Tag Archives: cpe

EVENT
Apply to be a Center for Prison Education Tutor

Check out the following tutoring opportunity from the Center for Prison Education!

The Center for Prison Education is now accepting applications for tutors for the 2018-2019 academic year. Tutors travel with CPE staff to Cheshire or York Correctional Institution for one three-hour study hall session each week for an entire semester, working individually with students on coursework in a wide range of disciplines. More information is available on the application form. Applications are due by Saturday, April 28th.

Stipends are available for work study students. Please contact cpefellow[at]wesleyan[dot]edu with any questions.

The Center for Prison Education is Seeking Tutors

The Center for Prison Education, Wesleyan’s college-in-prison program, is looking for tutors, including math tutors, who can assist with high school level material to work in the prisons with our incarcerated students. In addition, we are looking for those who can work on campus, helping to find research materials for our students, among other tasks. If you’re interested in volunteering this semester or would like more information, please e-mail Coady Johnson ’15 at cpefellow[at]wesleyan[dot]edu.

Also, check out this short documentary about the program, directed by Cara Tratner ’12 and Becky Gillig ’12.

EVENT
7X9 Solitary Confinement Demonstration

From Molly Rappaport ’15:

The Wesleyan Center for Prison Education Student Group brings you 7X9: A demonstration to raise awareness around solitary confinement in the U.S. prison system.

Beginning at 4pm on Thursday to 3pm on Friday, individual students will rotate each spending an hour in a 7 by 9 foot tape-demarcated square in the center of Exley. The box measures 7X9 feet referencing the average size of a solitary confinement cell and the demonstration will last 23 hours in recognition of the 22-24 hours inmates in solitary confinement typically spend in their cells per day. The goal of the demonstration is to raise awareness regarding a practice commonly used in our criminal justice system that we believe is absolutely inhumane. Please take notice of the demonstration when passing through Exley–there will be flyers posted throughout the building that further describe the practice and its consequences.

Date: Thursday 11/20-Friday 11/21
Time: 4 pm-3pm the next day
Place: Exley Lobby

EVENT
Volunteer with the Center for Prison Education

From Molly Rappaport ’15 and Shannon Nelson ’14:

Interested in volunteering with Wesleyan’s college in prison program as a Tutor or Research Intern? The Center for Prison Education is currently accepting applications for Tutor and Research Intern positions during the spring semester!

Come to the Wesleyan Center for Prison Education Student Group’s general interest meeting this Tuesday at 9:00 pm in the OCS lounge to learn about the program and discuss future prison activism/awareness projects.

Continue reading →

EVENT
BLACK AND PINK: Lecture and Letter Writing Session with Jason Lyndon

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Center for Prison Education Fellow Zach Fischman ’13, folks:

Reverend Jason Lyndon from the Boston-based prison reform Black and Pink is coming to Wesleyan! Reverend Jason will be leading a discussion about the current state of the prison system in America at 5’oclock, where he’ll give an overview of America’s problem with mass incarceration. At 6 o’clock, he’ll run a “letter writing session,” where we’ll write notes to incarcerated folks who identify as LGBTQ.

Date: TODAY, Monday April 21st
Time: 5-7pm
Place: Allbritton 318 (CCP Student Lounge)
Cost: Free Hundred
Facebook event

FEATURED
“I Define the I Am”: A Letter From Andre Pierce, Wesleyan Student and Cheshire Correctional Institution Prisoner

“I, like everyone else, have the prerogative to define my ‘I am.'”

CPE

Last April, we posted a letter from Andre Pierce, an incarcerated student enrolled at the Wesleyan Center for Prison Education (CPE). The responses to that post were overwhelmingly positive, but there were some comments that questioned Andre calling himself a Wesleyan student. Last year’s CPE fellow printed all of those comments and brought them to Andre in prison. Here is his response to them:

My name is Andre Pierce, and I am an African-American prisoner at Cheshire Correctional Institution. I’ve been enrolled in the Wesleyan Center for Prison Education (CPE) for five years. The CPE offers credit-bearing courses, taught by Wesleyan professors, inside prison walls. The CPE’s student population has expanded from 18 to 36 incarcerated students over the past five years. CPE has been rewarding to me not merely in an academic sense, but also in a personal sense. It has and continues to expand my worldview. It sharpens my critical thinking skills like a blade. It improves my communication skills to the level where I can seriously engage with Wesleyan professors about their academic interests. The CPE has been so life altering for me that I felt the need to share this experience with you, the Wesleyan student body, in the spring of 2013, in an essay titled Wesleyan Aids a Prisoner in Rehabilitation that was published on Wesleying.

Continue reading →

Apply to Volunteer with the Center for Prison Education

Wesleyan to offer Wesleyan courses and credits to 19 prisonersIllustrious Wesleyan graduate and Center for Prison Education Fellow Maddie Neufeld ’12 writes:

Interested in working with Wesleyan’s college in prison program as a
Writing Tutor, Research Intern or Student Coordinator next semester?

Want to work with this guy?

Fill out this short questionaire by April 17th and aforementioned Program Fellow, Maddie Neufeld ’12 will be in touch.

Also, check out this awesome short documentary about the program directed by Cara Tratner ’12 and Becky Gillig ’12 and read our guest post by prisoner and student Andre Pierce.

Research Interns Needed for CPE Assessment

Lexi Sturdy ’10 invites you to assist with an assessment of the Center for Prison Education:

Want to learn how to administer qualitative research with a reputable research agency? The Center for Court Innovation, based in Manhattan, is doing an assessment of the Center for Prison Education at Wesleyan and needs student interns to help with hands-on research!

They are going to facilitate a training at the beginning of next semester. The research interns would then conduct interviews and focus groups at Cheshire and York Correctional Institution! It is a great opportunity for hands-on research experience. If interested email Alexis Sturdy ’10, CPE Manager at asturdy(at)wesleyan(dot)edu.

Contact: asturdy(at)wesleyan(dot)edu
Deadline: next semester

EVENT
The House I Live In: Film Screening and Discussion

In a world where Roxie Pell ’15 wasn’t an intern for the Wesleyan Center for Prison Education, this post was never submitted submitted by a different intern:

The War on Drugs has never been about drugs.

Join the Wesleyan Center for Prison Education this Thursday for a
screening of the film “The House I Live In,” followed by a discussion
with the filmmaker, Eugene Jarecki.

About the film:

In forty years, the War on Drugs has accounted for more than 45
million arrests, made America the world’s largest jailer, and damaged
poor communities at home and abroad. Yet for all that, drugs are
cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever before. Filmed in
more than twenty states, THE HOUSE I LIVE IN captures heart-wrenching
stories from individuals at all levels of America’s War on Drugs,
offering a definitive portrait revealing its profound human rights
implications and examining the extent to which it has been fueled by
political and economic corruption.

Date: Tomorrow, Thursday, the 11th
Time: Tomorrow, Thursday, 4:15, the PM
Place: Tomorrow, Thursday, the CFA Hall

EVENT
Center for Prison Education: Ice Cream Awareness Event

Laura Werle ’15 is just writing in to make sure you’re aware of ice cream. Are you aware of ice cream?

Celebrate Spring, the end of classes, and support the Wesleyan Center for Prison Education! This Friday, Lizzy B’s Praline’s Ice Cream Shop (across from Thai Gardens) is teaming up with the CPE to fund raise for this important program.

Date: Friday (tomorrow), May 11
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Place: Lizzy B’s
Cost: “However much ice cream you desire.”