{"id":9345,"date":"2025-10-20T21:05:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/9345\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T21:05:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:05:20","slug":"why-not-prosper-founder-inspires-penn-state-lehigh-valley-with-message-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/9345\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Not Prosper founder inspires Penn State Lehigh Valley with message of hope"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CENTER VALLEY, Pa. \u2014 \u201cWe are not our mistakes,\u201d began <a href=\"https:\/\/www.why-not-prosper.org\/about.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rev. Michelle Simmons<\/a> as she addressed students, faculty, and staff at Penn State Lehigh Valley. Simmons, founder and executive director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.why-not-prosper.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Why Not Prosper<\/a>\u2014a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization that empowers women who are currently or formerly incarcerated \u2014 shared her powerful story of transformation and purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Simmons was invited to speak by <a href=\"https:\/\/lehighvalley.psu.edu\/person\/teri-kistler\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Teri Kistler<\/a>, lecturer and program coordinator for Rehabilitation and Human Services at Penn State Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRev. Simmons is a powerful example of resilience, humble service, and unrelenting dedication,\u201d said Kistler. \u201cHer program provides women with a jump start \u2014 a true opportunity to rebuild their lives and succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Founded in 2001, Why Not Prosper has helped hundreds of women transition successfully from the prison system back into their communities. The organization offers programs focused on education, career development, mentoring, and healthcare, operating both inside correctional facilities and through community-based programs across Philadelphia. Simmons has also extended her mission internationally, recently launching an initiative in Ghana.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout her talk, Simmons emphasized the importance of self-belief and perseverance in overcoming adversity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cForward movement. We have no other options,\u201d she told the audience. \u201cWe have everything we need to make it. We are so intelligent. We are so creative.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CENTER VALLEY, Pa. \u2014 \u201cWe are not our mistakes,\u201d began Rev. Michelle Simmons as she addressed students, faculty,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-9345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}