Article by JIE Volunteer Roselyn Juma

In July 2024, the Justice-In-Education Initiative coordinated ‘Mastering Money: Business, Finance, and Economics’ workshops at Rikers Island’s George R. Vierno Center (GRVC). The goal of these twice-a-week workshops was to introduce a different facet of entrepreneurship while providing the tools for the students to successfully create their own business plans. Professor Audrey Amsellem, along with Ben Wasserburg and Rosie Juma, helped facilitate, and two additional study hall sessions provided students with support to develop their ideas. 

Each session, a different guest speaker spoke about their experience developing and sustaining a business. The Financial Literacy Workshop launched with Tomer Tal, followed by Jarrod Whitaker, Jamal Hermit, Ian Siekman, and Chankrit Sethi. The speakers’ fields include real estate and business development, market analysis, reentry, and business pitching.  

While each guest speaker came from a different industry, their advice was consistent. The speakers each emphasized the importance of finding a career that aligns with your strengths. They also discussed the value of reaching out to community to secure initial financial support. 

Along with their presentations, guest speakers came prepared with worksheets to help participants critically examine themselves and their business ideas. The worksheets addressed topics like hard versus soft skills, community and personal needs, support resources, and personal goals. These exercises encouraged professional development and introspection. 

Unique ideas, shared motivation

While each participant in the workshop had a different business proposal, they were all motivated to become business owners. During the first session, real estate investor Tomer Tal tracked the patterns he observed among the participant’s workshop proposals. He highlighted the top three words that came up across the applications: number one was family, followed by money and freedom. These were the main reasons participants stated for wanting to start a business. The GRVC students were highly engaged–they were always asking questions and taking vigorous notes. Each participant was focused on their goal.

In addition to being a valuable educational resource, the Financial Literacy Workshop allowed the participants to experience a change of scenery, where they could interact with different people outside of their housing unit. While many showed up constantly engaged and ready to interact with guest speakers, there were also times when peer socializing took priority.  

Showing up and next steps

Students face many potential obstacles to participating in a workshop, including court dates, legal and family visits, temporary security restrictions, and weighing the emotional trauma of being incarcerated. However, the sixteen students consistently showed up, always ready to learn from the guest speakers and each other. At the culmination of the month-long workshop series, each student presented their business plan to a panel of guest speakers. Many of the students are motivated to continue their professional growth and hope to engage in JIE programming by enrolling in the provided Columbia Core class Music Humanities with Professor Amsellem during the fall 2024 semester. 

Article written by Roselyn Juma
Rosie Juma is a student at Barnard College who is majoring in Africana Studies and minoring in Education Studies. Along with being an intern at the Justice-in-Education Initiative, she is a Head Writing Fellow at the Barnard Writing Center and a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. What propels all of her endeavors is her understanding that education can be an important tool for liberation.