Thirty for 30!: Go to Prison

Some of you who've been keeping up will remember that this whole "Thirty for 30!" began after I attended a simulcast of the Willow Creek Leadership Summit in August. One of the most challenging and inspiring speakers there was a young woman (I can say that cause she's only a couple of years my senior) named Catherine Rohr from Prison Entrepreneurship Program. PEP recruits business professionals and MBA students to visit prisons and teach business courses to inmates preparing for life after parole. "PEP constructively redirects inmates' talents by equipping them with values-based entrepreneurial training enabling them to productively re-enter society." I think what I found so exciting about this program was the passion of the founder herself. Catherine was a relatively new Christ follower when she first became aware of the problems and needs within the Texas prison system, but she didn't turn her back on them. She faced them head on, actively engaged herself with the issues, and radically changed her personal life course in order to eternally impact the lives of countless others.