Rahsul Freeman has been a student most of his life. From the age of six, growing up in Brooklyn, New York, until this year, he has taken advantage of every opportunity to extend his learning. His father, a high school drop-out, pushed him to excel in school and Rahsul became the first member of his family to complete a high school education.

After graduating, Rahsul enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and began working on his associate’s degree. During his 12 years in the Air Force, he has earned two associate’s degrees, a bachelor’s degree and, in December, a master’s degree through the University of Oklahoma’s human relations program. Following his master’s in human relations, he will begin work on his doctoral degree.

Dr. Jeanette Davidson, director of African and African American Studies, was teaching a class in Spangdahlem, Germany, when she met Rahsul. She was immediately impressed with his ambition and his devotion to making a difference in society. She encouraged him to do an internship and for a week in November he visited the Norman campus to speak on various subjects to classes, including many of the football players in a class on integrity. “It is never the wrong time to do the right thing,” said Rahsul. One of the highlights of his internship was when Rahsul was allowed on the sidelines during the Nebraska game.

Rahsul is stationed at the military base in Spangdahlem, Germany as a flight commander with the U.S. Air Force. He feels his degree in human relations will be an asset to him in his assignment, which is as a logistics readiness officer, responsible for briefings on deployments. It will help him to better communicate and articulate ideas in more diverse ways. However, his real passion lies in education.

“I believe education makes a difference,” he said. “When I began my education, I researched prison systems. While in prison, inmates are not educated or trained for life on the outside and they get into a vicious cycle of crime. Often, they are transformed from a human to an animal. In addition to that transformation, there is a 75 percent chance that released inmates will return to prison within six months. However, there is a direct correlation between education and a lowered recidivism. Inmates that get out of jail with ANY amount of education are less likely to return.”

Most prison programs for education and training lost their funding over the years and rely on volunteer teachers and ministers to fill that gap. Rahsul wants to become one of the people that make education happen for inmates. “I helped myself with education, now I want to help others.”

While in the Air Force, Rahsul met and married his wife, who left the Air Force to become a case worker with Veterans Hospital. They have been married for ten years.