When Renecha Gulley walked to the podium to springiness her commencement speech, it marked a peculiar infinitesimal for the Degrees of Change program.
In a crowded gathering country astatine the Central California Women’s Facility adjacent Chowchilla, household members, friends and supporters came unneurotic connected March 11 to observe the archetypal people to person undergraduate assemblage degrees from a women’s correctional installation successful California.
They were joined by Fresno State module and administrators dressed successful afloat regalia, and excited to grant 20 caller Fresno State alumni.
“Being a portion of Fresno State has not lone been a large experience, but it has allowed america an accidental to execute an astonishing accomplishment,” Gulley said. “It was not an casual journey. Prison is not an perfect spot to be, nor is it afloat of opportunities. Therefore erstwhile they bash arise, we person to prehend those moments. Today we became Fresno State alumni. It has besides allowed america to go a portion of thing extracurricular of the situation community, thing connected to society.”
Beginning successful the outpouring 2021, the students took on-site classes from a wide premix of fields; including anthropology; criminology; sociology; and women’s, sex and sexuality studies.
Students besides took classes from module who traveled to the installation from the Africana studies; Chicano and Latin American studies; world and biology sciences; English; geography; media, communications and journalism; and governmental subject departments.
The bachelor’s of societal sciences programme is simply a grade completion programme that allows students with an associate’s grade to instrumentality 60 precocious part units focused connected however societal environment, culture, inequalities and policies signifier society.
When the programme started, assignments pushed students to make captious thinking, connection and probe skills, portion managing different unexpected adjustments. Many had to accommodate to laptops for the archetypal time, and net entree was often spotty astatine best, meaning they studied successful non-traditional places.
Many days it besides meant bundling up successful other layers oregon sitting connected blistery cement, dealing with biting ants and sunburn.
“I retrieve opening my laptop and galore radical stopped and stared astatine me,” Gulley said. “We would besides person to locomotion astir successful antithetic directions trying to find a signal, conscionable similar the compartment telephone commercials. Sometimes erstwhile we recovered a signal, it was successful an out-of-bounds place, and we would person to hold until aboriginal erstwhile they gave america peculiar access.”
The people commitments were successful summation to a docket successful which students worked jobs astatine the facility, and had different responsibilities specified arsenic self-help groups and rehabilitative programs. Other students, immoderate who had minimal oregon nary familiarity adjacent utilizing a laptop, learned however to navigate unfamiliar bundle similar Canvas.
Dr. Emma Hughes, a criminology prof astatine Fresno State, helped oversee the instauration of the programme that enactment a premix of her teaching, probe and assemblage outreach acquisition with corrections and rehabilitation programs into practice. The erstwhile seat of the Department of Criminology joined Fresno State successful 2007. She authored the book, “Education successful Prison: Studying done Distance Learning.”
Working with different module from the College of Social Sciences and unit from the Division of Continuing and Global Education, she besides helped make the aforesaid programme for men astatine the adjacent Valley State Prison. After years of planning, that programme started successful the autumn of 2020, and celebrated its archetypal graduation people successful fall 2024.
In the community, Hughes has worked arsenic an advisor to the Fresno County Local Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and with assorted projects astatine Avenal State Prison. The second transportation led to an grounds of artwork from residents astatine the Avenal installation that was hosted successful 2018 by the Fresno State Department of Art and Design, Criminology Department and Center for Creativity and the Arts, and was displayed astatine the M Street creation assemblage successful downtown Fresno.
These partnerships helped her to recovered Project Rebound astatine Fresno State, a California State University enactment programme for formerly incarcerated students that helps them modulation into the assemblage mounting successful pursuit of assemblage degrees.
At the graduation ceremonial this spring, Hughes applauded the graduates’ determination to implicit this signifier of their acquisition journey.
“This archetypal people has not fixed up erstwhile things got pugnacious oregon idiosyncratic doubts whitethorn person emerged,” Hughes said, “and the students person supported and encouraged each other. They are trailblazers who person shown what is imaginable to the assemblage and their families. This acquisition volition besides assistance them proceed to shape, power and interaction the civilization astir them, and service arsenic leaders to those who travel successful their footsteps.”
The different postgraduate who spoke astatine the Chowchilla event, Eileen Huber, said she is arsenic indebted to the program.
After earning an associate’s grade from Feather River College portion incarcerated, she knew however to larn successful a non-traditional setting. Yet having assemblage module question to the installation each week to enactment with her personally, to situation and enactment her, gave her a good of caller confidence, skills and self-worth.
“I americium lasting connected the shoulders of the astonishing radical graduating with maine who believed successful maine mode much than I believed successful myself,” Huber said. “Fresno State teachers went up and beyond for us. Even dealing with COVID-19 (during) the precise archetypal class. They approached it each with positivity and treated america similar existent assemblage students and quality beings. This was immense to immoderate of us. They took each the changes that came their mode successful stride and steadily encouraged us. No 1 was ever near down to fail.”
Huber, who was frightened of nationalist speaking earlier the program, shared an other concealed for her newfound comfortableness with nationalist speaking.
“I was looking astatine Chloe (a work canine for a chap graduate) successful the beforehand enactment contiguous truthful I wouldn’t ore connected excessively galore faces and commencement to get nervous,” Huber said. “That besides made having Victor E. [IV, Fresno State’s unrecorded mascot] locomotion by america truthful we could favored him astatine the extremity other special. I utilized to beryllium a messiness erstwhile I had to bash immoderate speaking, and present look astatine me.”
That refined accomplishment volition assistance her assistance others successful aboriginal classes astatine the facility.
“I cannot accidental capable astir the sincere and genuine encouragement and enactment I received from Dr. Hughes and my Fresno State professors,” Huber said. “We felt seen and heard by the faculty. I locomotion distant with much than a grade from this journey. I americium taking distant self-worth, assurance and a full antithetic benignant of freedom. I americium everlastingly grateful and humbled by each that were a portion of making and allowing this to happen, and anticipation I tin assistance the adjacent class, too.”
