For many teens who serve time behind bars, getting out and going on to college may seem unrealistic or impossible. But thanks to a program founded by formerly incarcerated students, recently released inmates have a pathway to pursue college degrees at the University of California, Irvine.
Shawn Khalifa on campus is one of the few students who can be spotted on campus, carrying a backpack, and comforting a baby.
The father of two spent nearly half his life in state prison. Khalifa, now 35 years and released from prison, began serving a life sentence for first-degree murder when he was 15 years old.
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"Trying to process the words when the juvenile staff said, 'You're in here for first degree murder. You're not going home,’" said Khalifa as he recalled the moment when a botched burglary turned deadly in 2004.
"When we flee, I turn to my friend and [asked,] 'Do you think he's going to get up and call the police on us?’ And he said, ‘No, Shawn, he's dead,’" Khalifa recounted.
At that moment, Khalifa thought he would live and die behind bars. But the years he spent incarcerated gave him a lot of time to think of the person he wanted to be when he got out after serving 16 years.
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"Just coming home didn't seem tangible, so you wanted to make the best of your life in there. And I think that's what drove me to look toward programs," he said.
Khalifa turned to programs like the Underground Scholars program at UCI, which gave him a path to higher education.
"If these programs didn't exist, you don't have something that's going to remove the barrier that's going to recidivism."
The sociology major is now one of 44 students at UCI who are all formerly incarcerated and now pursuing their college degrees.
Ryan Flaco Rising is also part of the Underground Scholars Program. He helped create the program at another UC and is now pursuing his Ph.D. in criminal justice at UCI.
"95% of the people who are incarcerated are going to come home and be our neighbors, so we’ve got to have pathways for them to become successful neighbors and becoming successful productive community members," said Flaco Rising.
"Where I would be without the Underground Scholars? I would have initially been homeless in Riverside. Where I would be? I have no idea," said Khalifa.
Khalifa now has two daughters with his wife, Maria. He is on track to graduate with a Sociology degree in June. He plans to pursue his master’s degree in public policy.
This is a life he says his 15-year-old self could never imagine.
"Imagine now living that fantasy,” said Khalifa. "You don't want to let it go."
