Cal State Monterey Bay joins Project Rebound

By Mark Muckenfuss

Valarie Maestas described the official opening of Cal State Monterey Bay’s chapter of Project Rebound as surreal and emotional.

“I’m filled with gratitude,” Maestas, the program’s director, said Wednesday, Oct. 9, after the ribbon stretched across the door to Dunes Hall, where the program is housed, was cut. “The campus community’s support, there has just been an unconditional love. I don’t even know the words to describe how it feels.”

About 40 people attended the event, including President Vanya Quiñones and several other campus officials. CSUMB is the 19th campus in the CSU system to establish a Project Rebound program, a program that provides support for college students who were formerly incarcerated.

“I think it’s never too late to change,” Quiñones said. “Today is a great day to celebrate this amazing program that will alter the lives of our students and their families.”

The actions of one person can have a ripple effect, she said, sharing the story of her grandmother’s drive to make sure her children got college educations and how that translated into all of her grandchildren also earning degrees.

“My hope is that this program allows all of the students that go through it to have the impact my grandmother did,” she said. “We have a strong raft and you guys are making it stronger.”

Some of the students involved in the program have already made significant changes in their lives. For Juan Barkley, that transition didn’t begin until he was in his mid-30s, following years of being in and out of jail. 

A DUI accident had left him with a broken back and six months in bed, recovering. He had a lot of time to reflect on his life, much of which had been spent behind bars. The DUI was going to send him back to jail and his injury meant the drywall and construction work he did when he wasn’t incarcerated was no longer an option. 

Department of Rehabilitation officials gave him an opportunity.

They asked me, ‘Have you ever thought about going back to school?’ I said, ‘Let’s go. Let’s give it a shot.’”

Barkley, 41, is now an environmental studies major and a member of the inaugural cohort of CSUMB’s Project Rebound. He’s also one of two student coordinators employed by the program. 

Project Rebound was established in 1967 at San Francisco State University by the late John Irwin, a professor who had formerly been incarcerated himself. With the support of then-Chancellor Tim White, the program began expanding to other campuses. 

Maestas said she’s pleased with how the program is developing.

“I think we’re doing amazing,” Maestas said, adding that the program has already exceeded the goal of assisting 10 students this fall. She expects to help 15-18 by semester’s end. 

One of those students is Yefry Mata, who is the program’s second student coordinator. A collaborative health and human services major, minoring in public administration and nonprofit management, Mata is overcoming his own troubled past. 

He immigrated from Honduras to Seaside as a child. He said racial friction in school led him to get into fights and time spent in juvenile hall. After a false start at Monterey Peninsula College, he said, he fell into “bad habits” resulting in prison time. While at the California Men’s Colony East in San Luis Obispo, he began taking advantage of programs offered to the prison population, including college courses. 

“I didn’t know what I wanted to major in, I just wanted to go to school,” he said. “I’m a huge advocate for higher education access to formerly incarcerated and incarcerated students.”

It wasn’t until he enrolled in Cabrillo College in 2022 that things began to click. 

“Cabrillo changed my life,” he said. “They invested in me. I was heavily involved.”

Mata was a student trustee, an officer in several clubs and active in community outreach for the college. He has been heavily engaged with issues involving those impacted by the justice system, serving as president of the Rising Scholars club while at Cabrillo and as an ongoing intern at the MILPA Collective, a non-profit support agency in Salinas. 

Once he graduates, he plans to apply to grad school.

“I’m going to acquire a PhD one way or another,” he said. “I see myself as a potential consultant that can influence policy.”

He is particularly interested in policies dealing with restorative and youth justice.

Project Rebound coordinator Patterson Emesibe said it’s hard sometimes for him to keep up with Mata and Barkley.

“I was brought in to be an inspiration but we hired two very inspiring people,” Emesibe said. “I get inspired by these guys all the time.”

He said he’s encouraged by the success rate other Project Rebound programs have enjoyed. Statewide, he said, the recidivism rate for those in the program is just 1%.

“People can change their lives,” he said. “It’s another way to change the world.”