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Cade Carman, center, and his father, Michael Carman, arrive in July 2024 at the ScholarCHIPS’ 13th Annual Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C. (photo submitted).<\/p>\n
During the upcoming spring semester, University of Missouri sophomore Cade Carman will spend a lot of his time in the state Capitol Building as a student intern.<\/span><\/p>\n Over summer break, Carman will head to Washington, D.C., on a scholarship to enhance his study of political science. And while he\u2019s there, he\u2019ll get to spend time with the biggest contributor to his education, Yasmine Arrington Brooks, founder of <\/span>ScholarCHIPS<\/span><\/a>, which provides grants to aid children with incarcerated parents.<\/span><\/p>\n Carman, who grew up in Ralls County, saved his money from helping on the family farm and jobs with the Army Corps of Engineers and a private marina at Mark Twain Lake. But without the $3,500 of annual aid and $1,000 allowance for books, he said, he wouldn\u2019t be studying at the Columbia campus.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis was by far the biggest scholarship I received,\u201d Carman said in a recent interview with The Independent. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge reason why I\u2019m even here at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Carman, who received his award in 2024, is the first of seven ScholarCHIPS scholars from outside the Washington-Northern Virginia area. The program expanded with support from <\/span>Securus Technologies<\/span><\/a>, a company that contracts with the Missouri Department of Corrections to provide communication services like telephone calls and email over a tablet provided to each person serving a sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n At the end of 2023, Brooks said, ScholarCHIPS ships was named <\/span>a CNN hero<\/span><\/a> for its focus on supporting children of people serving prison sentences. The relationship with Securus came soon after.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat was the first time that ScholarCHIPS was put on a national stage, and we were starting to get inquiries and letters and postcards from people across the country,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cI just felt like it was a good time to open up our eligibility.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The key eligibility criteria is pretty simple: Applicants must be the child of someone who is now or has been incarcerated and have a demonstrated financial need. The <\/span>application window<\/span><\/a> for 2026 scholarships opens in January.<\/span><\/p>\n Carman\u2019s mother is serving a 10-year sentence for assault. She told him about the grant program after seeing an ad for it on the tablet computer provided to each inmate by Securus.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShe called me up one day and she said, \u2018you know, I think you should apply for this. It looks like a pretty good program. And you might get it,\u2019\u201d Carman said. \u201cAnd so then that\u2019s exactly what I did.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He sees his mother one or two times each month, Carman said. She won\u2019t be released in time to see him graduate in 2028, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n He\u2019s studying political science with a goal of attending law school after graduation.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve really always been interested in politics and civics education,\u201d he said. \u201cI like to study history, and so that kind of plays into it a lot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The need to make sure students like Carman can attend college is immense, Brooks said. She was raised by her grandmother, she said, and her father has been incarcerated for most of her life.<\/span><\/p>\n When she was a junior in high school, she said, she enrolled in a program provided by <\/span>LearnServe International<\/span><\/a> to develop a community-focused service project. She started with a big problem, mass incarceration, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI ended up narrowing my focus down to the effects of parental incarceration on children and families,\u201d Brooks said.<\/span><\/p>\n Then, while seeking financial aid for college, her grandmother observed that there were no niche programs targeting those children.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAt that time, the statistic was that over 2 million young people in the United States have had an incarcerated parent at some time in their lives,\u201d Brooks said, \u201cand so that turned on a light bulb for me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When the time came to present her idea, she said, the judges were so impressed they suggested she create a not-for-profit organization to provide it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI do call it a \u2018Shark Tank\u2019 for teenagers, but it wasn\u2019t as cutthroat,\u201d she said of the presentation.<\/span><\/p>\n The scholarship program isn\u2019t only for elite students \u2014 the minimum GPA is 2.5 \u2014 but applicants must show their ability and describe what they intend to do with the money in a series of three essays. One essay must discuss the impact of having an incarcerated parent.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re definitely looking for achievers,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking for young people who demonstrate the potential to excel in college and be successful and graduate from college.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Carman impressed judges with his work ethic and his essays, Brooks said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a great writer. He\u2019s a great communicator,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd when we interviewed him, I just fell in love with him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In most years, ScholarCHIPS gave eight or fewer awards, depending on financial support, Brooks said. After the recognition from CNN and help from Securus, she decided to use reserves to award 24 grants in 2024, continue to increase the fund\u2019s profile, and hope for the best to finance students throughout their college career.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat I really wanted to do with this large cohort was to show the need, and also expand the diversity of scholars that we support,\u201d Brooks said.<\/span><\/p>\n But the past year hasn\u2019t been as strong as she hoped, she said, with some donors pulling out for a variety of reasons including losing their jobs in the federal government during cutbacks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnything that we thought was predictable has become unpredictable,\u201d Brooks said. \u201c And we\u2019ve communicated that with our scholars, including Cade and they\u2019ve been extremely patient and understanding with us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Securus has 500,000 tablets in the hands of people incarcerated in 48 of the 50 states. It is the first \u2014 and so far the only \u2014 major corrections contractor that supports the scholarship fund.<\/span><\/p>\n Securus sees the contribution as an investment in the families using its communication services, Margita Thompson, chief corporate affairs officer, said in a statement to The Independent.<\/span><\/p>\n A ScholarCHIPS graduate who worked with Securus as a student intern is now employed by the company, she said. The support for seven scholars helps elevate ScholarCHIPS visibility and impact, she added.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEducation is a proven pathway to upward mobility, especially for children of incarcerated parents who face additional barriers,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cSupporting ScholarCHIPS extends that commitment to the next generation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Carman graduated high school in a class of 52 and is one of only a handful who are attending college, he said. His rural roots and work for the Corps of Engineers initially had him thinking he would pursue a career in environmental law, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Now he\u2019s not so sure, he said, adding that he\u2019s also thinking about beginning his career as a public defender.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWith everything with my mom, it kind of introduced me to the criminal justice system, which I previously didn\u2019t have a whole lot of interaction with,\u201d Carman said. \u201cIt helped me better understand a lot of the problems inside the system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Cade-Carman-Yasmine-Arrington-Brooks-225x300.jpeg\")
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