不列颠哥伦比亚省监狱教育项目举行首届毕业典礼
2019年，太阳城网赌平台推出了 监狱教育计划（PEP）, offering 16 incarcerated students at a medium-security correctional facility in Shirley, Mass., a chance to take college-level courses with BC instructors. 五年后, 该项目已经录取了5个年级的80名学生, becoming the largest higher education prison program in the Commonwealth. 9月23日, it hosted its first-ever commencement ceremony inside the prison yard at MCI-Shirley, awarding diplomas to three graduates before an emotional crowd of students, 家庭成员, 和支持者.
“你们三个给我留下了深刻的印象,实践学院副教授切丽·麦吉尔说, 谁在PEP里教哲学. “你为了接受教育而努力工作, 这比一个学位要重要得多, and you’re walking away today with genuinely impressive intellectual depth.”
戴着帽子，穿着长袍, 三个即将毕业的学生——亚历克斯·德尔加多, 格雷戈里·桑德斯, and 乔尔Vasquez—formed a miniature procession as they entered the commencement tent to a band playing ‘Pomp and Circumstance.跟在他们后面的是30多名现任PEP学生, who showed their support throughout the ceremony with cheers and shouts of encouragement.
Former New England Patriots cornerback Devin McCourty surprised attendees by delivering a commencement address via Zoom, encouraging the graduates to use their diplomas as a starting point, 并为后面的学生树立榜样.
“You are now in a position of leadership, both in attitude and performance他说. “You’re kicking the doors off the hinges so everyone else can walk though, 我迫不及待地想看到你成为什么样的人.”
左起：教务长大卫·奎格利, 乔尔Vasquez, PEP Ignacio主席Patrick Conway, 格雷戈里·桑德斯, 亚历克斯德尔珈朵, 以及伍兹学院院长大卫·古德曼.
Other speakers included Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley and Woods College of Advancing Studies Dean David Goodman, 他们都在这个项目中授课, 帕特里克·康威紧随其后, 伊格纳西奥监狱教育项目的首任主席, and Department of Correction Interim Commissioner Shawn Jenkins.
三位毕业生也发表了诚挚的致辞, reflecting on their experiences and the meaning of a liberal arts education. 桑德斯, 致告别辞的学生代表, described a phone conversation with his father after he was accepted to the program five years ago.
“I told him I was studying the liberal arts and he said, ‘How are you going to make money with that?’”桑德斯回忆道. “For my father, education was instruction—you’re supposed to learn how to do something. But knowing how something works is not the same as knowing why something works. 我对父亲说，‘我要弄清原因.’”
Vasquez, who organized a PEP event celebrating 9/11 hero Welles Crowther ’99, received the Social Justice Award for his contributions to the PEP community. 他的母亲和妹妹也在观众席上, 他回想起他的童年, 犯罪, 非传统的教育旅程, invoking poet Langston Hughes’s notion of a “dream deferred.”
“我很抱歉给你带来了痛苦,他对妈妈说, who wore a 太阳城网赌平台 shirt and held back tears throughout the ceremony. “我希望今天我终于让你们感到骄傲了, that your dream that was deferred has finally been fulfilled.”
The PEP offers a mix of liberal arts and modern business courses in subjects ranging from literature and the social sciences to public speaking and entrepreneurship. 学生们每周大约花10个小时在课堂上, and outside of that time they remain busy with assignments and group projects, 办公时间和辅导课, 还有课外活动，比如同组辩论. 每年秋天, a new cohort is admitted through a competitive admissions process, 在监狱里发展PEP社区.
A smaller community of PEP students is also forming on BC’s main campus, where 10 formerly incarcerated students have enrolled at the Woods College of Advancing Studies. Many credit the program with giving them the skills and confidence to pursue higher education after their release.
“I continue to think that we are building something truly special with this program that can continue to serve as a model nationally for what is possible when a university is committed to providing high quality education within carceral settings,康威说。, 自2021年以来，谁领导了这个项目. “我们没有走捷径.”
典礼现场
在周一的毕业典礼上, 亚历克斯德尔珈朵 reflected on his journey from gang leader to 太阳城网赌平台 alumnus. 因为他被判无期徒刑，不得假释, Delgado has committed to putting his PEP education to use behind bars, helping to organize a restorative justice working group with UMass Boston, serving on the advisory board for the National Institute of Justice, and becoming vice-chairman of the American Veterans in Prison group.
“知识先于行动，”他说. “谢谢你，BC，帮助我成为一名自由战士.”
在领取毕业证书后, 毕业生和学生混在一起, 家庭成员, 和支持者 from 太阳城网赌平台 and the Department of Correction, posing for photos and enjoying the festive atmosphere before returning to their cells. 在谈话中, all three expressed gratitude to the program and its supporters, 以及作为BC校友的骄傲. 这种钦佩是相互的.
“I’ve been lucky to teach in a range of settings and to be educated in kind by a wonderful mix of students,奎格利说. 任何在这个项目中教过课的人都很清楚, teaching here opens one to a classroom full of powerful lessons and one rich with possibilities. The liberal arts, here at Shirley, are a matter of immense power.”
古德曼院长在讲话中也表达了同样的观点, challenging the graduates to live fully and resist over-managing their own experiences.
“The rigorous and world-transforming work of a liberal arts education is to open us up and point ever expansively to something greater,他说. “It’s not to assist in making life more manageable, but rather more true, good, and beautiful. I certainly hope this is what you’ve found during your BC education.”