A 39-year-old formerly incarcerated woman is making people believe in second chances. Yolanda Perkins grew up middle-class in Clewiston, Florida, where she says that her parents gave her and her siblings everything that they needed — including the opportunity to attend college.

But in 2004, she was caught stealing credit cards from a workplace mail room, leading to sentence in federal prison. She was pled guilty of possession of stolen mail, and in exchange credit card fraud charges were dropped. At the time, Perkins was just 24 years old and ended up being sentenced to three years in federal prison.

There was a point in Perkin’s life when she didn’t thought life was worth living and tried committing suicide, but she failed. This changed her life and submitted herself to the hard transition.

  Throughout her three years, she was transferred to two other facilities, where she engaged in learning programs and listened to speakers who sparked her interest in public speaking. Still, once she finished her sentence and was moved to a halfway house, things didn’t pan out as Perkins had expected. Perkins explains that while there were plenty of critics who suggested she wouldn’t be able to accomplish her goal after prison, an inmate helped her realise how much time she had in prison and how to use it wisely.

after graduating with her PhD — and using it to create a pathway for other returning citizens to find meaningful jobs. Her felony record made it difficult to land a job. With the help of a friend, she eventually landed a job at Goodwill where she had a boss named Becky whom she came to call her second mom.

With Becky’s encouragement, Perkins went back to school to finish her bachelor’s degree and eventually pursued her first master’s degree, which she completed in 2010. All the while, she connected with and married her husband, Dwight, and became pregnant with their first child in 2012.

Throughout the next couple of years, Perkins continued to build her family and her career by having another baby, staring a company called Swimmie Caps and ultimately making the decision to pursue her doctorate degree. All the while, she was helping formerly incarcerated men and women find jobs, which eventually informed her dissertation.

During her pregnancy Perkin wrote a book , titled Consequences, which was based on Perkins’s own story that opened up doors for her. She said that she realised that there were others in her community who were suffering in silence from the obstacles that many formerly incarcerated people faced specifically for, not being able to gain employment.

There were multiple points in her dissertation that which were rejected because she was still trying to go around the issue of incarceration. She said she wanted to make a point that women can be successful even after prison and life is not over after incarceration.

She herself is an example of just that. After graduating with an additional master’s degree and her PhD from Nova Southeastern University on June 14, she showcased her difficult journey in graduation photos taken by a friend.

Perkins’s story gained more attention as a result of her unique graduation photos, as well as an audience fit for her next business venture: an app for formerly incarcerated people that focuses on finding employment more easily.

The idea, which she plans to roll out this fall after gaining funding, goes beyond connecting with companies actively hiring formerly incarcerated candidates. It also aims to ensure that candidates who have been isolated in prisons have the means to even put together a resumé, so ultimately, somebody can get a second chance just as Perkins had.

At the end of the day, however, the 39-year-old has to remind herself that acknowledging her past and the struggles that she faced is all a part of moving successfully to her future. From being an inmate at the Federal Prison for three years earning PhD, authoring a book and setting an inspiring example to the world that life gives a second chance provided one embraces it whole heartedly.