Transformation Through Education: Darrin Lester Scholarship to Empower Justice-Impacted Students

By Amanda Barber

Three $3,000 scholarships for the 2025-2026 academic year will be available to justice-impacted individuals in West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. This initiative is through the Darrin Lester Scholarship, co-funded by the Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP) and the West Virginia University Higher Education in Prison Initiative (HEPI). 

Eligible applicants must have served at least one year in a correctional facility listed below: 

• West Virginia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (WVDCR) state prison;
• A federal prison (Bureau of Prisons; BOP) in West Virginia; 
• FCI Loretto in southwestern Pennsylvania; or
• A Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PADOC) state prison in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Applicants must have been released within three years of the application deadline. Individuals will be starting or continuing undergraduate or graduate studies in the United States. 

As part of the application, individuals should submit a cover letter, contact information, incarceration dates, a brief goal statement, and verification of higher education enrollment. More details on the necessary documents can be found on the APBP’s website. 

Applications can be submitted via email to appalachianpbp@gmail.com with “Darrin Lester Scholarship” in the subject line. Paperwork may also be mailed to Appalachian Prison Book Project, c/o Darrin Lester Scholarship, PO Box 601, Morgantown, WV 26507. 

The submission deadline is July 18–applications must be emailed or postmarked by this date. Decisions will be made by Aug. 1 by the APBP Education Scholarship Committee. 

For questions regarding the application or scholarship, contact the APBP. 

About Darrin Lester:

Darrin Lester was a member of the APBP and the reentry coordinator for the WVU HEPI before he passed away on Oct. 12, 2023. He also co-founded Olive Tree, a peer education project that continues to support incarcerated individuals in West Virginia. 

Lester himself spent 12 years in the Mount Olive Correctional Complex, where he built a hospice program among other initiatives within the prison. After his release, Lester transformed his life, re-entered society, and pursued a graduate degree in social work at West Virginia University. He was also awarded the APBP Education Scholarship in 2021. 

Lester knew there was power in education and literature: “Reading provides the opportunity to look within and sincerely inspect where we have come from, where we are, and where we hope to be,” he said. “The heart and soul begin to turn, much like a metamorphosis, into a new life.” 

APBP says it is honored to provide educational opportunities to students in Darrin’s memory.