off, need more than legal representation. They need someone who understands what it feels like to be discarded. My life gives me that perspective. I have faced job rejections, housing denials, and the quiet paranoia of wondering when someone will “find out” who I used to be. I carry that emotional weight every day, and it makes me more determined to advocate for the people society often overlooks.

Moving forward, to me, is not just about personal redemption, it is about public responsibility. I do not want to simply rebuild my life. I want to help others rebuild theirs. I want to stand in courtrooms, legislative chambers, and classrooms using my story not to inspire pity, but to ignite change. In the end, moving forward means believing that no one is beyond hope, and no community is beyond healing. It means understanding that real justice is not punitive, it is transformative. And it means dedicating every ounce of strength, education, and experience I have to making that transformation a reality.