Congratulations to our graduating JIE Scholars!!

Anne O’Connell (BA, English and Comparative Literature)
Jarrell Daniels (BA, African American and African Diaspora Studies)
Stephen Matthews (MA, Public Health)
Christopher Medina-Kirchner (PhD, Psychology)
Isaac Scott (BA, Psychology)

More information about some of our graduating class:

Jarrell Daniels 
Jarrell E. Daniels is a Bronx, New York, native, a Truman Scholar, and graduating senior at Columbia University’s School of General Studies. In 2019, one year after coming home from prison, Jarrell Founded the Justice Ambassadors Youth Council (JAYC) at Columbia’s Center for Justice. The Justice Ambassadors is an 8-week leadership and life skills development program for 18-25-year-old, disadvantaged youth, and local government officials to co-author policy proposals aimed at transforming systems, driving institutional change, or addressing community challenges. Jarrell’s commitment to youth development and policy reform led him to give a TED Talk that highlights the factors that led to his incarceration and introduces an innovative approach to collaborative education between community members and public officials. Jarrell is an aspiring Civil Rights Attorney and Social Enterprise Executive. His primary focus is bridging the divide between lawmakers, disadvantaged communities and businesses. As a future lawyer and business owner, Jarrell will work to develop sustaining policies and best practices for effective community-centered interventions.

Anne O’Connell
Anne O’Connell is graduating with Honors with a B.S. in English and a concentration in History at Columbia University’s School of General Studies. Anne is the recipient of the Rene Plessner full-ride scholarship, the GS Service award, is a member of the Honors Society, and is on the Dean’s List. In addition to being a full-time student, O’Connell is the Admissions Coordinator for the Justice-in-Education Initiative. She also interns for the Prosecutor Accountability Project, a non-profit organization committed to fighting absolute immunity, and she recently started working as a paralegal for Frederick P. Hafetz, a white-collar criminal defense lawyer. Anne is currently in the Yale University “Access to Law School” program and is preparing to apply to Law School in September 2022. She is not only devoted to helping people who are seemingly left behind, but she has also extensively volunteered for Animal Nation, a wildlife sanctuary that rehabilitates sick animals. O’Connell is a percussionist and artist and has performed in groups such as the Judy Dworin Performance Project, Avodah’s dance ensemble, and the Greenwich Town Party.

Read the School of General Studies’s 2022 Grad Profile on Anne.

Isaac Scott
Pastor Isaac Scott will graduate this May with a BA from Columbia’s School of General Studies. He is a Multidisciplinary Visual Artist, Journalist, and Human Rights Activist. He will have his Senior Thesis Exhibition at Columbia University’s LeRoy Neiman Gallery with the opening reception on Thursday, May 12, 5:00 – 7:00pm.

Isaac is a Fellow at the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School and Founder & Executive director for The Confined Arts at the Center for Justice at Columbia University, where he spearheads the promotion of justice reform through the transformative power of the arts. Pastor Isaac is a Columnist for the Columbia Spectator and his research at Columbia investigates social and institutional methods of dehumanization in the justice system and the role of art and popular media to decrease punitive triggers in the US criminal justice system. Isaac is a Community Pastor at Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church, NYC.