Title:Pivot Program

Supporting entrepreneurial and professional development for formerly incarcerated individuals

• Fellows gain educational, professional, and practical experience
• New businesses boost local community connections and small-scale economy
• Program alumni have gone on to full-time employment, advanced degrees, and community leadership

The Georgetown Pivot Program, a McDonough School of Business program that partners with Georgetown’s Prisons and Justice Initiative, helps formerly incarcerated individuals prepare to successfully reenter the workforce or begin their own business. Since its launch in 2018, the Pivot Program has helped nearly 100 Fellows find meaningful employment throughout the Washington, DC, region, including 22 successful business ventures.

Fellows study the fundamentals of business and entrepreneurship in the classroom, train to develop their professional skills, and complete subsidized internships at local companies. 

Their curriculum continues to evolve as new skills become necessary, including offering an AI education course to the most recent cohort. Fellows also gain a range of skills across personal finance, business communications and etiquette, public speaking, and conflict resolution. 

The program is now working with its eighth cohort of Fellows, who are participating in local internships before their graduation in June.  

Rewriting the narrative

“There’s a reason it’s called a Pivot Program. It can be a 180-degree turnaround for someone,” says Raashed Hall, a graduate from the Pivot Program’s fifth cohort. After interning with Eaton Corporation, a multinational power management company, during his time as a Fellow, Hall is now a full-time employee, and has also patented a resistance workout device, the Power Push Up. 

The Georgetown Pivot Program Current Use Fund supports the program’s mission and programming. 

“There’s an incredible return on investment from changing the narrative and helping people achieve the goals they never thought they could achieve—like going to college and having a stable home,” says Justin Berman (B’99), who with wife Mara is another committed donor. “When they help others with the same challenges, it creates an unbelievable, incredible flywheel.” 

McDonough connections

“The Pivot Program is one of the most tangible ways, within the McDonough community, that we embrace our commitment to Jesuit values in business,” says Alyssa Lovegrove, the Pivot Program’s executive and academic director. When she was approached to design the business education program for returning citizens, Lovegrove, a McDonough professor, said she couldn’t turn down the opportunity.

The strong McDonough collaboration has continued since the program’s inception. Pietra Rivoli, founding director of the Pivot Program and professor emerita, recently retired from the business school, where she served as a professor and vice dean. All core academic modules are taught by Georgetown faculty, and past Pivot graduation ceremonies have been held at the Rafik B. Hariri Building. 

While the program is geared toward professional development, “entrepreneurship is still at the heart of the Pivot Program design,” says Lovegrove. 

Each Pivot cohort participates in an entrepreneurial Pivot Pitch competition. Fellows have also competed in other McDonough entrepreneurship contests. 

In addition to completing local DC-area internships and developing their own pitches, Fellows also focus on helping others. In a Design Thinking course, students work to solve real-world issues alongside real businesses like PLC, a nonprofit that supports children and families in the surrounding areas and empowers stronger futures. 

In the eight years since the program has launched, Lovegrove said it’s also helped her stretch “as an educator, and to connect with learners from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives.” 

Set up for success

Graduates have gone on to the Obama Foundation Leaders USA Program, been elected to the ACLU-DC Board of Directors, and entered Georgetown graduate programs. Participants have launched their own businesses, received job offers from their internship organizations, and earned recognition in other entrepreneurial competitions. 

The Pivot Program also strengthens bonds among Fellows that continue after graduation: Joe Houston Jr., who launched WeFit DC in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, now offers a weekly WeFit Wednesday program to other Pivot Fellows. The seventh cohort has also developed an inaugural award to honor Ryan Matthews, a cohort participant who passed away before graduation, in memory of his positive and generous spirit. 

“The Pivot Program helped me; now, I can do the same for others,” says Tyronda Ferrell, a Pivot graduate who joined the staff as an administrative coordinator. “It’s a dream come true to help others in this way.”

For Cohorts 1–7, there were: